November 2004

Generation numb

by Dr. Madeline Behrendt

"A generation drugged out on prescription medications has found its hero, and he's turned a quiet film born without a distributor into a cultural phenomenon," writes Jordan Lite of The New York Daily News about "Garden State," the film and soundtrack that's blowing up all over the country. The film's creator is Zack Braff, known to TV fans from the sitcom "Scrubs," but now known to millions of fans struggling with "mental puberty" and being "homesick for a place that didn't even exist."

On Braff's blog, fans are writing in to discuss medication and overmedication. While he's clear that "Garden State" is not a film designed to denounce medication, the experience of the main character is that he was incorrectly prescribed serious medication as a child and spent years without the opportunity, support, or tools to transition out of a numb medicated state.

You'll need to see the movie to view the transformation, and you may have to wait on line as people are going back two, three, and more times to see the film and have started community groups all over the country. Guess the story hit a nerve!

On the message board, one fan wrote: "As the little bottles of prescriptions begin to overtake my counter top I seem to be having more and more trouble quieting those little questions that ask whether a pill can help/is indeed helping me. Your movie brought these questions running back to the surface ‑‑ I'm not eagerly looking forward to addressing any of them, but it is probably time, so thanks."

Another describes the main character: "(T)he drugs he took since he was 10 numbed him to feeling, to clarity of thought and to proper human relationships. When he doesn't take them for those few days, the numbness wears off, as he deals with the past and meets this new girl. That's the point, that the drugs numbed him to life..."

And yet another fan shares a personal story: "While going through various problems (parents divorce, moving, etc.) I was diagnosed with bipolar, borderline, and depression (by different psychologists at different times) but always refused the drugs. I no longer exhibit symptoms of these 'disorders,' so chances are there were probably a result of the trauma in my life. But I dealt with them... so overloading on drugs isn't dealing with them, it's avoiding them."

Meanwhile, in September 2004, The New York Times reported that "Psychiatrists, pediatricians and family practice doctors said in interviews that they would restrict their use of antidepressants in the wake of a federal advisory committee's decision that the medicines should contain severe warnings about the risks of suicide." The article also indicated doctors will now have to struggle with how to treat depressed children and teenagers and they have few good options, because there was no convincing evidence that any drug was safer than the other.

I've got an option.

Check for vertebral subluxations! Subluxations can interfere with mental impulses.

In September 2004, the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research (www.jvsr.com) published "The Impact of Subluxtation Correction on Mental Health: Reduction of Anxiety in a Female Patient Under Chiropractic Care," which I co‑authored with Dr. Nathan Olsen of Boise, ID.

Although the study describes anxiety, not depression, the treatment experiences are similar.

A 19‑year old woman spent two years in crisis, ending up in emergency rooms several times and receiving treatment from a number of private medical specialists. She was rotated through a variety of drug therapies including Paxil, Xanax, Celexa, all of which failed to manage her somatic or psychiatric symptoms.

During her initial chiropractic evaluation with Dr. Olsen, on a scale of 1‑10 with 10 as the most symptomatic, the patient self‑reported her anxiety symptoms as a 10. Her history included at least three previous motor vehicle accidents ‑‑ one where her head shattered the windshield. Vertebral subluxations were detected and the recommended care plan was accepted. Over four months of chiropractic care, as this young woman's subluxations were corrected, her anxiety symptoms reduced 80% and she transitioned off medication with ease.

Although significant concerns have been raised about the safety of medications commonly used to treat mental health disorders, allopathy's attraction has typically not been safety, efficacy, or affordability. Evidence already exists on prescription drug side effects, poor success ratios, and cost. Those are rational concerns, and what this approach has products for is emotional: impatience.

Impatience breeds patients, as so much can become numbed through a pill. But as the above bloggers voiced, the results of drug therapy are increasingly transparent: it is flawed. So impatience seeks drug‑free options as a new outlet.

Can chiropractic help Generation Numb? YES! Find them, utilize the research to help them find you.

"Generation Clear." Now that has better energy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Dr. Madeline Behrendt is chair of the WCA Council on Women's Health and associate editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research [JVSR]. An author and speaker, she is committed to connecting women to chiropractic and chiropractors to women, and may be contacted at drmadeline@drmadelinedc.com)