chemical imbalance

May

2018

Chemical Imbalance: Truth or Lie

The Illogic of the Chemical Imbalance Theory

I have this friend at the gym, his name is Sonny(real name). I’d see him fairly regularly and we got to chatting a few times and somehow or other we got onto the topic of kids and ADHD and that sort of thing. He told me that when he was in Grade School he was diagnosed with ADHD. His grandfather found out about this and thought it was a ridiculous. He took Sonny and enrolled him in a martial arts class. This allowed Sonny, according to him to burn off the natural access energy that was driving him to fidget for those horrible six-seven hour days in school.

He told me that pretty much from that day on he had no problems and it was much easier to concentrate in class. Someone who adamantly believes in the theory of ‘Chemical Imbalance’ in the brain, might say that Sonny didn’t really have ADHD.

If that were the case, then the person who diagnosed him should be seriously reprimanded, fined and likely have their licence revoked.

From a website ScienceNordic.com:

‘“In Brazil the dominant approach is psychoanalytical and Brazilians tend to disregard biological mechanisms,” says Aase.
Until recently medication of ADHD has been held in disfavour because of the country’s history of military dictatorship and links between political oppression and medication of people with behavioural problems.’

Again, if ADHD was a biologically based ‘disease’ this would not be possible; you would not be able to treat a biological mechanism by using psychological means. Add to this that there are no real standard methods of diagnosis, which is continuously admitted throughout literature on the subject, and you have a real confusion as to causes and cures.
I’m sure some psychiatrist could ‘fake news’ his or her way through this to make it all seem confusing and invalid. In my research, I’ve seen ‘researchers’(I use that term very loosely), doctors and such, comment on the factualness of the biochemical nature of issues like ADHD and Depression. I have, in all of my research, and believe me I’ve done lots, found no factual studies that confirm any biochemical causes for the above so called ‘diseases’.

So many people are diagnosed with Depression and Clinical Depression. I see every year or two some article about some researcher is on the cusp of the discovery of exactly what chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression. Trying to give more credibility to the concept but at the same time admitting that there is no scientific evidence validating any kind of biochemical cause.

Again, there are so many people diagnosed with ‘depression’ that are able to overcome it without resorting to drugs. So, they are either misdiagnosed or it is NOT biochemical.

Where is the science?!

So far, I have not been able to locate any exact science on this. There are numerous psychiatrists that will back be up on this: Dr. Peter Breggin; Dr. Sydney Walker Jr; Dr. Thomas Szasz to name but a few. (I’m tempted to offer money to anyone that can find something definitive on this - I do feel quite safe that I would never have to give up a penny!)

I read a quote recently that pointed out that people that have more challenges in life are happier. My observation is that when people are doing something or producing something, they are always happier. And the person who is doing something and at the same time helping others is the happiest of all.

I’ve observed that those having the most difficulty with depression and such are constantly worried about things instead of getting on with it and actually challenging themselves in life. A slightly ‘dangerous’ environment keeps you awake and doesn’t give you time to worry about being depressed. I’m not saying you should put yourself in ‘bad’ situations but make a bigger game and start solving the problems of that game. Stop thinking so much. If you have time to sit around that think, then you, for sure are not going to be happy.

The thing that really gets me on this is that so many people have accepted the idea of things like depression and ADHD being physical diseases as FACT, when there is no proof at all. But I guess this is just more evidence of blindly accepting ‘fake news’ as is now done daily on social media. I guess if you say an untruth enough times it becomes true. Or at least believed to be.

Nov

2017

The Myth of the Chemical Imbalance in Your Brain

Every year or two, one sees in the media somewhere headlines akin to this:

“Scientists on the verge of confirming brain chemical imbalance causing depression!”

Or some such trite. Or they will make the wording such that one thinks it is a done deal when, really, there never has been any confirmation or proof. But by wording these headlines a certain way and making sure it comes from multiple sources, it becomes ‘TRUTH’ (but really nothing but an Urban Legend).

I’ll send you $100.00 if you send me hard evidence that there is scientific evidence of chemical imbalance causing depression.

Even the online magazine “Psychology Today” discounts the theory of Chemical Imbalance.

This quote from an article in the above magazine by Mark L Ruffalo:

Having practiced psychotherapy now for nearly a decade, I continue to be amazed by the number of patients who come in and claim to have a chemical imbalance in their brain. Not only is the chemical imbalance theory of mental disorder unsubstantiated by any empirical research, but it has also been widely and publicly refuted by a number of prominent psychiatrists, like Allen Frances and Ronald Pies above. In fact, I have found that the most militant proponents of the chemical imbalance idea to be nonpsychiatrists—like social workers and clinical psychologists—who cling to the theory as a way of validating their status as "health professionals.”

Psychology Today - Chemical Imbalance

My favourite line this article is this:

“The chemical imbalance theory offers something else, however, and that is the opportunity for the psychiatric patient to limit responsibility for his condition.”

If a person has some ‘condition’ that is ‘not their fault’, then it justifies all sorts of things. Do drugs with impunity. “I have a physical ailment that I have to take drugs for.”

Who promotes this sort of thing? Who benefits from this? This basic idea of “I’m not responsible.” allows people to be on drugs at the workplace costing a country like the US of A billions of wasted dollars. Between the money that goes into the pockets of Big Pharma and the inefficiency caused by so many people doing drugs, I think if the terrorists were smart, they would let American just destroy itself. If these terrorists that the American government was so worried about would just finance broader application and use of drugs for depression and help finance marketing of the ‘Chemical Imbalance’ idea, then they(the terrorists) could just sit back and watch the country die.

Big Pharma is way more effective at destroying and terrorizing the USA than the Al Qaeda will ever be.

Oct

2017

The Myth of the Chemical Imbalance…Quote:

"I don't believe I have ever heard a knowledgeable, well-trained psychiatrist make such a preposterous claim [that patients have a chemical imbalance], except perhaps to mock it...In truth, the 'chemical imbalance' notion was always a kind of urban legend—never a theory seriously propounded by well-informed psychiatrists." –Ronald W. Pies, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, the State University of New York and Tufts University School of Medicine

From Psychology Today (click the link for more)