Drug companies, some physicians, advertisements, TV talk shows, & articles in the print media are all contributing to a serious new drug epidemic. Drugs are apparently being dispensed much too frequently to individuals experiencing any type of emotional discomfort or disharmony. These psychotherapeutic drugs are often being prescribed as easily as aspirin and some uninformed patients seem to be taking them more often than vitamins. Dispensing drugs for emotional discomfort in now very fashionable in modern medicine. Individuals are no longer allowed to experience any type of upsetting emotion or troubling thought. Many physicians send patients off to the pharmacy so their lives will be completely free of any emotional discomfort. A person's existence today must be completely blissful or they are given drugs. Individuals now reach for a pill anytime they are the least bit upset, or whenever they encounter some difficulty in life. Instead of dealing with their feelings & the difficulties of life, people are encouraged to live in pharmaceutical ecstasy. The great tragedy is that doctors are encouraging people to cut off their emotions which is the exact opposite of what one must do to maintain emotional balance & harmony. Over-prescribing psychotherapeutic drugs is a medical, pharmaceutical, social, governmental, and public health disgrace.

Drug companies are knowingly misinforming people by telling them that their emotional difficulties like depression & anxiety, "could be" the result of a chemical imbalance. This distortion of basic research has been promulgated by the drug companies with misleading advertising. The chemical imbalance "mistruth" is even being repeated by physicians who have neglected to objectively read the scientific literature. The advertising of drug companies is designed to convince you that you have a chemically induced mental imbalance, and you should stay on drugs. However you are not ill at all just because you are experiencing intense or painful emotions. In fact this means you are very much alive & very normal. It means that your life matters. Drug companies are unscrupulously attempting to abolish any feelings of discomfort whatsoever in our lives. Individuals are told to purchase these drugs, & remain in a constant state of drug induced bliss. In effect, they are saying, "Bury your emotions- it's the trendy thing to do!"

Any good therapist knows that deep emotional difficulties are the result of repressed feelings, thoughts, memories & perceptions that are being prevented by the individual's mind from coming out into conscious awareness. Therefore when you reason logically you would know that any emotional disharmony is the result of deep internal stress caused by that emotional repression. People suffering from depression, anxiety, fears, panic, etc. do not need to be on protracted drug therapy. They truly need to be undergoing an effective form of emotional therapy. The undue influence of the pharmaceutical manufacturers has become far too pervasive today. We now have family doctors, internists, obstetricians, cardiologists, neurologists, and other physicians prescribing a huge volume of psychotherapeutic drugs. Clearly these non-psychiatric specialists are not sufficiently trained in psychodynamic therapy, and their prescribing these drugs could easily be construed as widespread medical malpractice.

The distribution of these medications is occurring as easily as handing out candy to anyone who is upset by the rigors of life. Uninformed patients are going along with this outrage and continually consuming these pills. And making matters worse, pharmaceutical companies are exaggerating the frequency and magnitude of minor emotional upsets & disorders in order to sell more drugs. Milder problems are being turned into major epidemics with deceptive advertising based on questionable facts, inadequate research, little governmental oversight, & preposterous exaggeration. It appears that "discovering or embellishing" illnesses through advertising to sell more drugs is becoming commonplace.

In a time of severe crisis, medications might be prescribed for a very short time to reduce extreme symptoms. However, instead of being referred for truly healing therapy, people are being prescribed antidepressants, anti-anxiety, PMS medications, tranquilizers and other drugs for a "trial" period of some 6-24 months. Their use should actually be curtailed within just weeks of a severe emotional crisis. The important point is that these drugs never solve your emotional problems. These drugs are profoundly disrupting the normal chemical functions of the various parts of the brain. The drugs short circuit the normal, healthy nerve pathways so that you are no longer able to properly experience your emotions. These drugs increase the levels of certain nerve chemicals, and they also totally disrupt the natural functions of other critical substances. Depression medications often have a devastating effect on an individual's sexual relationship. These medications reduce sexual desire, inhibit the physical sexual response, and prevent experiencing normal sexual pleasure. Besides "disengaging" you from your emotions, these drugs, some of which are addictive, also lessen the proper function of the nerve junctions all throughout the organs & systems of your body. This produces a long list of very serious physical & mental side effects.

