Pros and Cons of Medication for Anxiety and Depression
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Transcript of Pros and Cons of Medication for Anxiety and Depression
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