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The
Truth About Anxiety
Anxiety is defined by
the dictionary as, "uneasy thoughts or fears over the possibility of coming
misfortune; troubled, worried, or uneasy feeling."
It's something we've all experienced to a greater or lesser degree,
especially in this fast-paced society in which there is much to be anxious
about. A fluctuating economy,
political unrest, rampant crime...the list of sources of anxiety is endless. In 1980, the mental
health industry took notice of this fact, and began treating anxiety as a mental
disorder. Now, a search through the
Internet on the word yields hundreds of anxiety-related sites which recommend
various therapies designed to alleviate anxiety. Unfortunately, most
of these therapies involve medication, and it may surprise you to find out that
these medications have no root in scientific fact.
If you've ever contemplated taking a medication for anxiety, you owe it
to yourself to have the following information. The Missing
Cause The Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association, the
bible for these types of disorders, lists no physical causes for anxiety in all
the 51 detailed pages devoted to anxiety disorders.
That's interesting, especially considering that several major
pharmaceutical companies have been marketing drugs purporting to
"treat" anxiety for over 20 years.
If no physical cause for the disorder has been found, how can a drug
treat it? If you can't readily
come up with a logical answer for that question, you're in very good company:
Neither can the pharmaceutical companies. Phrases such as, "It is believed..." and
"scientists believe that..." and "it may be that..." fill
their text under causes of this disorder, and the cause of anxiety is stated to
be exactly the same as the cause of depression -- that is, certain
neurotransmitters (chemicals in the nervous system that assist nerve impulses to
travel from one nerve to the next) may be deficient in people with this
disorder. Working with people taking benzodiazepines has shown using a cherry extract to combat anxiety and anxiety attacks works. This cherry extract (Body Calm) does promote the production of glutathione. October 31, 2005 a clinical study demonstrated how the right type of glutathione in the brain works hand in hand with specific genes and regulates anxiety. The study also provides evidence it was never neurotransmitters but only enzymes. If it seems just a
bit too convenient to have one
pharmaceutical treatment for
all these disorders, that's because it is.
For none of these disorders,
including anxiety, have ever been clinically proven to have their causes in
neurotransmitters. You can read
through the literature for these drugs, or you can ask your doctor, for nobody
can argue with that statement and, in fact, nobody will.
Fact and Fiction
Interestingly, anxiety as a disorder only began to be treated in 1980 -- right about the time that the first in the line of a new, widely marketed series of antidepressants were released. And amazingly (or
not), the drug companies suddenly found that antidepressants could be used to
"treat" anxiety. Basically, the same
line of faulty logic was being used in the medicinal treatment of anxiety as was
being used for depression -- that the level of
certain neurotransmitters could be raised, thereby possibly alleviating
the anxiety.
What
Should You Do?
If you have already started on a course of medication for anxiety, we urge you to first read for yourself the full list of side effects for the drug you are taking. There is a step-by-step method to taper off anxiety medications as well. click here .
If
you have not started on a course of medication for your anxiety, we urge you not
to do so. Please re-read the above
information if need be, but please do not become another victim of a
well-financed scam aimed at cashing in on your troubles.
Article by Bruce Boyers
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