Over the years this Web Site has been on-line,
millions of people have e-mailed and asked about stress, what would happen to
their stress if they quit the antidepressant or what they could do for stress
before starting an antidepressant.
I feel the need to let you know where I stand on a
few issues first.
I do believe there is such a thing as stress.
I do believe stress can be debilitating.
I do believe stress can be difficult at times to
overcome.
I do not believe a chemical imbalance
is the cause of stress. There is no scientific proof of a chemical imbalance.
I do believe when a person is stressed they have an
endocrine change in their body. (This is different from a chemical imbalance.)
I do believe there are two areas that should be
addressed when dealing with stress.
-
The cause of stress
-
The handling of the endocrine change caused by
stress
-
The Cause
Ideally a person can spot what the cause of their stress is from. Job loss,
stress over money, stress from the job or the loss of a loved one etc. Those
are normal reasons a person may become stressed and are the easiest to spot
as a reason.
It is more difficult to spot when the stress is from goals not being met, a
person around you constantly nagging at you to a point you succumb or some
internal thing you wrestle with.
You can also have stress if your body gets run down and it drags you down as
well.
-
Endocrine
It is known our endocrine
changes when we are stressed and or depressed. Our body begins to feel
heavier, energy goes away, appetite will change and we just have no
motivation to even do the normal things.
That takes place with the endocrine change. This is different from having a
chemical imbalance.
You are the only one that can handle number 1
above, the cause.
There are things you can do to assist with the
endocrine change brought on by stress.
There are a few supplements that are excellent to
help with the endocrine. I am placing a link below that will take you to a
product with what I feel are the correct amino acid and natural supplements to
assist with this part of the stress.
Taking a cherry extract may very well be your
answer to the stress you are feeling until you spot and handle the root cause.
Take 1/2 to 1 teaspoon every 3-4 hours and at bedtime for restful sleep.
click here. (Opens new browser)
Stress is usually a precursor to depression. Please
do all you can to handle it now.
The Truth
About Stress
Stress is defined
by the dictionary as, "mental or physical tension or strain."
Although this is a simple definition, it seems to have enormous
ramifications, especially in this day and time. A search through the Internet on the word yields hundreds of
stress-related sites which include therapies, books, tapes, self-help
techniques, and more, all designed to help alleviate stress.
We all experience
stress, and have different ways of dealing with it.
Many use physical activities such as sports, athletics, or exercise.
Others have other recreational activities such as going out to movies,
to the theater, concerts, or other forms of entertainment.
The normal stresses of life are usually dealt with these ways.
Stress can grow
greater, though, through life-altering events such as disasters, deaths of
loved ones, prolonged unemployment, bad job conditions, hostility, and any of
a variety of other factors. When
this happens, people often seek help. Unfortunately,
that help can lead to betrayal when it comes to medication
"designed" to handle stress.
Types of
Stress
The number and
types of stress seem as numerous as the events of life that can cause it.
The primary areas focused on by those providing "treatment",
however, are general long-term stress, post-traumatic stress, and postpartum
stress. The Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association has stress
and its varieties classified under "anxiety disorders" -- as do drug
companies that seek to provide treatment for them.
Supposed
Causes
The DSM, which is
the bible for these types of disorders, lists no physical causes for stress in
all the 51 detailed pages devoted to anxiety disorders, which includes the
major varieties of stress. This
is important to note, because the pharmaceutical companies are
enthusiastically marketing numerous drugs to "treat" several
varieties of stress and insist that these drugs will do the trick.
Interestingly, they
are the same exact drugs as used for the treatment of depression, and the drug
companies have the same weak arguments for the causes of depression and panic
disorders as they do for stress. That
is, phrases such as, "It is believed..." and "scientists
believe that..." and "it my be that..." fill their text under
causes of these disorders, and the causes are purported to be the exact same
causes as those of depression -- that is, certain neurotransmitters (chemicals
in the nervous system that assist nerve impulses to travel from one nerve to
the next) are deficient in people with these disorders.
Here
is the important piece of information to remember whenever you run across this
"chemical imbalance in the brain" argument: It has never been clinically proven that stress, anxiety,
panic or for that matter depression, has any cause in neurotransmitters.
Never. And believe it or not, there is not a doctor in the world
that will disagree with that statement. And
the literature accompanying the drugs which are prescribed for these
"disorders" will always state that the manufacturers don't know what
causes these disorders, but "it is believed" that they are caused by
a chemical imbalance in the brain, and "it is believed" that these
drugs treat the disorder by correcting this imbalance.
History
Interestingly,
a study of the history of research into stress reveals nothing about chemical
imbalances. It does go into
various causes of stress both internal and external, the fact that stress can
cause illness, and a plethora of non-drug ways and means to cope with stress.
It is only in the last fifteen years or so that the theory of the cause
of depression has spilled over into stress and related disorders -- and this
is likely due to the search for new markets for lucrative antidepressant
drugs.
But
since stress disorders are now being "linked" to neurotransmitters,
it is worth the time to look at the research from which neurotransmitters were
linked to depression, since that's where the "chemical imbalance in the
brain" theory began.
In 1973, two
scientists named Candice Pert and S. H. Snyder made a discovery, published in Science
magazine, that there were definite, specific nerve receptacles for opiate
drugs (opiate drugs, such as opium and marijuana, have a tranquilizing,
euphoric effect) . It was
immediately wondered why the body would have such receptacles -- does the body
naturally expect opiate drugs? A
few years later, the answer was found: It
was discovered that the body had its own opiate chemicals -- the very
neurotransmitters later targeted by anti-depressant drugs.
The way that a
neurotransmitter chemical operates normally is,
it is passed along from one nerve to another.
A bit of it is sent out at a time from one nerve to the next.
After a bit is sent out and received by the next nerve, any of the
neurotransmitter remaining between the nerves is taken back by the first
nerve, a process called reuptake.
The question was then posed that, if levels of these
"opiate" neurotransmitters were elevated, wouldn't it give the
person a sense of well-being? It
was also theorized that depressed people might not have enough of these
chemicals operating in their system, hence the depression.
It was also realized that the
level of specific neurotransmitters could be raised by inhibiting the reuptake
process, causing the neurotransmitter to continue in a steady stream instead
of intermittently.
That was in the
late nineteen-seventies and early nineteen-eighties, and that's where the
whole story takes a very nasty turn. For
if the investigators had proceeded as they should have, with scientific
methods and principals, the following would have happened:
a)
The theory that the cause of depression lay in neurotransmitters or the
lack of them would have been proven or disproved.
b)
If the theory were proven, then drugs which worked positively to
treat depression would have been developed, or,
c)
If the theory were disproved, then no drugs would have been developed, and research would have
continued looking for other causes.
Instead,
what happened was that some money-minded individuals realized what might
happen if someone announced a "cure for depression". They convinced other like-minded individuals.
And there the science stopped, and the profits and lies began.
The
theory that certain neurotransmitters are responsible for depression remains a
theory to this day -- completely unproven.
In fact, if you check the literature for any antidepressant drug, it
will say that a) the true cause
of depression is unknown, but is believed
to be caused by the lack of
certain neurotransmitters, and b) the exact action of their drug is unknown.
You will find this in each and every case, drug for drug.
In that the exact same drugs are being recommended for stress, you'll
find the exact same types of wordings are being applied to stress medications.
What
Should You Do?
If
you have already started on a course of medication for stress, we urge you to
first read our taper page.
Click here.
We
then urge you to consult your physician and talk about discontinuing the drug.
If
you have not started on a course of medication for your stress, 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.
|
