Mental Illness: The Necessity for Dependence

Most people today believe that psychoactive substances and psychotherapies are proven remedies for mental and behavioral problems categorized in the DSM-5 as mental illnesses. Biological psychiatrists in particular and society in general are convinced not only that psychiatric disorders are biological diseases but also that psychoactive drugs are agents that will fix genetic variances, supply missing chemicals, and correct brain dysfunctions. Furthermore, these drugs are mostly believed to be safe and efficient, and psychiatrists are perceived to be empathetic and scientifically-driven caretakers of the human soul. These beliefs have caused many to depend upon psychiatric theory in attempt to restore their minds. This volume explores these misconceptions, since the truth is that there exists considerable ignorance on the part of society and extensive deception on the part of pharmaceutical companies and many psychiatrists. These realities sustain the belief that psychotropic drugs and psychotherapies offer the greatest objects of dependence to restore the mind. For example, many people are unaware of the history of how psychoactive drugs came to be viewed as healing mechanisms for the soul and then later were dismissed as they once were viewed: as magical concoctions of the witch doctor/shaman. This book, however, addresses the records of past practices and explains exactly how mind-altering substances have come to be perceived as legitimate medicine and what their reality is today. This book also addresses the underlying theories and philosophies which have enabled psychotropic drugs and psychotherapies to flourish in today's culture. Many people are unaware that there exist different theories of drug action. The popular psychiatric theory is that psychoactive drugs attack or correct specific diseases, but another theory exists that explains the drug action of psychoactive substances as simply perturbing the nervous system. This book is written not only to educate society, but to also encourage physicians to be safer in their practices and to offer the greatest care to their patients. As with all the volumes in this series of mental illness, this book does not simply expose the truth, but it further provides a proven alternative where each reader can place their full dependence to restore the mind to health.