Every September the mental health industry promotes Suicide Prevention Month with the stated goal of reducing suicides, but the suicide rate in the U.S. continues to climb with almost 50,000 Americans taking their own life in 2022. [1]
As the country reflects on yet another increase in suicide related deaths, the Florida chapter of CCHR is calling upon state lawmakers to investigate the effectiveness of the current suicide prevention methods. [2]
Often promoted as a warning sign of possible suicide, depression, is the most commonly diagnosed mental health disorder in the nation. For decades it was promoted by the manufacturers of antidepressants that depression was caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. However, in 2022, this theory was disproven and the researchers noted that “psychiatry bears some responsibility for dissemination of the theory and associated antidepressant use”. [3,4]
“The idea that depression is the result of a chemical imbalance came about as a result of efforts in the field of psychiatry to adopt a medical model,” states Diane Stein, president of CCHR in Florida, “but there was always one problem from the start; it was a lie. And now the proof of what CCHR has been saying for years – that there is no medical test which proves depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, has been vindicated.” [5]
After studying decades of research, professor Joanna Moncrieff stated, “Thousands of people suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise. We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance. It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in Science.” [6]
Unfortunately, due to the marketing of this now debunked theory and promotion of this idea by psychiatry, an estimated 80% of the public believe that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. [7]
Advertising fuels this myth with pharmaceutical companies spending a whopping $6.58 billion on advertising in 2020 when that same year saw U.S. advertising spending drop by 13% overall. [8]
“The suicide rate in this country has continued to climb despite the enormous amount of money being thrown into the mental health industry to prevent this horrible tragedy and it is well past time that something effective is done about it,” says Stein. “Our lawmakers need to take a serious look into the bogus promotion of chemical imbalance, the prescription of drugs that come with side effects that include suicide and the psychiatric industry that has failed this state and this country.”
About CCHR: Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, first brought psychiatric imprisonment to wide public notice: “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health,’” he wrote in March 1969.
Sources:
[1] Suicide Rates Continue to Rise Among Americans – usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-08-10/suicide-rates-continue-to-rise-among-americans
[2] Pain in the Nation 2022: U.S. Experienced Highest Ever Combined Rates of Deaths Due to Alcohol, Drugs, and Suicide During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic – tfah.org/report-details/pain-in-the-nation-2022/
[3] National Institute of Mental Health – nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression
[4] The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence – nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0 and Is the chemical imbalance an ‘urban legend’? An exploration of the status of the serotonin theory of depression in the scientific literature – sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656032200038X#bib71
[5] Is the chemical imbalance an ‘urban legend’? An exploration of the status of the serotonin theory of depression in the scientific literature – sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656032200038X
[6] The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence – nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0
[7] Ibid.
[8] The top 10 ad spenders in Big Pharma for 2020 – fiercepharma.com/special-report/top-10-ad-spenders-big-pharma-for-2020
Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida
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COMTEX_439700490/2764/2023-09-07T10:30:25