Antidepressants - Expensive Tic Tacs?

According to a Newsweek.com article published on Jan 29, 2010, "The Depressing News About Antidepressants", studies suggest that popular drugs are no more effective than a placebo.

While I know that statement may come as a surprise to many and many may completely disagree with it, I'm actually learning just how true this is. At one time, I was on antidepressants as well and I actually believe they helped me during that time. It was a time where I was so depressed and suicidal that I needed something to help lift me up from that. During this time, I had very little support but did start to see a therapist on a regular basis. To me, the medications helped lift me up enough that therapy could work and I could begin moving forward in my life. Until that point, I was on a downward spiral.

My Own Medication Experiences
Than if I go back to some of my own experiences and that I've personally witnessed, I saw where drugs were the crutch and without them, the mind was much stronger than anyone wanted to believe. We often turn to the medical doctors, tests and medications first instead of taking inventory of all aspects of our lives.

I still remember when my grandfather needed pain pills after a car accident and since we lived in a rural area and it being the weekend, no medications refills could be obtained. My mother however, took some of our little candies from Halloween and convinced my grandfather that these were super pain pills. He went from being cranky and complaining about being in pain to falling asleep and having no pain. Little did he realize, that he had been given sugar candy and yet in his mind, these were pain pills.

In my own life, I've reached for medications that I thought helped but in fact, without them I could accomplish the same results. Of course that meant, I needed to address certain issues of my life and make changes in my life but in the long run, this was much better than a continued dependence upon drugs. I'm not talking minor physical complications either but situations involving allergies, migraines, stomach ulcers and some of the latest things that I experienced involving severe itching and rashes. Actually the more I tried the regular medications and drugs, the more some of my situations worsened.

Long Term Medication Harm
One thing that is important to note is that when you take medications, in order for it to alleviate some symptom or situation, you are suppressing something else in your body. Some normal process that helps keep your body in balance is now suppressed and that has implications on down the road at some point in your life. So, just because something seems to work on the surface, it may be doing untold harm to your body in ways that you're not even aware of. Most of the drug commercials on TV talk more about all the side effects than anything else, which I believe is very telling and proves the point that I'm trying to make here.

The Placebo Effect
In this Newsweek article, the following was stated which again lends credibility to what I am talking about.

But ever since a seminal study in 1998, whose findings were reinforced by landmark research in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month, that evidence has come with a big asterisk. Yes, the drugs are effective, in that they lift depression in most patients. But that benefit is hardly more than what patients get when they, unknowingly and as part of a study, take a dummy pill—a placebo. As more and more scientists who study depression and the drugs that treat it are concluding, that suggests that antidepressants are basically expensive Tic Tacs.

I'm Now Drug Free
For me, I am no longer on any medications. At one time, I was taking Zoloft for depression, Claritin for allergies, Imitrex for migraine headaches, Tagamet for my stomach problems and Tylenol for daily headaches. While I was taking these, I was told by medical professionals that most likely I would be on many of these for the rest of my life considering all that I had been through. Even though I had no clue or real understanding that I would one day be able to kick these drugs out the window, something deep inside of me urged me to keep searching. It was that little tiny voice inside that told me there was more to these things than I currently understood. The only thing I am currently taking is Fish Oils and there is a wealth of benefits that this naturally occurring substance helps our body with.


How Did I Do It?
As I went into some intense therapy where I started to face down the fears in my own life and let go of all that locked me into events of the past, my body began to change physically. So many conditions that I and the medical establishment thought were untreatable, were in reality something that could be changed. It wasn't a magic pill or a miraculous healing that did this. It was going into the fears of my life and the hidden corners of my mind to release all that was there. We all have situations in our current life or our past where things have happened to us and unless we find a way to allow that energy to exit, we hold it in the cells, muscles and tissues of our body. It is not until we fully release those things, that we truly get our lives back and function the way our bodies are meant to function.

Designed For Health And Balance
Our bodies are designed for health and balance. Our bodies are currently changing. In the book by Mirka Knaster, "Discovering The Body's Wisdom" on page 46 it says, in less than one year, we replace about 98 percent of all the atoms in our bodies. When I read that, I am astounded at just how much power our bodies have and how they biologically can change. If we continue to suppress their functions with the same information that we have relied upon all our lives, than we inhibit the change in our lives. Humans are evolutionary in that we should be changing and evolving. It is built into our biology. Let us not be content with the status quo because this is what we were raised to believe or what society offers as a total explanation to life. Let us all go beyond that and see the potential that exists even when we cannot begin to see a glimpse of it through our eyes.

