Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications (Paperback)

~ Peter R. Breggin (Author), David Cohen (Author) "The use of psychiatric drugs, especially of stimulants for children and antidepressants for adults, has skyrocketed in recent years..." (more)
Key Phrases: stopping psychiatric drugs, taking psychiatric drugs, antidepressant withdrawal reactions, Eli Lilly, Desk Reference, American Psychiatric Association (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Psychiatric drugs are prescribed to more than 20 million Americans. This book aims to convince us to stop taking these drugs, and to show us how to do it safely. The authors contend that after 15 minutes with a physician or psychiatrist, Americans are prescribed medications that we may take for years or a lifetime, which can do more harm than good. We're irritable, anxious, emotionally numbed, physically fatigued, and mentally dulled. Yet when we stop taking the drugs, we encounter a whole new set of problems and setbacks.

The book lists the adverse medical reactions you may encounter, plus additional personal, psychological, and philosophical reasons for limiting or rejecting psychiatric drugs. About half the book covers withdrawing from your drug--how to do it carefully and slowly, what to expect, and how to get help--with specifics for certain drugs and a chapter on easing your child off them as well.

If you suffer from depression or another condition that warrants taking prescription drugs, you might refute the authors' contention that "the degree to which we suffer indicates the degree to which we are alive. When we take drugs to ease our suffering, we stifle our psychological and spiritual life." Certainly it would be lovely if we could "find a way to untangle that twisted energy and to redirect it more creatively," but is this really possible in all cases? The authors blame our dependence on drugs and psychiatry on big pharmaceutical-company bucks, psychiatric organizations, and even government agencies. Certainly we are an overmedicated society--but is the answer to take everyone off drugs? This provocative book says yes, and it's bound to be controversial.

Of course, do not go off any prescribed medication without working closely with the medical professional who prescribed it, and do not use this book as a substitute for professional help. --Joan Price --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In his previous books (Toxic Psychiatry, Talking Back to Prozac), psychiatrist Breggin laid the groundwork for his battle against what he sees as American psychiatry's harmful overdependence on prescribing medication. This time out, he reiterates his primary tenets and, having teamed up with David Cohen, a professor of social work at the University of Montreal, provides practical advice for those who are considering stopping medication. According to the authors, psychiatric drugs have replaced religion, spirituality, human relationships and introspection as the solution of first resort for the suffering endemic to a full human life. Because scientists know very little about the brain, Breggin and Cohen argue, the much-touted theory that depression and mental illness arise from chemical imbalances is "sheer speculation" and the propagandistic cornerstone of a massive public relations campaign by drug companies. In a well-researched argument that suffers from a somewhat dogmatic tone, they contend that, rather than improve the brain's functioning, these drugs actually create such imbalances, causing immediate and sometimes irreversible damage. In place of medication, Breggin and Cohen recommend therapy, as well as a commitment to religious, spiritual or philosophic ideas, and offer a step-by-step approach to ending dependence on medication, to be undertaken only with medical guidance. Although the authors warn readers against feeling pressured to forgo medication, they never explore the alternatives. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738203483
• ISBN-13: 978-0738203485
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #98,364 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Believe!, November 6, 1999

By	Bill Butler "Bill Butler" (Tarzana, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How And Why To Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications (Hardcover)

I was presribed Valium for 30 years. It's beneficial effects rarely last more than 4 months. But I trusted my doctors. The effects have been devastating and disastrous for me and my family. I have suffered from severe depression for 30 years and finally turned to alcohol to reduce what is commonly called the "Benzo Blues". Valium has also been referred to as "Blue Death". When I questioned one clinic about this drug, the reply was, "We must deal with the depression first!" So they kept me on this dosage for 3 more years while prescribing Prozac. Obviously, this did not help except to deaden my brain worse. So they doubled the Prozac. That did not work. So they quadrupled the Prozac to it's maximum! In desperation, I called my church, and they said to follow my doctor's orders so that I was even more convinced that what I was doing was right. Finally, the climax came and I started going on alcoholic benders to alleviate the depression. Now, the clinic stated that I must take the Valium and Prozac in order to treat my disease of alcoholism! I finally ended up in a psychiatric hospital for one week. A psychiatrist there told me that what had been going on was insane. That she has been desperately trying to get the elderly off of Xanax and Valium which their doctors had addicted them to. If you are a counselor, or simply a concerned citizen who is definitely concerned about crime in this country, you simply must read

this book and discover what the medical profession and the pharmaceutical companies have been doing in order to make money. I am now under a slow withdrawal program with a qualified psychiatrist and therapist. But I am taking care now of my own medical care in all regards. Readers, please refer to the PDR also ("Physician's Desk Reference") and read all the side effects of all drugs that you are taking. And put this one under the pillow of your bed.

