Dependence on Prozac
I have been taking Prozac for 18 months, ever since my long-term relationship broke down. Although I feel I am coping better with life, I am scared to stop in case I relapse and am now worried about my dependence on this drug. There must be a better way to keep depression at bay.
Dependence on prescription drugs to help us get through life is a major concern for a society where just crying in front of your family doctor has become enough to get yourself a prescription for antidepressants.
Health statistics show that in Britain, around two million people are now taking antidepressants, prescriptions for which have risen from 10.8 million in 1993 to 26.6 million in 2002 in England alone. In other words, you are not alone with your concerns.
Healing Without Freud or Prozac; natural approaches to curing stress, anxiety and depression without drugs and without psychoanalysis, is a best-selling book written by clinical psychiatrist, Dr David Servan-Schrieber which is about to be published here (by Rodale/Pan Macmillan on June 4, £12.99), and which highlights eight distinct steps you can take to trigger the mind to heal itself.
These steps range from acupuncture to nutrition (particularly the use of the omega-3 fatty acids) and meditation, and also describe two newer, more complex techniques; heart rate coherence and eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR) designed to calm the body and rid the primitive limbic part of the brain of painful emotional memories respectively.
Both techniques are too complicated to describe here but Dr Servan-Schreiber, a co-founder of the Center for Complimentary Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, and a clinical Professor of Psychiatry, has written an excellent book that is well worth reading if you do suffer from stress, anxiety, or depression and want to break your dependence on prescription medicines.