By supporting near-limitless abortion and deeming homosexuality and transsexualism normal, Mental Health Philosophy [MHP] depresses the number of children. Claiming to cure what the MHP calls mental illnesses, MHP professionals have become one of the largest purveyors of mind-altering drugs. Society already has serious problems associated with the use of other mind-altering substances (e.g., alcohol, illicit heroin, etc.). Do MHP therapies reduce depression and suicide enough to compensate for MHP’s depression of the demographic and getting ever greater proportions of adults into mind-altering substances?

Depression, and giving "talk" or "drug" therapy for it, is the major thrust of MHP professionals. In 1990, about 2% of U.S. adults were taking anti-depressants; by 2019 it was 20% (of whom about 16% were taking anti-depressants during the previous 30 days). The National Institutes of Health says that in 2020, during the previous 30 days: 50% of adults admitted using alcohol; 3% took illegal opioids; 10% misused prescription drugs, and 18% took marijuana. Those who take one of these often take others as well – 14% of adults had a substance use disorder.

Dizziness, weight gain, confusion and addiction often accompany use of antidepressants, so in 2021 the UK’s National Health Service told practitioners to stop prescribing so many. We know the harmful short-term effects mind-altering drugs have on driving, accidents, and sexual decisions. Might the long-term effects of anti-depressants include dementia, be contributing to the surges in obesity & drug overdoses, or since they are given so frequently to women, the apparent increase in autism (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK332896/)? Given our aging population, declining birthrate, and lack of information about both short- and long-term effects of the "good drugs" MHP professionals prescribe, might we be engaging in a risky experiment?

In 2018 (https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › health-43143889) the BBC announced: “Scientists say they have settled one of medicine's biggest debates after a huge study found that anti-depressants work.” This Lancet study “analysed data from 522 trials involving 116,477 people, and…showed many more people could benefit from the drugs.” “The Royal College of Psychiatrists said the study ‘finally puts to bed the controversy on anti-depressants.’” “Glyn Lewis, professor of psychiatric epidemiology at University College London, said this ‘excellent’ study provided ‘compelling evidence’ for the effectiveness of anti-depressants being better than placebos…. Anti-depressants often receive a 'bad press,' but this paper shows they have a role in the management for people with depression." Think of it, this study, including many tens of thousands of patients, showed, according to MHP professionals, that even more people ought to take them! Should we abandon concerns about even more use of mind-altering substances?

Maybe not. There are more than a few problems with this "magnificent" study:

1) It did not compare "natural healing" with the placebo and the drugs. The Covid19 vax makers are under well-deserved criticism, for "hiding" the long-term effects of their product by (with the FDA’s permission) vaxxing their control group! They thus destroyed any chance to see what the long-term effects of their products might be. Likewise, just a few decades ago almost everybody who was depressed "got cured on their own" – without mental health professionals’ help. Indeed, if as the MHP professionals claim, even children can "know" when they need a mutilation to "be their true opposite sex selves," surely adults "know" when they might need to talk to someone, drink, or take [illegal] drugs to "feel better." Thus, we don’t know whether the drugs beat the so-called "spontaneous cure rate" – only that they beat non-mind-altering fake drugs! Why didn’t MHP professionals compare their treatments with "natural" or "non-MHP" healing, did they fear the outcomes would be similar to their pricey (and with drugs, dangerous) treatments?

2) Bartenders dispense alcohol and engage in what might be considered "talk therapy" with their "clients." Does depression resolve better under mind-altering drugs given by MHP professionals as compared to bartenders’ offering?

3) According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health: “Antidepressants are usually [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/ ] taken for one to two years, and sometimes longer, to prevent relapses.” In the Lancet study “most of the data in the meta-analysis covered eight weeks of treatment, so the findings might not apply to longer-term use.” Indeed! This is a monster failing of this "wonderful" study since a few weeks of alcohol, heroin, or just about any other mind-altering substance doesn’t necessarily result in addiction or other problems. But uses that exceed a year or two often – perhaps even usually – do.

This study is far from dispositive, in fact, by not comparing MHP treatment with spontaneous recovery or limiting this study to those few studies featuring two or more years use of drugs, it is almost irrelevant. MHP professionals seem to leap at every hint of success and almost invariably refuse to do long-term comparisons. They appeal to good intent, and the need to "do something," not hard evidence.

While serotonin is often invoked to justify these "good drugs" (e.g., “experts believe that depression is caused by an imbalance of certain chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) like serotonin,” unequivocal evidence that the brain is affected precisely this way by the drugs MHP professionals dispense, and that this mechanism affects the mind in ways that illegal drugs don’t, does not exist. Depressed drinkers often take ‘a belt’ and depressed drug addicts a ‘hit’ to ‘get over it.’ What is the evidence that their mind-altering substances don’t work as well as the drugs professionally dispensed? As noted by Dr. GA Bonanno (in his new book, The End of Trauma), most mental disorders, including depression, have no clear pathogen or biological marker, because “there is no physical test that can confirm its existence.” Just as with ‘I know I’m the opposite sex born in the wrong body,” depression is in the mind.

Another Lancet study on depression was released November 6, 2021: Global prevalence and burden of depressive and anxiety disorder in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key quotes from this study include: “Before 2020, mental disorders were leading causes of the global health-related burden, with depressive and anxiety disorders…both ranked among the top 25 leading causes of burden worldwide in 2019…. This burden was high across the entire lifespan, for both sexes, and across many locations. Perhaps more importantly, no reduction in the global prevalence or burden was detected for either disorder since 1990....”

Billions for MHP professionals and billions for their drugs to ‘cure’ depression, yet “no reduction in the global prevalence or burden was detected for either disorder since 1990.” 1990, when only 2% of adults were on anti-depressants.

(10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02143-7. Epub 2021 Oct 8).

Do MHP Professionals Prevent Suicide?

The U.S. has devoted a lot of resources toward preventing suicide using MHP professionals and their notions. Table 2 summarizes the latest age-adjusted tally.

Association is not causation, but the more resources we devoted toward the Mental Health Philosophy of preventing suicide (and depression), we got either more or about the same amount of each. Additionally, now one of every 5 U.S. women is on anti-depressants. Good for the drug companies and shrinks, but with “no reduction in prevalence or burden” for depression and more suicide!