Psyched Out – Book Review
“Psyched Out – How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills that Kill”
Book Review by Amerindia
Beware this book. There are a few good points to be made regarding the over prescribing of drugs, their dangers, some of the silliness in DSM, and how the psychiatric community should be doing more to clean up its act.
However, this book by O’meara is straight out of Scientology. The author hammers home her point that there is absolutely no “chemical imbalance” in the brain that exists (for anybody), and that no “chemical imbalance” can be measured nor should it be treated – including serious mental illness such as schizophrenia.
If you doubt the Scientology connection and philosophy, skip to Chapter 8 and her defense of Tom Cruise. O’meara really needs to go back to school on body chemistry. (Although we know she won’t – Scientologists don’t.)
From our perspective: Depressed? Check magnesium and vitamin D levels, and be sure not to overlook thyroid function. Problems with these minerals, vitamins, and hormone levels can be accountable for depression, and they can be fixed when identified. Unfortunately it’s what so much of the discipline of psychiatry fails to do. Diagnosis and prescribing are too often determined only by a list of complaints or behavioral observations, without enough chemistry.
We’d suggest taking a look at the good science that is around: the nutritionists, compounding pharmacies, and Wellness Centers that are springing up all over. Can blood tests tell you what neurotransmitters, hormones, and amino acids are out of balance in the brain and the body? – you betcha.
The Integrative Medicine Practitioner can replace the basic imbalances found with a uniquely compounded amino acid mix that can indeed help balance the brain chemistry by adjusting such things as tyrosine, taurine, and l-tryptophan. (BTW, l-tryptophan is a precursor to seratonin, and should be considered as a much safer and better route to take than “we really don’t know how they work” psych drugs.)
Hormones – go bio-identical. Bio-identical HRT, Armour Thyroid. Standard dose mainstream pharmaceutical company psych drugs are bad – all of them are modified to be patentable. Good for company profits – bad for people. Bio-identical hormones are made from substances more like the human system, are made by compounding pharmacies according to your physician’s exact specifications for you – and are way, way safer.
We’d suggest taking a good look at nutritionists and Wellness Centers, such as the one in Northampton, MA (Northampton Wellness Associates, Integrative Medicine for Chronic Illness www.northamptonwellness.com). While this type of practice is more common in California, they are arriving in the northeast, and we hope to see more of them. This new integrative medical approach focusing on nutrition and body chemistry can be a good second look at the treatment of diabetes, allergies, you name it – and yes, mental health.
We should be looking ever more closely at “brain chemistry”, particularly as the American diet becomes ever more deficient, and toxins ever more present.
The Queen of Amerindia