The new antidepressant and anxiety drugs shut off natural communication between the front part of the brain & the emotional part of the brain. A person's ability to think clearly & to be creative is thus impaired. In addition, individuals on these drugs will sometimes respond far less favorably to deep therapeutic affect remediation techniques. People have emotional difficulties because they have been non-responsive to their emotions. This suppression of natural emotions is made significantly worse by these medications. Initially antidepressants make you feel better because they have a stimulating effect, and they also cut off your feelings, and then induce an artificial euphoria. There is no improvement whatsoever in the underlying emotional disharmony that has caused a person's depression or anxiety.

Most people on psychotherapeutic drugs soon feel as if part of their soul or inner Spirit has been cut off. They go through their daily lives as if they are emotionless zombies. Many people on these drugs feel as if they no longer "give a damn". When you consider the effects & consequences of drugs, it is unquestionably far more beneficial to do self-healing for a brief period of time rather than remain on mind numbing medications for years without getting the needed psychotherapeutic therapy. Today the emphasis in HMO style medical care is to treat you as quickly as possible by spending the least amount of money and doctor time. Therapy and doctors can cost more money- drugs plans are often cheaper. So patients are given drugs to conceal their emotions instead of being referred for the proper therapeutic care.

Remember, drugs never heal or remediate an emotional problem. As already stated, the reason that a person has an emotional problem is because they have subconsciously cut off their feelings. To be healthy, emotions must be felt, acknowledged & then full expressed. People cut off their feelings, and suffer deep emotional pain like depression or anxiety, and then their doctor gives them drugs to cut off their feelings even more. This is often referred to as a "chemical lobotomy". Since these drugs obstruct the normal functions of your brain, they actually cause the exact opposite of what is truly needed for effective emotional healing. The drugs further hide the real problems and push your emotions deeper into the body where they will cause greater internal stress, more extensive emotional disorders over time, and even psychosomatic illness in the future. These drugs can even prevent you from uncovering the cause of your problems in therapy.

If your health practitioner only suggests that you take drugs for an emotional problem, and remain on them, then realize that in effect you have been pushed aside, and that you are not receiving the best possible care. Rather than taking drugs, individuals should be utilizing a healing therapy in order to alleviate their difficulties. Depression, anxiety, panic, fears, and worry are not illnesses. They are a strong indicator that your deepest feelings are in a state of disorder and turmoil. These symptoms do not mean there is something wrong with your brain, or that you have an inherited illness, or that you are suffering from a chemical imbalance. Emotional symptoms are simply a signal that you must deal with your thoughts & feelings and bring them into a state of harmony.

Self-healing in inner awareness is a very rapid & highly effective technique to help improve your troubling thoughts & resolve your uncomfortable emotions. It bypasses the inhibitory effects of medications and allows you to access and heal your inner feelings in spite of them. Many individuals in response to self-healing in inner awareness are able to taper these drugs while healing & then eliminate these drugs from their lives. Self-healing utilizes the power of your inner mind to rapidly & permanently alleviate troubling thoughts & uncomfortable emotions in a very short period of time. Unquestionably, completely healing yourself- including Mind, Body, Feelings, & Spirit is a far better choice for you than taking mind numbing medications.

Warning: The FDA recently urged drug manufacturers to re-label their antidepressant drugs (SSRI's) with a clearer warning that these medications may induce suicidal thoughts and behavior & suicide attempts especially among teens and children. In fact, last year, suicides were reported in the United States, requiring black box label warnings, and England declared most of these as being unsafe for use with children. The drugs cited by the FDA may be looked up on the internet.

Recommended reading: "Your Drug May Be Your Problem", by Drs. Breggin & Cohen, Perseus Books.