What keeps me happy as a holistic psychiatrist is amazing clinical outcomes for my patients using an integrative, holistic approach. However, I've also encountered times when patients' conditions are beyond my level of expertise at the time (though I'm always learning and growing).
I feel terrible anytime a patient cannot successfully withdraw from their medications. However, the truth is that even with both functional and energy medicine, there are still limits to what these healing tools can do.
With enough experience over the years, I've learned how to differentiate the easy from the hard patients using their psychiatric history. In fact, I've come to realize the number one factor that makes the greatest difference on how fast a patient will heal. I'd love everyone to know what this factor is and why. Read on for more insights!
The Most Important Factor for Fastest Recovery
You'll want to know this before you start taking meds
What is the number one factor that increases ease of recovery using a holistic approach? From my experiences, for patients who present with similar symptoms and duration of illness, the person who will heal the fastest will typically be someone who hasn't started taking any psychiatric medications.
Why?
Although individuals not on medications may seem just as ill as their medicated cohorts, they have certain advantages over those who are on medications, such as:
1. Ease with detoxification. Safe detoxification is central to healing because it can resolve the underlying causes of inflammation and oxidative stress--the two most important factors behind mental illness. For patients not taking psychiatric medications, detoxification leads to lowered toxicity levels and recovery in a straightforward manner.
On the other hand, patients already taking medications can easily deteriorate or worsen with aggressive detoxification because detoxification will simultaneously lower their medication levels. Medications are xenobiotics, i.e. foreign substances (patented for their unique properties) that share the same detoxification pathways as many toxins. Because medications interfere with a central method for healing (detoxification), it makes healing very difficult indeed.
2. Avoidance of medication withdrawal problems. People who aren't on psychiatric medications can avoid the complexities of medication withdrawal issues. How does medication withdrawal challenge the body? It requires adaptation and increased function in order to create a smooth recovery.
Some withdrawals cannot resolve by taking an additional supplement or any natural product. So, unless the holistic clinician can apply another healing technique such as energy work, it's going to be difficult to have a successful withdrawal.
Take, for example, Fluvoxamine. I learned recently that it activates the sigma 1 receptor on the endoplasmic reticulum (found in every cell in the body). Though many substances bind to the sigma 1 receptor, I do not know of any functional/natural product that specifically activates/supports this receptor.
Therefore, the effect of taking Fluvoxamine is an iatrogenically-induced effect due to a synthetically created medication without any direct means to biologically support withdrawal. This limits what functional medicine can do for withdrawal.
What am I saying?! There are many medications like Fluvoxamine that create problems for patients during withdrawal that cannot be directly ameliorated through biological/natural interventions. Best to avoid them in the first place.
3. Absence of medication-induced hypersensitivity reactions. Psychiatric medications (and other substances of abuse, such as marijuana) are xenobiotics and will result in increased inflammation as well as an increased need for detoxification. In addition, these substances are tightly bound to receptors. Over time, the immune system may become hypersensitized to the receptors that bind to these substances as well as the neurotransmitters that these substances imitate. Once triggered, the immune dysfunction may become a self-perpetuating, autoimmune phenomenon that will be difficult to extinguish biologically.
4. Greater Ease with Neurotransmitter Support. People who don't take psychiatric medications can take amino acids and restore neurotransmitter levels in a straightforward manner. On the other hand, those who have taken psychiatric medications for so long that they've "stopped working" are left with significant neurotransmitter depletion or overabundance of neurotransmitter receptors. This will become evident as soon as medication tapering occurs.
The medication hasn't really stopped working; instead, the body has altered over time to negate any benefits from taking the medication.
In other words, patients with symptoms but not on meds are dysfunctional due to underlying causes. Patients with symptoms while on meds are often dysfunctional due to underlying causes and from medication-induced ways. Double yikes.
For all these reasons, the best way to have the fastest, greatest improvement from a holistic psychiatrist is to start treatment before taking any psychiatric medications. Let's not make healing more complicated than it needs to be. Let yourself and your loved ones have the quickest, most straightforward recovery possible by turning to a holistic approach first. You'll be pleasantly surprised how quickly mental health problems can resolve when holistic interventions are the first line of treatment.
Have an inspired week!
How Does Intention Work?
The Holistic Psychiatrist Podcast Ep. 68 out now!
Jack Rome and I are back in this podcast to provide a spontaneous, free-flowing discussion on how intentions can be used to help support our lives in every way.
We explore the differences between making intentional choices and the kind of intentional work that helps us manifest our dreams or get unstuck in difficult situations.
We talk about the importance of using the Empower Energy Technique regularly and how to leverage this tool to overcome daily obstacles.
Going forward, our conversations will be part of a series called "Under the Holistic Psychiatrist's Hat" that will introduce you to many interesting tales and topics included in my upcoming book. Enjoy, and have a great week!
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