Antidepressants, an escape or a vicious cycle?

Is numbing our emotions with antidepressants solving our mental health issues?

It is clear that Australians are suffering despite the current emphasis on mental health in the media, with nearly one in 10 Australians taking antidepressants. As a society we need to acknowledge that antidepressants are not solving the problem they may actually be contributing to it.

The inefficacy of antidepressants is further elaborated by author and SMH contributor, Johann Hari, who disclosed in a SMH article that he was a victim of antidepressants. He told his readers that all he received from antidepressants was short pockets of relief, but he was still depressed at the end of the day.

“When you have a person with extreme human distress, stop treating the symptoms, the symptoms are a messenger of a deeper problem,” Dr Joanne Cacciatore of Arizona State University said.

“Let’s get to the deeper problem.”

Perhaps we need to recognise that all emotions have purpose and feeling them is tantamount to being able to live a life of quality. Antidepressants are the antitheses of this. A 2016 report by Scientific American has revealed disturbing negative side effects of antidepressants, including suicide attempts and aggressive behaviour.

It is refusing to feel the emotions and burying them that often causes build up and overwhelm.

Claire Besley, founder of Inspirited Solutions, claims that we have got it dangerously wrong. Claire warns that our focus needs to shift quickly from mental health to emotional health if we are to have any chance of surviving this national crisis. It is much easier to achieve long-term mental clarity if you first achieve emotional stability.

After delivering a new form of therapy called Self-Directed Healing for several years, Claire Besley has seen first hand the reduction in the need for antidepressants in her clients that were previously told by doctors that they needed to be on them for life, these results have been consistent for several years now.

“Emotions are held and live in the physical body, they are powerful and if left unprocessed, they can cause stress, anxiety and often illness,” Claire Besley said.

“We should teach people how to feel and process emotions through their bodies because numbing one’s emotions with modern medications such as antidepressants, will only postpone their suffering.”

Regardless of the comfort we receive from desensitising our feelings, we ultimately need to ask ourselves whether this is a healthy way to handle our emotions. Are these short-lived moments of ease worth the entrapment of its vicious cycle?