What About Drugs for Anxiety and Depression?

I am often asked, "Can drugs be helpful for anxiety and depression?" The answer I give is "Yes and no."

Yes, some drugs may be useful for short-term help. No, drugs are not a good long-term solution.

Anxiety and depression are not caused by a lack of drugs. Drugs do not heal the underlying causes of anxiety and depression. However, when drugs are temporarily used to give a person a window of relief to do the Inner Bonding work necessary to heal the underlying causes, they may be useful. Although, in the "The Emperor's New Drugs," author Irving Kirsch proves that antidepressants have primarily a placebo effect.

Anxiety and depression generally have two major underlying causes - emotional and physical.

The Physical Causes of Anxiety and Depression

Our bodies go into imbalance when we do not eat well or have enough healthy exercise. Our bodies are not made to handle the unnatural substances found in processed food. When we overload our bodies with chemicals, pesticides, sugar and devitalized foods, our bodies become depleted of vital nutrients and go into stress. Anxiety and depression can be the result of this physical depletion and resulting stress.

There is a direct line called the HPA Axis that goes from the gut to the brain. When the gut microbiome is out of balance – which means that there are more bad bacteria than good bacteria – the toxicity from the bad bacteria goes directly into the brain and can cause anxiety and depression, as well as other brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. (See "Brain Maker" by Dr. David Permutter)

Our bodies are designed to thrive on the food and water that God gave us - pure, clean, organic, unaltered food and water. If you take drugs for anxiety and depression and do not clean up your diet and get proper exercise and sleep, you are just using a Band Aid for a gaping wound.

The Emotional Causes of Anxiety and Depression

Emotionally, anxiety is caused various forms of self-abandonment – often by self-judgment and other thoughts that are not true. For example, if you tell yourself that you are not good enough or you have to be perfect, you will likely feel anxious. Thoughts of not being good enough and having to be perfect are generally focused on our outer qualities of looks and performance, rather than on the inner qualities of kindness, compassion, caring, reliability or loyalty. When we choose to be kind, loving and compassionate with ourselves and others, we feel good about ourselves. When we choose gratitude for what we do have rather than dwell on what we don't have, we create inner peace. Kindness and gratitude are wonderful antidotes to anxiety!

Anxiety is often a sign that we are telling ourselves a lie. The truth creates peace inside, while lies create anxiety. This is a sure-fire way of knowing what is true and what is not true!

Emotionally, depression is caused by ignoring our feelings and needs. If we don't speak up for ourselves, but rather judge ourselves, and make others responsible for our feelings, the result may be depression. If you have a child whom you ignore and judge, that child will likely be depressed. The same occurs on the inner level when we ignore and judge our own inner child. Putting yourself last and taking care of everyone else but yourself may cause you to feel unworthy and depressed.

There is little point in taking drugs for anxiety and depression without attending to your self-abandonment. However, if you take drugs for a short time and give yourself the opportunity to do your Inner Bonding work, they may be helpful. Many of the people I work with find that as soon as they start taking loving care of themselves, they don't like the effect of the drugs. They don't like the fact that the drugs take the edge off their feelings. They find that, rather than wanting to be numbed out, they want to feel all of their feelings deeply, both the highs and the lows. The more they learn to take responsibility for their feelings by attending to their thoughts and needs, the more they want to feel all of their feelings. They discover that, while drugs may take the edge off pain, they also take the edge off joy.

Most of the people I work with can avoid drugs completely by practicing Inner Bonding and learning to love themselves rather than abandon themselves - both physically and emotionally. Many of the people who practice Inner Bonding find this process to be far more powerful in healing anxiety and depression than drugs.

If you are a person who does not want to learn to take personal responsibility for your pain and joy, then drugs may be a way out for you. But if you want to feel true peace and joy, drugs are not the answer.