There have been stirs in the world of psychiatry recently, as well as the extended branch of it which is where the issue has arisen, the pharmaceutical area. A rather damning article, referencing a rather damning paper of evidence, published only last month – The chemical imbalance theory of depression is dead detailing these findings. Yet change is not that swift in the real world of medicine, not by a long shot. As of today, it is still clearly noted on the NHS website “It’s thought that SSRIs work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain”.

The fall-out from this on the ground though is what is important, not whether they can agree or not. It’s real people who have been living with difficulties for quite some time in some cases, taking medication that they are now hearing, may in fact be useless. And these medications are not without risk, the side effects leaflets are really quite scary. And speaking as someone who has taken them, and suffered side effects, I can attest to that. They were enough to make me stop taking them, and try and assess what it was in my life that was making me feel so unbalanced, or unstable, or emotional. Taking into account everything, not just cherry picking the bits that seemed to fit at the time. I wanted to feel on an even keel, and I never did while taking pharmaceutical medications. And also coming to learn with age, that many of those feelings were actually perfectly normal for the situation at hand, or the time of life I found myself in.

But it seems there is much being revealed of late about what the effects of all these drugs really are, aside from the actual known side effects. I have written about it slightly in my article Memory, covering painkillers, and have given thought over the years to it anyway. And it seems an odd thing, and has for a while, that you would expect your body to regulate and balance itself, while taking something that is fundamentally intefering with that, on an enhanced specialised chemical level no less.

Thoughts, thought processes and emotional impulses are all working together, most the time for most people anyway, and if you encounter an overload it can tip the balance and destabilise the system. I guess they believe by shutting down or dampening one of these systems, it can relieve the pressure as it were. And I get it, in theory the idea is sound. But it’s on the premise that we are all wired mentally the same, and we are all capable of dealing with said chemical changes, hence the prescriptions seems to be at an alarming rate these days. That is not the case, as we well know, with awful suicide rates and more mental illness being identified or labelled to deal with what they say is the rise in mental illness. And I don’t deny there is a problem, we have a weird, shitty, soulless world being constructed around us, with constant manipulation and mental intrusion. I would be worried if people weren’t dissatisfied with that and showing signs of struggling. Instead of coping mechanisms though, and assessing if people are meant to be treated this way, it seems ever important to blame people themselves, and demand they adapt to the ‘new world order’ that creeps its way into our psyche. As anyone would do who is trying to make them the centre feature of your life, trying to take all your attention, telling you you’ll never survive without them, trying to turn you against your friends and family. Sounds like a terribly abusive scenario doesn’t it? And what I have learnt along the way is that people don’t always recognise they are in it, because it makes it a bit easier to make excuses or just shy away from a painful truth. Imagine how much easier it would be for that abusive person if they were also able to convince you that you were mentally dysfunctional, and needing medicating. It would serve a purpose for them in the end, making people think they are in need of extra assistance that only one can give, to dismiss others who would ‘invalidate’ their condition.

We all have hard times in our lives, and I will never deny that things can happen that will take the rug from under you and change your whole life, traumatic things, hurtful things, shocking things. But these things will happen, to you, or to those you know. And imagine a world where there isn’t a doctor to just write a prescription, or a pharmacy to just cash it, what would you do? Grief, despair and heartache. Sadness, loss and fear. They are all feelings, and ones of life despite what they represent. You wouldn’t want to take something to stop you feeling happy and joyful, would you? We embrace certain feelings in life, and seem to shy away from or try to eliminate others, but they are necessary and character building as they say. And maybe it has been too much time now and too many people switched off those feeling for too long, and don’t know how to feel properly anymore. Maybe that was the point of all the drugs after all. Who can say for sure, but I will keep giving it thought.

(c) K Wicks