Enter Label: We already know Goop can't save us
The New York Times articles, The Age of Distracti-pression, discusses the sharp rise of anti-anxiety and depression prescriptions in America. It’s not the first article, nor will it be the last, tracking the growth in use of psychiatric medication in this country. However it is of particular interest to me. Not only because it is written by someone with whom I went to high school, but also because it posits::
Are the capsules in and of themselves a treatment, that you just take for a specific amount of time, then end up remodeled? Or are they a remedy that solely works so long as you might be nonetheless taking them, in the event that they work in any respect [alongside Talk Therapy]? Existing analysis paints an inconclusive image as to how efficient antidepressants are in contrast with placebo.
In other words, it asks what the end goal actually is when it comes to these types of medication. Through my experience, I add an additional set of questions.
How many of the people prescribed medication are interested in using them as a short-term strategy? How many are being prescribed these anti-depressants at different dosages for other ailments such as chronic pain, which, 20% of the US population suffers from?
Some people do seek prescription medicine to just move on. And that’s totally fair. But I think a fair amount of people would be interested in a prescription for a healing practice alongside medication. Perhaps so they could feel agency in the process, so they could have pathway off the medication, or to improve the efficacy of the medication at a faster rate. While Distracti-pression mentions talk therapy, an adjunct healing practice can extend far beyond that to include a number of modalities all aimed at building resilience and strengthening the parasympathetic system, which serves to calm and heal the body.
Things have changed, haven’t they? People are high strung, fed up, uncertain about the future. In Aziz’s Anasri special he makes the joke about how things have returned to normal, but not quite, everything feels just a bit off. For example, at Chipotle, which once prided itself on delivering a completely uniform burrito no matter where the franchise, you now find there’s always one employee missing in the burrito line resulting in a less than perfect burrito, and no guacamole!
But when it comes to prescriptions talk, what does strike me is that the conversation has not evolved beyond simply being an abacus for prescriptions. We string together causes - the pandemic, social media, unemployment, inflation -- and say each is the driving force for the rising rates of prescriptions. But at the same time, what has changed in access to resources or information for developing a healing practice that could have a definitive impact on these rates?
My definition for a healing practice is a collection of strategies that help calm the nervous system and create an environment for healing, and furthermore, reduce the likelihood of disruption in the face of future trauma. Traumatic and stressful events breed opportunities for chronic pain disorders, anxiety, depression and so on. It does not need to operate to the exclusion of medication by any stretch. But, having a practice can provide a pathway to get off the medication, should you so desire, or to feel relief in that knowledge that you can address root causes that influence the biological output.
On the holistic side we are often indoctrinated against receiving any benefits from the medical world as agents of the nefarious pharmaceutical world. Devout believers in traditional medicine, on the other hand, often hastily reject holistic strategies without supportive clinical studies. My experience has led me to believe that the holistic side and the medical community should be working together more proactively to provide patients with medication and a healing routine.
Instead, these camps are at odds, or at best, willing to give the other a minor nod. A 5-minute recommendation at the end of a 50-minute session with a therapist once a week as alluded to in the article, is not going to give the patient a real choice, an understanding, or information on a healing practice. One or two modalities of alternative practices is not sufficient.
I often feel like I’m running around with my head cut off with the amount of opposing contradictory information coming from both sides. It’s as if they are waging a war of attrition against one another via proxy, the patient. The patient has 24/7 hours in the day to live with whatever condition or mental state he or she is seeking to improve. Yet he or she must swear allegiance to one brand of treatment? Or perhaps its just a weakened sense of self that’s got me caught up in the back and forth. Ultimately building your own practice is precisely how you discover self, the methods that work for you, and you can only trust yourself to build it.
One would falsely believe the key may lie in the “Wellness Culture.” As shepherded by brands like Goop, it remains largely consumerist, elitist, and product driven. It is missing the fundamental practice of healing at the core of wellness. In my opinion, the wellness community seems to address people who are already well. The reality is, when you need wellness the most, it’s likely when you are at your most vulnerable, with a few screws loose.
There has been a 41 percent increase in antidepressant use for the teenagers. It’s easy to imagine how having an ingrained healing practice could benefit the younger cohort especially. They can develop a life-long practice. How fortunate to be 30 or 40 or 50 and beyond with built-in practices when lives are busier with jobs, kids, ailing family members, and more.
There are many people suffering from mysterious illnesses now, most notably Long Covid. According to the CDC, as of June 22 2022, it’s 7.5% of the population. A study called Rehabilitation and Recovery from COVID-19, said Long Covid is likely to breed in stressful environments, specifically:
Long Covid patients suffer from more premorbid physical, emotional, social and spiritual comorbidities. Such patients need to turn down their fear response and the biological markers that go along with that, and activate their parasympathetic response to get out of a fight or flight condition that is essentially, inflammatory. It goes further to add that Long Covid is a complex sociopsychobiologic syndrome that is a reflection of not only an individual’s health but the health of society as a whole.
It goes on to suggest a healing paradigm with specific details on food intake, sleep hygiene, restorative exercises such as yoga or nature walks, somatic support, emotional support, free expression of thought, autonomic support through breath work, and thought support via education and cognitive training to help the patient create a more peaceful internal state.
My search for healing has largely been trial-and-error, serendipitous interactions, rabbit holes, podcasts, etc. I’m still working on it. This is why most people will not develop a healing practice until they really need it, and at that point they are sitting in the doctor’s office being prescribed a prescription with no other alternatives, and we are right back to the beginning of this conversation.
Many of us intuitively trust that there are modalities out there that have worked for thousands of years. When the crisis arises, many of us hear the whisper, what else could I be doing besides medicine. A healing practice does not necessitate being a monk who can raise his or her own body temperature. It may just entail addressing a super anxious state through breath work.
If the medical and holistic community could work together better to get this message out, I would not be surprised to see new information on how rates of prescriptions are declining over the course of the coming years.
So on that note, I leave you with this little diddy that’s mildly scary;