Reply #23: Mental illness is a serious disease

[zippy890]

and cannot be cured by nutritional supplements.

Several years ago L-Tryptophan (an amino acid I believe) was widely touted as helping with sleep disorders and depression. However, after some people died while taking, it was found to have a toxic effect on blood, people died because of too much of this 'natural supplementing their blood.

Keep in mind that supplements are not tested by the FDA in their efficacy against mental illness.

I don't dispute that milder forms of depression can sometimes be helped with certain supplements. But there are no miracles here, and to lead someone to believe they do not have to seek professional help if they are suffering from depression is doing more harm than good.

Good post Modem Butterfly, thank you. If I could borrow your analogy, would people tell someone with diabetes that they don't need medicine?

psychiatry is an imperfect science, and oftentimes it takes an enormous amount of painful trial and error with different meds, many of them with troublesome side effects. The process may also involve changing doctors to find one with the best approach for a particular person's problems.

People suffering from depression need support and encouragement to keep going to the doctor, to keep trying because the medications DO work, and it is absolutely amazing the difference they can make in your life and to the lives of people around you.


A good book about how Depression should be treated as a disease
i]Against Depression by Peter D. Kramer


ps. if you want to talk about multi-billion dollar industries making money on a lot of unproven or hyped-up claims - look at the vitamin/natural remedy industry.