- Image by incurable_hippie via Flickr
Seeking the assistance of a health medicine practitioner is commonly how mental health issues are addressed. However, there is a current debate gaining momentum nationwide as to if this is truly the best remedy. While mental health issues are a topic of discussion more than ever before—and no longer viewed as taboo, shameful, or indicative of weakness, there is a tendency in the psychiatric field to treat all disorders with a ‘fix all’ prescription drug, or a ‘drug cocktail’ that combines many different medications that work together to seemingly cure the patient. But what is commonly overlooked in a prescription-driven field of medicine is that while an illness can be treated and a patient can function at normal capacity, the root cause of the illness is not being treated, nor cured.
Open to argument is whether there are alternative methods of treatment such as holistic medicine, natural remedies, spirituality-based methods, and compassionate and self-empowerment techniques by a mentor or licensed professional that can alleviate symptoms of a mental illness while at the same time discovering the origin of it—to ultimately obtain healing.
One key point to be made in favor of choosing alternative methods of treatment is the mind-altering effect prescription drugs have on an individual, and the extensive physical side effects the drugs induce. While there are inherent chemical imbalances in some people that need to be treated with modern medicine, other people who suffer from common disorders (like depression) could benefit from more natural and therapy based treatment program.
No matter who you are or what disorder you suffer from, it is important to research all approaches to treatment, making an educated decision on what is right for you and modifying it as you go; the goal being not just to treat, but to cure.