*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Let The Body Feel The Pain

In a Peanuts Cartoon script, Charlie Brown is having a difficult time going to school. In it, he complains that every morning as he gets up and goes to school, his little stomach hurts so much. Then, as other kids are enjoying their lunches, his stomach is so sick that he has no desire to eat. He goes on to say that it isn’t his brain that has trouble with school, it is his stomach.

That example is a very powerful example of something I have learned a great deal about. It is referred to as the “Enteric Brain” or the second brain or even sometimes is called the gut brain. What Charlie Brown didn’t fully understand, it was the brain in his stomach where all the difficulty came from. Many of us go through life struggling in the same way as Charlie Brown but we don’t fully understand what the source of our struggles is.

There was many a day that I would get up and go to school where I would be just like Charlie Brown. By the time I got to high school, I could barely eat breakfast in the morning because it would really make me sick. My stomach would be in knots as I faced each day. It was an awful experience and for the longest time, I just thought everyone went through this to some degree or another.

As time went, I realized that when I had very stressful decisions to make or when I was encountering a strange situation or unknown place, my stomach would be in knots. I would not be able to eat, sleep or function that well. I often would say that I made decisions with my gut because in many ways that was true. My gut would react to whatever it was I was facing and if it was in turmoil or in pain and agony, I would know that the decision I was about to make was not right. On the other hand if things were calm and I was not sick, I could feel pretty certain I was making the right decision.

One of the things I struggled with was that because of difficult times I went through in family situations, my stomach was tied up in knots most of the time. There were very few times when it felt good and most of the time it hurt. Eating breakfast or most foods during the day were extremely difficult as I would not feel good from it or get sick. This seemed to be an everyday occurrence and if my stomach didn’t hurt, than I would suffer from daily headaches. Sometimes the two went hand in hand and my only savior was Tylenol.

Things got so bad in high school that I was rushed to the hospital with the doctor feeling I needed to have my appendix out. I was at the age where this was common and so I was immediately checked into the hospital with tests beginning to see what was going on. After many tests that were not conclusive, the doctors were just not sure what was going on or what the best course of action was. Shortly before I was scheduled for surgery to have my appendix removed, the doctor began to question if that was really the best route to go. Thankfully he questioned it.

Soon they determined that it was a nervous stomach (pre ulcer) condition that I had. This was just before Christmas of course when all this was taking place and the next thing I knew, the doctor told me I had to go on a special bland diet and medication. This diet was no fun and while it did help, it by no means took care of the problem. I spent considerable time watching everything I ate and watching my mom prepare meals in such a way that it would not affect me. However, no one ever addressed the real problem behind this. No one understood the connection of stress to the stomach and the enteric brain.

As I have learned now, there is a strong connection to what happens on the outside with what happens on the inside. The stomach is a very important barometer of what is going on in the body because after all, it is the gut brain. If you continue to pile stress and difficulties on the body with no way of discharging them, the body is going to react in one way or another. Often the gut is where the bulk of our stress, pain and grief go but other parts of our body will harbor these things as well.

So when Charlie Brown talked about his stomach hurting, he had a very valid reason for saying that. If someone would have taken myself at that point as well as Charlie Brown, and taught me how to let go of all these things I was locking up within myself, my life would have been very different. Our bodies try to talk to us and get our attention but often we either do not have the tools or the desire to listen to what our bodies are telling us. We try to make this in to a difficult situation of suffering when in fact; the pains, discomfort and conditions we face are there on purpose. They are trying to get our attention so that we will take necessary steps of corrective action. Too many times, we medicate ourselves with drugs, surgery and pathways into la la land, only to find that we have treated the symptoms instead of the source.

Our bodies are miraculous living organisms with the ability to heal, function and self regulate all that goes on within them. Often we search for answers that we so need only for our bodies to offer us solutions that go unheard. Have you ever heard someone say, I just don’t know where I’m going in life and yet the next thing you hear, they are in at the doctor’s office struggling with a foot condition of one type or another? Maybe you have heard of people who are struggling with so much anger at some individual and yet you see the arthritic display in their hands because of their clenched fists. How about the person who is said to have died of a broken heart after suffering the loss of a loved one not knowing how to grieve their loss and say goodbye. There are so many examples in our day and if you stop and listen for them, you’ll hear so many from people around you. You might even be surprised at how much you hear from yourself.