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening counterpoint to our love affair with happy pills, January 14, 2004

By	DrakeScott (Portland, ME USA) - See all my reviews

Having spent the better part of the last 12 years on a virtual A(tenolol)to Z(oloft) tour of drugs prescribed to treat my symptoms of low self-esteem, generalized and social anxiety, and depression, I began to suspect these pretty, candy-like pills--so quickly prescribed interchangeably by psychiatrists and GP's alike--were not only affecting me in the short-term, but also manifesting long-term (if not permanent!) changes in my body--most notably a reduction in sex drive and function and excessive sweating--all without an appreciable, lasting reduction in my original symptoms. Therefore, when I stumbled across this book on Amazon.com, I was intrigued; what I found in it's pages left me with mixed feelings of horror, relief, knowing, and suspicion. Not only did I recognize the myriad of side-effects and withdrawal symptoms from my own experience, but Drs. Breggin and Cohen portrayed with uncanny accuracy my attempts at enlisting the help of practitioners unwilling to comply with my wishes to de-medicate. Too many times I have entered my psychiatrist's office ready to reduce, if not eliminate, the amount of medications I take, only to emerge twenty minutes later with a prescription for an ADDITIONAL drug, often with the intent to treat the side-effects of the first! This book has given me additional tools and strategies with which to broach the subject at my next appointment. Am I afraid of the probable return of the original emotional difficulties that brought me there in the first place? Absolutely. Am I dreading the all-too-familiar onslaught of dizziness, nausea, restless legs, headaches, depression, and intense emotional suffering that accompanies withdrawal? No question. But I am tired of the endless stream of side-effects and general numbing I experience on each successive drug, which inevitably stops working within a few months only to be replaced by something "better". I'm tired of being afraid of my doctor's disapproval, my mental "illness", and of living.

All this having been said, it's only fair to point out some of the obvious flaws of this book. As mentioned in previous reviews, it is repetitive in places, oddly devoid of any sense of actual experience with emotional suffering, and conspicuously one-sided. To claim that "the degree to which we suffer indicates the degree to which we are alive" is laughably new-agey and useless in a real-world context. Try sharing that bit of fluff with the person so deep in a depression that they can't get out of bed, can't care for themselves or their kids--indeed, can't even cry--and see how it is received. Also, the section on reducing your medications is a bit difficult (even dangerous) to follow if your medication comes in capsule form. Their suggestion that a capsule be opened and its contents separated into smaller doses isn't very helpful--how do you administer the smaller dosages? Couldn't it be risky? All in all, the weakest section of the book is Chapter 13, entitled "Psychological Principles for Helping Yourself and Others Without Resort to Psychiatric Medications". It's rife with mindless psychobabble, offering far too many pat fortune-cookie suggestions without any substantive plan for action. Most disburbingly, Breggin & Cohen tread a dangerous line by zealously condemning ALL use of psychiatric medications (all the while assuring the reader that they don't blame the user). Surely every schizophrenic or bipolar person (and their loved ones) won't find solace in the simple realization "that emotional crises and suffering are opportunities for accelerated personal growth" (p210), nor by focusing "on finding a rational, loving, and confident center in yourself that can rise above your emotional crisis or suffering" (p205). Common sense would suggest that sometimes, for some people, a medication can be the sanest, if not the only answer.

At any rate, this book provides a welcome counterpoint to a nation blindly medicating their children into conformity, eagerly requesting prescriptions for psychotropic drugs they see advertised during "Survivor", and assigning a convenient DSM label (with the inevitable, corresponding "miracle" pill) for every emotional fluctuation. In itself, "Your Drug May Be Your Problem" is best regarded as a jumping-off place for further research rather than the end of the line.

111 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Their claims are not exaggerated - they are based on facts, July 25, 2001

By	Peter C. Dwyer (Baltimore, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a licensed clinical social worker who supervises other clinical social workers in a well-respected Treatment Foster Care program. I know for a fact that psychiatrists often prescribe Ritalin, anti-psychotic drugs and powerful anti-depressants to seven and eight year old children. Once the prescribing begins, it often escalates and rarely does a child get taken off meds. These are not "occasional" psychiatric practices - they are the rule, not the exception, with this population.

Before reviewers claim Breggin and Cohen are "narrow minded" or "extreme," they need to read eight or ten other source books (among them:From Placebo to Panacea, by Fisher and Greenberg; Blaming the Brain, by Valenstein; Talking Back to Prozac, by Breggin and Breggin; The Tripple Helix, by Lewontin). These are writers of substance, with well-documented arguments. They present clear pictures of the gaping holes in the biopsychiatric model and the shoddy, self-serving research that allegedly supports that model.

Several of these books present detailed indictments of the degree to which huge financial interests dominate psychiatry and drug research; they present clear and verifiable information (of which most psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers seem unaware) about the questionable effectiveness and all-too-common dangers of these drugs.

I don't doubt that a number of people have felt their lives saved by these drugs. But there is much research to support psycho-social interventions which do at least as well as psychiatric meds, without the dangers and side effects. This research is hard to find in the U.S., largely because of the huge amount of money the pharmaceutical companies spend supporting the American Psychiatric Association, NAMI, CHADD, the medical journals, and academic researchers. Studies which don't reinforce drug companies' vested interests are very hard to fund, and harder to publish. The latest figure I've seen: the drug companies in a recent year spent over 13 billion dollars on promotion alone. Dr. Martin Keller, a lead researcher in a major study supporting the use of anti-depressant medication was reported by Glenmullen and the Boston Globe to have received income of over $500,000 dollars from drug companies in a single year.

The efficacy of psychiatric drugs is way overstated. Their damage is vastly minimized by the drug companies, the researchers and the FDA. Read Breggin's Talking Back to Prozac, and Glenmullen's Prozac Backlash. See if you can find, anywhere, a point by point refutation of their specific charges about fudged drug studies and naked economic influence on "scientific" research. You won't find the drug companies, the FDA or the psychiatric establishment addressing these issues head on, fact for fact, because they know they have no response.

Don't just read this one book by Breggin and Cohen. Keep looking. No psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker or counsellor should consider themselves prepared to engage in ethical and informed practice until they have read and seriously considered the other books cited above, as well as several other books by Breggin (e.g., Toxic Psychiatry, Talking Back to Ritalin, The War Against Children of Color).