Customer Reviews

Natural Alternatives to Prozac

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As a professional psychologist, I found this book very interesting. Currently working in the high school arena has shown me the awful side effects of prozac on our troubled teens. I believe that drugs are often used to control the outward emotions and do not focus on dealing with the internal problems. While some cases of clinical depression will only respond to conventional drugs, I believe that many less severe cases of depression can be dealt with naturally. In my practice, I have seen patients snap out of depressive episodes by changing their eating habits and begining an exercise program. This book definately gives professionals some preliminary ideas for interventions prior to popping the pill.

This book is loaded with tons of useful, easy to understand information. It will really help you understand the workings of your body-mind on a much deeper level. Murray is very adept at explaining how nutrition, herbs and vitamins can change the way we feel and think.

This book is loaded with tons of useful, easy to understand information. It will really help you understand the workings of your body-mind on a much deeper level. Murray is very adept at explaining how nutrition, herbs and vitamins can change the way we feel and think.

This book didn't give too many alternative therapies, all of which MOST people have already heard of (St. John's Wort, 5 HTP, SAM-e, Kava kava, Gingko), but the author did provide a nice basic overview of all the herbs. He also gives suggestions as to whom would be best suited, and, alternatively, do better without each "alternative".

The author also presents two diagnostic tests that you can take yourself to find out your level of depression and determine whether you are an optimist or a pessimist.

Overall, this book is not the best out there, but it can build the beginning of a strong foundation in the non-pharmaceutical alternatives available.

I found this to be an okay read and worth a look. It does seem to have a few factual mistakes, not including misspellings of common drugs such as nortriptyline. One mistake is that it states that Effexor is an SSRI. Another is that it states that "it is during REM sleep that we dream", when in fact we also dream during NREM sleep. Mistakes such as these make me wonder about the validity of the rest of the information. The author is also strongly biased against pharmaceutical drugs, which is fine but it would be better to be a bit more objective in the presentation of the information. On the plus side, the book covers a good deal of ground on alternatives to pharmaceuticals in a concise manner. It's an easy read and the author has a pleasant writing style. It contains a number of graphs and charts that facilitate the presentation of the information. Overall, it is worth reading for the purpose of expanding one's knowledge base in the treatment of depression and other mental illnesses. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

Im sure that herbs and vitamins may be a good natural alternative. However, for many effected patients these are too expensive compared to prozac. Also, I am sick and tired of hypocritical herbalist and vitamin companies criticising the pharmaceitical companies for profit seeking production when they are just as bad. For many of us suffering depression, lack of neccessary resources such as food to put on the table and clothes, further exasperate our depression. The last thing we need is 'do gooders' who claim to know what is best for us when really they are just trying to make a buck. What we want is a treatment that is cheap and effective so we can get on with our lives. Often those who are depressed are so because of external circumstances. We are often oppressed, poor, abused (or have been abused) or have had to suffer many deaths in our lives. Our concern is living each day as best we can so that others are not affected by our depression. Dr murray if you gave a damn about the disadvantaged, oppressed and the poor, you would stop trying to make money from our suffering and use your money to truely help others. Set up a refuge, travel the world as Mother Teresa did, provide a shelter for the poor. . . think of others as being more important than your self righteous purpose and your money. AP Australia (Where health care is still free for the poor)