What I say here is provable although, the pharmaceutical companies don’t want you to know this. They would prefer you believe and buy what they are peddling. My challenge to you is to think and verify what I am telling you. I can back up every word I say.
Also, this should not be considered “medical advice” nor do I ever advocate the starting or stopping of any medication prescribed by your physician without his or her advice.
The chemical imbalance theory says your brain chemicals are out of balance and that causes you to feel depressed or manic or any other range of emotions. The reason it is called a theory, is because it is not provable. There are no tests, zero tests that prove something like a chemical imbalance exists. It is frankly an invention of the pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs. Testing is junk science unreliable and not reproducible.
In the majority of the cases of diagnosed emotional disorder or mental illness there is no objective evidence to prove the body is functioning abnormally. There are no tests that exist that will produce definable and measurable data; therefore there is no basis to prove that an organic illness is present. The current method of diagnosing all of these mental illnesses and disorders is based only on subjective reasoning and thinking and not on changes in the body. Currently, nothing exists in the way of objective medical testing to prove there are such things as mental illness or disorders.
I was recently given an article that says: Study: Blood Test May Determine Bipolar Disorder. I researched the study, read the report on it and was not surprised to find that it is more of the same- inconclusive results coming from studies and data that is cited as having “discrepant outcomes*.” It appears that that they used former studies that were inconclusive in their conclusions as baselines for new research!
When it is determined that there is no medical basis for the patient to feel “bad”, depressed or anxious, the default diagnosis has become one of the previously mentioned disorders.
This is where the controversy lies from my perspective as well as the other respected physicians, psychologists and neurophysiologists who share my concern over the explosion of these diagnoses. To be clear, I am not questioning the desire of medical professionals to help their patients.
Something we can prove is that various medical conditions will cause chemical changes in the body. For example, a person who is diabetic has a chemical imbalance, they have too much or too little insulin. Blood sugar that is too high or too low causes the person to experience various emotions, and display behaviors uncharacteristic of their usual selves. They may become combative, abusive, or lethargic.
This is a key to the people around the person that something is wrong and needs to be checked. Once the blood sugar is corrected and stabilized the chemical imbalance is corrected. We don’t say that person has a chemical imbalance, they have diabetes. When the blood sugar level is corrected the imbalance disappears and thoughts return to normal. Another case would be a person with endocrine disorders, like Graves Disease or some other disease of the thyroid. These illnesses also cause emotional responses.
What I do question is the treatment of feelings and emotions with medications that are not treating true abnormal physiology. It is right medically and morally to pump people (including children) full of medication that alters the brain chemicals, brain wave patterns, and physical structure of the brain when there is no medical basis for it?
In the opinion of many respected medical professionals (and that number is steadily growing) it is not good to be handing these medications out so people can “feel better.”
If you would like to research these issues I suggest the following resources from an abundant list on this topic: Psychology Debunked (lisaandryan@psychologydebunked.com), Toxic Psychology by Dr. Peter Breggin, Deceptive Diagnosis, by Dr. Kurt Grady
Labels: Chemical Imbalance