My Philosophy and Approach to Medications

IMPORTANT NOTE: None of the information below should be construed as medical recommendations/advice to stop or change your medication(s). Always consult directly with your physician before stopping or changing your medication(s).

Benzodiazepines/Sleep Hypnotics and Stimulants

I do NOT prescribe or continue these medications as a part of my practice in any way, shape, or form. Please seek a specialist or another provider willing to give them to you if you would like to be prescribed these medications. Below is my rationale:

  • Rationale for non-prescription: These medications reinforce anxiety/insomnia through a numbing mechanism. Numbing emotions is a tale as old as time, and it's never been proven to help. These meds are also highly addictive and become a perpetual dose-increasing mess across months-years. Tapering off or stopping them is dangerous and potentially life-threatening.

  • Rationale for non-prescription: Taking stimulants reinforces the fallacy: “If I just 'force' myself to focus 'harder', then my problems will be solved and/or my life will be happier." Stimulants will force you to focus on what's in front of you even if it's paint drying on the walls. They won't help you focus on understanding why you have those symptoms in the first place. Paradoxically, your poor focus will worsen because you're not dealing with the underlying issue.

Antidepressants

I have a low opinion of antidepressants when treating Depression/Anxiety and will almost always recommend my clients NOT take them and NOT rely on them for recovery or future relapses. If you’re set on taking a antidepressant for Depression/Anxiety, please seek out a different psychiatrist or primary care physician. Refer below for my rationale:

  • The serotonin dysfunction theory (the entire basis for using antidepressants) has NOT been universally confirmed by the scientific literature despite first being proposed back in the 50s to 60s. In some cases, it has been disproved. In other cases, pharmaceutical companies have purposefully fudged the data to make it look like their drugs outperform placebo. Feel free to look this up yourself - all the information is freely available online.

  • There is a Biological Cause of Depression/Anxiety. However, and I do want to emphasize this strongly, we still do NOT know what that biological cause is! Because antidepressants are a medicine, you may mistakenly believe that it is addressing the underlying biological cause when this cannot be confirmed. This is like taking a sugar pill advertised for mental health and saying that it must work because it's been deemed a "biological" agent.

  • Antidepressants, though barely more effective than placebo sugar pills, are NOT harmless. They induce generalized emotional numbing and occasionally block out emotions associated with Depression/Anxiety. This reinforces and worsens Depression/Anxiety over time. Numbing things doesn't make them go away. They'll keep coming back until you face them properly.

  • Medications are designed to treat "disorders". Therapy is designed to treat people. People have complex problems, individualized beliefs, and powerful motivating factors that differ from one context to the next. Therapy is designed to address all of these factors in a highly specific and flexible manner that antidepressants can never hope to compete with. While therapy also cannot treat the biological cause of Depression/Anxiety, it's heaps better at figuring out the logical, reasonable sequence of actions, effects, events, emotions, and perceptions that lead you into it. If you can understand why, then you will also understand how to resolve your Depression/Anxiety.

  • The main philosophy of therapy is to confront, understand, and accept the symptoms in Depression/Anxiety. This philosophy is the complete opposite of antidepressants. The philosophy of antidepressants is concealment and ignorance of your symptoms. In my experience, those who rely on antidepressants while in therapy tend to get stuck, get worse, or take a very long time to recover (if they recover at all) compared to those who did not rely on antidepressants.

Antipsychotics and Mood Stabilizers

I openly advocate for the use of Antipsychotics and Mood Stabilizers. I will require you take them for life if you’re diagnosed with any of the conditions listed below. Therapy is not enough to fully treat you if you have these conditions. While there is no cure for any of these conditions, the medications prevent them from spiraling out of control:

  • Manic Episodes: This is a cycling mood disorder with manic episodes and depressive episodes. The medications treat and prevent the manic episodes preventing the need for hospitalization. Inadequate treatment typically leads to medication resistance and a higher likelihood of severe dysfunction later in life.

  • Psychotic Episodes: This can be a complex disorder with features of cognitive decline over time, paranoia, delusions, and/or auditory and visual hallucinations. The medications treat and prevent psychotic episodes and prevent the need for hospitalization. Inadequate treatment typically leads to medication resistance and a higher likelihood of severe dysfunction later in life.

  • These two conditions tend to be genetically heritable and can mix together in a spectrum of varying combinations. Medications will still be needed to help prevent the need for hospitalization.