Customer Reviews

The Great Anxiety Escape: A Revolutionary Program to Escape Anxiety, Insomnia, Depression and Drug Dependency

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Author's response to unnamed reader review: Apparently the review of reader comes from a psychiatrist operating out of a pharmacotherapeutic bias in the treatment of anxiety-state disorders. In fact, the SSRIs suggested by reader carry considerable risk of adverse side effects - some quite dangerous. Significantly, SSRIs do not address the underlying root causes of anxiety disorders. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of nutritional supplements. The counterproductive pharmacotherapeutic treatment received by the author while in the Philippines was comparable to treatment the author had received previously in the United States. It was in the Philippines that the author attained recovery by the effective holistic means described within the book.

The author was treated for panic disorder before the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) became the standard. He was treated with, and became addicted to, benzodiazepines e.g., valium. This was evidently before alprazolam became available. He was also prescribed antipsychotics among other dubious treatments.

No responsible psychiatrist would treat panic disorder like this today. Alprazolam or clonazepam are typically prescribed for a few weeks until an SSRI can take effect. Doctors are well aware of the addictive nature of these drugs. Treatment with SSRIs has a biological basis: research at NIH shows a 2/3 reduction in the number of serotonin receptors in certain areas of the brain in panic disorder patients.

The other treatments suggested in this book--cognitive therapy, deep breathing, meditation--are routinely prescribed even by very medically oriented physicians. (Acupuncture is not, and probably should be.) The book also suggests treatments along the line of orthomolecular psychiatry (high-dose nutritional supplements), which have no proven value.

One can only feel sympathy that the author needed treatment in a time and place (the Philippines) where safe and effective treatement was unavailable.