Mental Health and Medication

I will preface my comments with this: I am not a any kind of "doctor". My training is limited to helping people address and change their behaviors. I do not have anything against doctors. My wife is an orthodontist and we get along fine.. most of the time. But I am a smart guy and I learn fast. I have seen many clients under doctor referral to address many different medical issues. My comments are my opinions based off of my experience, observations and reading.

The day after the Virginia Tech shootings, a radio announcer I was listening to said "the shooter undoubtedly had psychological issues and should have been using medication". When I heard that, I thought to myself, "I bet he was on medication."

Then the stories about his psychological state and then confirmed psychiatric drug use.

"According to breaking news from investigators at Virginia Tech, Cho may have taken depression drugs—documented by the Food and Drug Administration to cause suicidal behavior, mania, psychosis, hallucinations, hostility and “homicidal ideation.” Cho Seung-Hui psychiatric drug use is confirmed, it brings the total to 61 killed and 77 wounded by psychiatric drug-induced school shootings."

This is a surprise to many people, but not everyone.

Everyday I work with clients that are on psychiatric medications. I have had potential clients improve things such as compulsive purchasing, gambling, sleeplessness, bipolar symptoms, weight gain, anger, depression, etc., after simply reducing medication intake with their doctor.

I'v worked with a woman who has been heavily medicated since her mid-teens. She does not know what it would be to feel "normal". We started working together between medications.. We worked on her self-confidence for two sessions. She came back the third time and told me "I didn't feel like killing myself this weekend". She claims this is the most progress she can remember having. The following week her doctor had her increase the dosage of the medication she was starting. She had side effects; mania, hallucinations, sleeplessness, anger, confusion, suicidal thoughts. Her family took her to the hospital where they heavily sedated her. The doctor's comment was "the medication seems to be showing some manic depressive symptoms. They planned to continue the medications. Her self-confidence was gone and she felt hopeless and suicidal again.

We have continued working together on her self-confidence and she is feeling better again.

I guess that is my rant.

As a result I have found a very helpful resource - http://www.cchr.org and http://www.cchr.org/files/14552/Violence%20White%20Paper.pdf
It contains information that is very pertinent. I believe it will get a larger following because of the recent violence at Virgina Tech.

Patrick Glancy, CH
www.glancyhypnosis.com