More than one in 10 Americans use antidepressants

More than one in 10 Americans over the age of 12 takes an antidepressant, according to a recent Reuters article. Antidepressants were the third-most common drug used by Americans of all ages between 2005 and 2008 and they were the most common drug among people aged 18 to 44, according to an analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

They found that antidepressant use in the United States jumped nearly 400 percent in the 2005-2008 survey period compared with the 1988-1994 period, with 11 percent of those over age 12 taking the drugs.

Why is this a problem?

Very few people recognize that illegal drugs represent only part of today’s drug problem. During the last 40 to 50 years there have been major worldwide changes in our reliance on another type of drug, namely prescription psychiatric drugs.

Once reserved for the mentally disturbed, today it would be difficult to find someone – a family member, a friend or a neighbor – who hasn’t taken some form of psychiatric drug. In fact, these have become such a part of life for many people that “life without drugs” is simply unimaginable.

Little surprise then that worldwide statistics show that a rapidly increasing percentage of every age group, from children to the elderly, rely heavily and routinely on these drugs in their daily lives.

Understanding society’s skyrocketing psychiatric drug usage is now even more critical than ever. How did millions become hooked on such destructive drugs? We need to look earlier than the drug.

Before becoming hooked, each individual was convinced that these drugs would help him or her to handle life. The primary sales tool that was used was an invented diagnostic system, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM) and the mental disorders section of Europe’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Once diagnosed and the prescription filled, the destructive properties of the drugs themselves took over.

Forcing widespread implementation of this diagnostic sham, psychiatrists have ensured that more and more people with no serious mental problem, even no problem at all, are being deceived into thinking that the best answer to life’s many routine difficulties and challenges lies with the “latest and greatest” psychiatric drug.

Our failure in the war against drugs is due largely to our failure to put a stop to the most damaging of all drug pushers in society. This is the psychiatrist at work today, busy deceiving us and hooking our world on drugs.

To read the full story about how psychiatry has hooked our world on drugs, download and read the CCHR booklet, “Psychiatry Hooking Your World on Drugs — Report and recommendations on psychiatry creating today’s drug crisis,” from the CCHR St. Louis web site.

Alternatives to psychiatric drugs

Here are some resources for alternatives to psychiatric drugs:

http://www.naturalnews.com/033928_antidepressant_drugs_alternatives.html

http://www.resultsproject.net/

http://theroadback.org/

http://www.cchrstl.org/causes.shtml

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