Re: Doctors Fail to Recognize Anti-Depressants Dangers

Dear Luella, I read your wonderful story and I love the relaxing music. Your story reminded me very much of own suffering with mental illness. We are going about more than forty years ago when I suffered from depression, dating back to my childhood. The worst part was that I thought I was the only person in the world who had depression. (I am 80 now). In those days there was no internet and no discussion boards. So one good thing is that now people can share their horrors on the internet and don't have to feel alone with their illness. My anxieties developed into Depression and secret suicidal thoughts. The only thing that stopped me was a supportive wife and my concern for my daughter. But this came much later after I had seen psychiatrists and psychologists for a couple of years. I was put on drugs and what a relief that was at first. Suddenly I felt wonderful and thought my problems were over. But unfortunately this was not the case. The theory was that drugs gave you an opportunity to look at the "psychological" reasons for my depression. I soon became even more depressed and developed a full blown addiction to psychiatric drugs. I became a druggie. When psychiatrists declared I was cured and refused further consultations I had to get my drugs on the black market and I paid huge amounts of money on drugs for many years.

Well having been occupied by the Germans during the Second World War and having a single mother and six siblings, psychologists found a fountain of reasons why I was depressed. I had a Oedipus Complex, and I resented my mother, because she was strong and I felt weak. This gave me enough explanation why I was so emotionally disturbed. In fact psychologists were successful in presenting a miserable picture of my mother and family. The tragedy is that now I know that psychologists had no clue what they were talking about. My mother died, before I had a chance to tell her what an absolutely marvellous job she did, bringing up six children all by her own, in a time when single mothers were looked down upon. Even today that makes me feel upset. The war years were terrible. I was also involved with the underground finding food for hidden Jews.

The upshot is that I was determined to find out what was happening to me. Mental illness ran in my family. My brother was Bipolar. I was a great believer in psychology and so I enrolled in a psychology course at uni thankfully with the help of a government at the time that believed in education. I graduated in psychology and education all the time having been addicted to psycho-tropic drugs. I discovered that psychology, although an interesting course, did not help me solving my personal problems. One of my tutors suggested to me that I do a course in drug addiction. This I did and also completed a course n psychotherapy.

It was then that I became aware how little hope there was for drug addicts and depressed people. I then stumbled upon nutritional biochemistry and by chance discovered that many drugs addict and depressives were hypoglycemic.

I went on the hypoglycemic diet and voila I gradually felt better. I had no idea at the time, why a hypoglycemic diet could help you overcome depression. But it did. I got off drugs. My job was teaching psychotherapy to volunteer drug counsellors. But because I was rather biochemically oriented my lectures were of far greater interests to actual drug addicts themselves. They swarmed to my classes. So I began teaching nutritional psychotherapy to groups of actual clients. Since most of these clients were also probationers with the Corrective Services Department, my name went around. The Director of Corrective Services Department suggested that I should join the Probation and Parole Service and help in the rehabilitation of drugs addicts. About 75% of prisoners had committed offences with a comorbid condition with addiction. And thus far psychologists and psychiatrists were unable to help these clients. Recidivism was rampant.

Of course, not many people realize once you know how to treat drug addiction, you will also know how to treat most other forms of "mental illness". The forerunner of dug addiction is usually Depression (and other metabolic disorders) and other compulsive behaviours. I was very lucky to have a forward looking director who was aware of the nutritional aspects of mental illness and criminal behaviour. I insisted that the groups I ran would also be available to the public at large as a kind of "criminal prevention" strategy. Somehow this attracted not only drug-addicts and probationers but also other people with mood disorders in general. I worked with "alternative medical practitioners" in the community, because I needed independent medical tests to confirm to the Courts the metabolic nature of criminal behaviour. I had a fairly good success rate of about 80%, and this would inevitably raise some eye-brows in the Department and especially among the more conservative professional members of the helping industry, such as psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. Somehow they seem to see me as a threat.

Once the Director left the Department, the wolves started to hunt me down. The saga has been fully outlined in a chapter by Dr Jay Harley "History of the NSW Probation and Parole Service at:

http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/i-plesman_segment.html

The end-result is that Nutritional therapy has been banned in the Corrective Services Department and that the conservatives are in control - both economically and financially (not scientifically) - in the mental health industry with disastrous consequences. Only about 40% of patients receiving traditional treatment may have some benefits from conventional treatments for mood disorders revolving around drugs and/or psychotherapy. This leaves 60% of patients with "Treatment Resistant Depression". Yet the majority of people still keep on flocking to these money grabbing and ineffective professions with the probability that 60% will become "treatment resistant".

See:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/163/1/5

It apparently keeps the economy going if we can stop the prevention of criminal behaviour in society and stop[ proper recovery from mood disorders. I don't expect that reform will come from the profession, but it will from the grass roots - the victims of mental illness themselves. People will soon learn that you can educate yourself out of Depression and obtain good health by nutritional means.

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com

See:
The Forgotten Factor in the Crime Debate at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/forgotten_factor_crimedebate.html


I am so glad that I have found a soul mate in you Luella.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman BA (Psych) Post Grad Dip Clin Nutr
Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.

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Author of "Getting off the Hook"
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