Can Antidepressants Ever Cure You?

by Christopher Green

They are the plagues of the modern world. Stress, depression and anxiety are on the increase every year and they show no signs of ending their relentless onslaught. Over 40 million people are affected by these illnesses annually, and for the majority, powerful antidepressant drugs offer the only solution.

What’s curious is that over seventy percent of people who stop taking them, for any length of time, will relapse into another stressful or depressive episode.

Something’s rotten in Denmark. Because if these drugs are as effective as their manufacturers claim, then sufferers should be cured of their illness. Clearly, this isn’t happening.

If these drugs are so good, why don’t they cure sufferers?

The commonly held belief, both by the medical profession and sufferers is that anti-depressant drugs are the most effective treatment.

This isn’t quite true.

Antidepressant drugs DO help a sufferer. But only TEMPORARILY. They cannot offer a permanent cure because anti-depressants treat ONE of the SYMPTOMS of these illnesses – reduced levels of "happy chemicals" called neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters are the chemicals inside our brains that help to regulate our moods. What anti-depressants do is give sufferers a "boost" by raising levels of neurotransmitters. The problem concerns a seventy percent chance of relapse when sufferers stop taking the meds.

This happens because the drugs haven’t tackled the root cause of these illnesses. By boosting levels of “happy chemicals” the drugs simply mask the problem. In the short term, giving our mental well-being a boost by increasing the levels of “happy chemicals” is a helpful step in STARTING the recovery process.

The last sentence is very important. It explains how these drugs should be used. Because when we feel stressed out, burned out, terrified of the future or that life has no point (all symptoms of stressful and depressive illnesses), it’s almost impossible to function. Finding your way “out of the fog” is so hard.

And that’s where antidepressants can help. By providing a boost, you can feel more able to cope. You can START to take the first steps towards recovery.

But they cannot provide a permanent cure because the only way to cure these illnesses is to address the root cause. The root cause are harmful mental habits and processes we have learned and used for most of our lives – since childhood in most cases.

And there lies the crucial difference. Antidepressants can help us in the short-term by CONTROLLING the illness. Learning the mental habits and processes that crush these illnesses so they cannot even begin to arise help us in the long-term by CURING these illnesses.

I firmly believe that people who are suffering from stress, anxiety, panic, depression and similar illnesses, want to get rid of it from their lives forever. Cure means cured, permanently. I overcame a terrible 5-year period of anxiety-induced depression without taking antidepressants. I did it by learning more effective mental skills and processes and I turned my life around and found happiness again.

What worked for me will work for you and it will provide the one thing you deserve and what antidepressant drugs can never provide: A permanent cure to your suffering.