We’re taught in our society that pain can be frightening and scary and at the first sign of pain or discomfort, we need to take something for it. From the over the counter medications to a doctor prescribed medication, we try to get rid of the symptom, also known as the pain or discomfort, instead of looking for the reason it is there. We try to flee from it when there is a reason that our body is working hard to get our attention. If we continue to ignore what the body is trying to tell us, it will continue to get our attention and if we go down this path to far, the conditions can get serious.

Learning though to stop and listen to our body and see what is going on, is a good first step in healing our body. There are times of course that we may not like what we see when we do this and there may be considerable amounts of fear to go along with it, but ask yourself this question. Would it be better to treat the symptoms or treat the cause? I think it would be an easy answer to this question that all of us would want to treat the cause. Yet, the first thing we move towards is finding something or someone to get rid of the pain.

May we all strive to learn to listen to our bodies as well as the answers it so freely offers us. For the more we look to other things and people to heal us, the more we will become disillusioned and disappointed. Yes, we do need the help of those who can heal, but we also need to realize just how powerful we are as a human and the immense abilities we have located within us.

A Life Changing Moment

Shortly after I graduated from massage school, I had the opportunity to do chair massage for the faculty and staff at Southwood Middle School. A tragedy had hit the school when a student killed one of his classmates and friends during school hours. I was there with others as part of a day of healing for the teachers. One of the speakers was Dr. Paul Canali talking about how trauma affects us and how to watch out for the effects that we may see in others especially the children. As I listened to Dr. Canali speak that day, I was captivated because what he was sharing with others, was things that resonated deeply within me.

After his talk was over, I so badly wanted to connect with him but when it was my turn to speak to him, I could barely say anything. About the only thing I could think to do was hand him my business card because my voice was silent. Time went on and I didn’t really think about Dr. Canali again until I went to a local FSMTA (Florida State Massage Therapy Association) meeting. He was the speaker and that night I was sitting up front. As Dr. Canali talked, he kept putting his hands on my shoulder and using me as an example of what he was saying. Normally with strangers, I would have been crawling out of my skin and running out the door. I, however, knew that Dr. Canali’s touch was safe. Somehow I knew that and I was not afraid.

Fast forward to a workshop he held in July 2004, that I wanted to attend. Before signing up for the workshop, Dr. Canali and I talked by phone where I shared with him some of my past. When I got to the workshop, it was part lecture and part hands on training. Dr. Canali asked for volunteers and without hesitation, I said I would like to volunteer. Up until this point, I had not experienced his work like many of the others had, and I had no clue what I was about to experience. The moment on the table which seemed like only a few minutes was in fact over a couple hours and when I got off that table, I felt like my life was different than when I started. It was a powerful life changing moment and at the time I had no clue just how far this would go.

I began to see Dr. Canali for regular sessions because I knew deep down, there was much stored within my body that needed to be dealt with. You didn’t need to explain to me just how everyday life, every day stress, trauma and experiences find homes within our bodies. My body knew that first hand because I was paralyzed in 1991. Physically I had recovered from it but there were many hidden scars within me that had never been allowed to heal. I had plenty of current problems as well from depression, anxiety, frequent migraine headaches, a stomach ulcer, allergies and the list could go on. I never dreamed that a few years after this, my life would have changed in dramatic ways physically, emotionally and spiritually. I’m not the same person I was and this isn’t some surface changes in me. It is deep emotional long lasting changes.

While I still know I have a ways to go and I still have my demons I battle within me, I’m on my way to connecting to something that will carry me forward. I’m not even 100% sure I understand what that is today and that’s fine, but I see more of my path ahead with each day. Dr. Canali has helped me to understand myself more and see the power that I hold to make choices and changes in my life. He has helped me to become more aware of myself so that I can begin to experience life in an entirely new way. If you would have told me all of this was possible a few years ago, I would have probably laughed. Of course now, you don’t have to convince me because I’ve lived it and the truth of it resides with myself and my new found freedom and awareness.

With all of this said, Dr. Canali just launched his new website and it is filled with a lot of information. Some of the information is deep and may sail over your head when you first read it, but it can be a catalyst in your life. I urge you to go and check out the website and read it and learn all you can. Your life won’t be the same after this point.

The website is
Evolutionary Healing Institute http://evolutionaryhealinginstitute.com/