Are you one of over 40 million people suffering a personalnightmare caused by stress, depression and anxiety? Theseillnesses are the modern plague and they ruin lives. And yearin, year out, more and more people are affected.
I came out of a nightmare 5-year period of anxiety anddepression and I did it without taking any drugs. Whatfrustrated me is that despite advances in understanding as towhy people become stressed, depressed and anxious, sufferers arestill told numerous myths about what causes their illness.
This raises an important issue: How can people rid themselves ofthe pain of these illnesses if they don’t know what is at theroot cause? Surely, if progress is to be made, understandingmust come first? Well in this article, I’m going to bust themyths and reveal what, EXACTLY, is at the root of theseillnesses!
The first myth I want to bust is that a period of seriousillness can cause you to become depressed. This could beanything from a nasty virus which confines you to bed for amonth or something far more serious such as loss of a limb,cancers, injury, heart attack to name but a few.
None of these illnesses can cause depression, anxiety or stress.It’s very easily proven. Because millions of people suffer fromserious illnesses each and every year but only around 20% ofthem will develop mental illness. If illnesses cause mentalbreakdown, EVERYONE who becomes seriously ill will enter into anepisode of depression, anxiety or stress. They don’t. Why?
Similarly, we can assign the same explanation to traumaticexperience. This could be death of a loved one, loss of a job,divorce or moving house for example. Again, every single one ofus will experience traumatic times such as these in ourlifetime. Yet not everybody enters into a mental illness, evenamongst people who have suffered extreme trauma. So we candiscount traumatic experience as being at the root cause.
Next on my bust-list is genetics. This is another frequentlygiven reason as to why people suffer from stress, depression oranxiety. But it’s completely untrue. There is no proven linkbetween genetics and these illnesses. In fact, rather thangenetics, learned behavior from family members who sufferthemselves is the only real link to a family-inheriteddisposition to stressful illness.
I’ve saved the most widely accepted myth until last and I’ll betmy bottom dollar this is the myth you are not just familiar withbut believe to be at the cause of your illness. This is thereason given by the medical community and which has spawned a$12 billion drugs industry to combat it. The myth I’m referringto is of course depletion in neurotransmitters – the so-called“chemical imbalance”.
Neurotransmitters are “happy chemicals” which help to regulateour moods. So, if levels are low, we feel low. To boost theselevels, powerful antidepressant drugs are prescribed tosufferers. Sure, they boost levels. But let’s ask a question:
Are low levels of neurotransmitters a cause or a symptom?
Well, every single human being on this earth right now willexperience many occasions in their lives when things go wrong,when bad things happen, when times are trying – in short, timeswhen they won’t be their usual happy selves. Now, during thesetimes, their levels of “happy chemicals” will drop, and lifewill seem a bit of an effort. So, does this mean that everybodyon the planet will descend into an episode of stress, depressionor anxiety? Of course not!
And do we just wake up one day and feel depressed because thelevels of neurotransmitters has “dipped below the criticallevel?”. No. Because that would mean we’d wake up one day andfeel great because the level has risen above the critical point.You know this just doesn’t happen, even after takingantidepressants.
What’s interesting to note is that when we are in an episode ofmental turmoil, we also experience physical pain, we cannotsleep or we sleep too much and the feeling of overwhelmingexhaustion is also present. But if a chemical imbalance in ourbrain is at the root, how come you experience physical pain inyour legs, arms, and more commonly, your back?
You can see that this is too simple an explanation. This isborne out by the fact that 70% of people who takeantidepressants will descend into second and even third episodesof mental breakdown if they stop taking the drugs. This isbecause antidepressants treat ONE of the SYMPTOMS of mentalillness – depleted levels of neurotransmitters.
It’s nearly time for me to say adios, but before I do, I willreveal what, EXACTLY, is at the root cause of mental breakdown.It is all down to flawed modes of thinking. Because the onlydifference between people who experience an episode of mentalillness and those who don’t is all down to flawed perceptions,assessments, explanations and habits performed by sufferers
The following example will describe this more clearly:
Two people suffer the death of a parent. One is absolutelydistraught and finds it very difficult to cope and descends intoa depressive episode. The other, although sad at the loss, iscoping and doesn’t descend into depression. The only differencelies IN THE WAY THEY MAKE SENSE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THEM.The actual event has no meaning by itself. The meanings only liewithin the minds of the individuals affected.
To beat mental illnesses such as anxiety, stress and depression,what’s needed is to learn the powerful and effective mentalskills – modes of thinking – used by people who don’t becomestressed, depressed or anxious no matter what happens to themand which stop these illnesses dead in their tracks. Once youlearn them, you will rid yourself of the pain once and for all.
Something a bottle of prozac will never achieve.
About the author:Chris Green is the author of the new book “Conquering Stress”, aspecial program which will show you how to conquer stressfulillnesses such as depression, anxiety, panic and worrypermanently and without taking powerful drugs. You can learnmore about this new book and purchase it atwww.conqueringstress.com
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