Medication for

Anxiety and

Depression: Pros

and Cons

Why anxiety can’t be treated

by injecting serotonin into the

bloodstream?

The answer to this is that

serotonin has a complicated

relationship with the nerves and

while it makes you feel peaceful

when it’s in the brain,

if it gets into the skin nerves, it

hurts – serotonin is what makes

nettle stings hurt. Eating

serotonin doesn’t work either,

as your brain cleverly keeps it

out.

Can you increase the body’s

levels of serotonin?

Many people argue that you can.

Serotonin is naturally produced by the

body and diet can indeed help the body

produce more of it, with bananas, dates

and papayas being thought to be good

for increasing the body’s production of

serotonin.

Another intriguing finding by one

researcher also suggests that people

with a larger muscle mass have more

serotonin in their systems because of

the way that muscles (as opposed to

other body tissues) use amino acids to

get moving.

(These facts make this writer

think that if you munch a

banana and go for a nice long

walk, you’ll start feeling better –

sounds like something my

mother would have said.)

One of the advantages of taking

medications such as SSRIs to

combat anxiety is that they do

work.

That is, they do increase the

levels of serotonin in the brain

and help the person taking them

feel more peaceful.

However, like many other medications,

especially those that tinker with the

hormones, SSRIs have side effects

(the only hormone-related medication

that doesn’t seem to is insulin, which

Type 1 diabetics have to inject because

their body doesn’t produce this

hormone).

Some of the side effects of

SSRIs are seen when beginning

to take these medications and

include dizziness, fatigue,

weight gain, reduced bone

mass, headaches, very peculiar

dreams, diarrhoea, insomnia

and more.

Later on, SSRIs can interfere

with sexuality, usually loss of

libido, impotence and inability to

reach orgasm (spoilsport!).

And if you have been taking

SSRIs for some time, you can

get dependent on them and

have trouble coming off them –

which would be called an

addiction for a non-prescribed

substance.

What’s more, for low-grade

depression and anxiety, SSRIs

don’t actually do that much –

the place where they work best

is when treating people with

very severe depression or

anxiety.

If general low-grade anxiety or

just feeling “blue” is your

problem, then other avenues

such as hypnosis might be a

better option than medication –

but your doctor will be able to

give you more advice and help

you explore your options.

Other drugs are used to treat

anxiety disorder but SSRIs are

by far the most common.

Other physical forms of therapy

can be used that don’t involve

prescription medications – these

include the sort of thing your

mother told you, like increasing

aerobic exercise, getting good

sleep and cutting back on

coffee.

And there are the forms of

therapy that deal with the

mental/emotional side of things,

such as counselling,

hypnotherapy and cognitive-

behavioural therapy.

These aim to deal with harmful

thinking patterns and give

people the inner strength to

cope with stress and the

problems of life from the inside

out.

Are you in the verge of anxeity

and depression?

This can be a debilitating

condition and this can ruin your

normal life.

But there is a SOLUTION…

Get the answer from

Hypnosis Brisbane…

call Mike at

(07) 5576 6410