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Marriage Counseling
What About Drugs for Anxiety and Depression?
By Margaret Paul, Ph.D.
As a counselor, I am often asked, “Can drugs be helpful for anxiety
and depression?” The answer I give is “Yes” and “No.”
Yes, drugs may be useful for short-term help. No,
drugs are not a good long-term solution.
Anxiety and depression are not caused by a lack of
drugs. Drugs do not heal the underlying causes of anxiety and
depression. However, when drugs are temporarily used to give a
person a window of relief to do the inner work necessary to heal the
underlying causes, they can be useful.
Anxiety and depression generally have two major
underlying causes - emotional and physical.
THE PHYSICAL CAUSES OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Our bodies go into imbalance when we do not eat
well or have enough healthy exercise. Our bodies are not made to
handle the unnatural substances found in processed food. When we
overload our bodies with chemicals, pesticides, sugar, and
devitalized foods, our bodies become depleted of vital nutrients and
go into stress.
Anxiety and depression can be the result of this physical depletion
and resulting stress.
Our bodies are designed to thrive on the food and
water that God gave us – pure, clean, organic, unaltered food and
water. If you take drugs for anxiety and depression and do not clean
up your diet and get proper exercise, you are just using a Band Aid
for a gaping wound.
THE EMOTIONAL CAUSES OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Emotionally, anxiety is caused by dysfunctional
thoughts – thoughts that are not true. For example, if you tell
yourself that you are not good enough or you have to be perfect, you
will likely feel anxious.
Thoughts of not being good enough and having to be perfect are
generally focused on our outer qualities of looks and performance,
rather than on the inner qualities of kindness, compassion, and
gratitude.
When we choose to be kind, loving and compassionate with ourselves
and others, we feel good about ourselves. When we choose gratitude
for what we do have rather than dwell on what we don’t have, we
create inner peace. Kindness and gratitude are wonderful antidotes
to anxiety!
Anxiety is always a sign that we are telling
ourselves a lie. The truth creates peace inside, while lies create
fear and anxiety. This is a sure-fire way of knowing what is true
and what is not true!
Emotionally, depression is caused by not taking
good care of ourselves. If we ignore our needs, don’t speak up for
ourselves, judge ourselves, and make others responsible for our
feelings, the result may be depression.
If you have a child whom you ignore and judge, that child will
likely be depressed. The same occurs on the inner level when we
ignore and judge our own inner child. Putting yourself last and
taking care of everyone else but yourself may cause you to feel
unworthy and depressed.
There is little point in taking drugs for anxiety
and depression without attending to your dysfunctional thinking and
to how you are treating yourself. However, if you take drugs for a
short time and give yourself the opportunity to do your inner work,
they may be helpful.
Many of the people I work with find that as soon as they start
taking good care of themselves, they don’t like the effect of the
drugs. They don’t like the fact that the drugs take the edge off
their feelings. They find that, rather than wanting to be numbed
out, they want to feel all of their feelings deeply, both the highs
and the lows.
The more they learn to take responsibility for their feelings by
attending to their thoughts and needs, the more they want to feel
all of their feelings. They discover that, while drugs may take the
edge off pain, they also take the edge off joy.
Most of the people I work with can avoid drugs
completely by learning to take loving care of themselves, both
physically and emotionally. Many of the people who practice the
Inner Bonding process that we teach find Inner Bonding to be far
more powerful in healing anxiety and depression than drugs.
If you are a person who does not want to learn to
take personal responsibility for your pain and joy, then drugs may
be a way out for you. But if you want to feel true peace and joy,
drugs are not the answer.
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of
eight books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?"
She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process.
Learn Inner Bonding now! Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding
course: http://www.innerbonding.com
or mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com . Phone sessions available.
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