Book Review: A Mind Of Your Own: The Truth About Depression And How Women Can Heal Their Bodies To Reclaim Their Lives by Kelly Brogan M.D and Kristin Loberg

TheBreakAway
Zy Marquiez
March 18, 2016

“Psychiatric diagnosis still relies exclusively on fallible subjective judgments rather than objective biological tests.”
– Dr. Allen Frances, author of Saving Normal

“Probably as much as 75% of the medicine of sickness is unnecessary and its cost can be avoided.”
–  Dr. Ghislaine Lanctot, Author Of The Medical Mafia

Dr. Kelly Brogan’s work first became known to me when she addressed countless health issues in an article she penned years back that was shared via the website GreenMedInfo. From there, she’s been one of my ‘go-to’ alternative medical doctors whose work is attempted to read as much as possible.

Given that, one can come to expect high quality information from the author, and in this recent endeavour, she does not disappoint.

A Mind Of Your Own: The Truth About Depression And How Women Can Heal Their Bodies To Reclaim Their Lives by Kelly Brogan M.D and Kristin Loberg shows the reader many of the inherent issues within Big Pharma and Big Psych.

Not only is the reader seamlessly shown countless examples of very troublesome issues regarding medications doled out like candy by Big Pharma and doctors, but also how this for health profit system of ‘medicine’ is set up by loose strings, which care not for people’s health rights.

For example, did you know that the U.S. and New Zealand are the only countries which allow drug companies to advertise directly to consumers?  Prior to 1997, there was a ban in place that restricted pharmaceuticals from advertising to consumers – known as drug-to-consumer-advertising, or DTCA- but this ban was removed, to the detriment of the populace.[1]

Why is this important?  Because that law was in place to protect individuals from the highly specialized, and yet misleading advertising of all drugs.

Another point of serious concern is how the great majority of prescription drugs sold is due to DTCA.  As Dr. Kelly Brogan notes in her milestone book, which homes in on the efficiency of this specialized advertising:

“It’s been calculated that DTCA [drug-to-consumer advertising] is responsible for nearly half (49 percent) of requests for drugs.  And fully seven out of ten times doctors prescribe based on appeal by patients who learned through their computers and televisions that they have an “imbalance” that must be fixed with a pill.”[2][Bold Emphasis Added]

Predictably, all that already-disturbing information leads to prescription drugs being doled out at 4 Billion per annum[3], it’s no wonder that Medical Errors are the third leading cause of death.[4]According to a new John Hopkins study, which is covered by the Washington Post:

“Their analysis, published in the BMJ on Tuesday [, shows that ‘medical errors’ in hospitals and other health care facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States — claiming 251,000 lives every year, more than respiratory disease, accidents, stroke and Alzheimer’s.”[5][Click here for the study named Medical Error – The Third Leading Cause Of Death In The US]

You, as an astute reader, might be wondering, okay, what does that have to do with psychiatry?  Excellent question.

About 10% of Americans take anti-depressants, which equates to about 30 million people.  With the downright disconcerting facts that Dr. Brogan brings up in her book A Mind Of Your Own, many of the people that will be railed by the medical system will be within the psychiatric field.

What’s disturbing about this is that, as Dr. Brogan herself cautions, most drug research is in fact, short term:

“Their patients have never consented to the long-term effects of these medications because pharmaceutical research is, by nature, short term.  There is no incentive on the part of the pharmaceutical  companies to take a good look at what happens to the average individual when she takes a medication for a decade or so.”[6][Bold Emphasis Added]

As an individual who’s had a few friends that have depression and continues to meet people with it randomly through life, and also as a person who has a great interest in health, the information presented within this book is certainly greatly appreciated.

One of the greatest strengths A Mind Of Your Own showcases is the fact that this book is  chock-full of real verifiable data that would shock most people who haven’t begin doing their own research within the health establishment.

Not only is this book rather easy to comprehend, but the reader can feel the honesty and concern that have been staples of Brogan throughout her work. This is vital, because in the arena of medicine there are countless doctors who care more about prescribing pills, than they do about the welfare of the patient and actually solving the problem.  This is known personally to me and my family via my many hospitalizations due to poor health, doing exactly what the doctors suggested which was always taking more pills.  It was only when seeking my own solutions following nutrition, getting off of medications, and many other issues that true healing began for myself.

On that note, this is where Dr. Brogan shines because she is doing what should be undertaken by most, if not all doctors or concerned individuals within the medical establishment, which is outlining the dangers so many people are going through in respect to side effects by the overmedication of America, as well as – and arguably more importantly – offering solutions/alternatives to the for-profit medical system.

Brogan’s outlook on the mental health in America is quite unique and reminiscent of another author. In fact, for me, it reminds me of a book called Toxic Psychiatry by Peter R. Breggin M.D., where the author not only outlines problems within the psychiatric establishment, but also, like Brogan, covers issues with medications that most people would consider safe, but aren’t as safe as they are made out to be.

Am not implying that the Dr. Brogan’s work takes from Dr. Breggin. What am saying is however, that both doctors have great concern regarding mainstream health, and seem to share very similar values in how they think patients should be treated in respect to solutions and such.

With that said, this particular book ventures in a myriad of paths.  It rightly gives an extensive look into the flawed theory of depression but also shows how that theory is an outright fallacy.  It also covers many of the ways in which depression symptoms can manifest in people, which at times are solved with merely vitamins.

One would expect, with tens of millions of lives at stake, and with dozens of side effects to boot per medication, a more thorough process would be in place to safeguard individuals against possible iatrogenic mistakes that plague the populace en mass.  But such is not the case.

Another great notion Brogan centers in on within her book is done in her chapter called The Great Psychiatric Pretenders.  Within it, Brogan details not only how the one-size-fits-all type of care that is carried out in America is inefficient, but she also provides a few of the circumstances that create bedlam within individuals and are often categorized as depression, but are incorrectly diagnosed.

It’s imperative to know this because people are walking around thinking a pill is the only solution to their problems when there are many more solutions than they realize.

Brogan also sheds light with a cursory glance at the fact that serious drug fraud has taken place in the past which is unknown to many.

Although there aren’t many doctors out there standing up for what’s right within medicine, but Dr. Brogan and a growing number of others are, such as the aforementioned Dr. Peter R. Breggin, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Duzanne Humphries, Dr. Sircus, Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride, Dr. Russell Blaylock, Tetyana Obukhanych Ph.D, and more.  Each of these individuals all put out very high quality information regularly and are concerned with various aspects of health. But don’t take my word for it, do your own research so you can be better informed.

It is vital for individuals as a community to support these people, because they’re in it to HELP people and refuse to throw people under the bus.

In any case, if you’ve read any of Dr. Brogans work, this will definitely follow suit. She definitely pulls no punches in her journey to not only outlining dangers individuals should be concerned about, but also in offering holistic solutions that many do not realize are available.

If you’ve made it this far, and are really interested in the topic, do yourself a favor and purchase this book. That, or perhaps recommend it to people that might find great value in it because they will find information that’s not only deep, but quite extensive. The information in this book can really change the course of someone’s life if they realize what’s out there.

In the age of information, ignorance is no excuse, and this book does an outstanding job of erasing mountains of ignorance that otherwise would be everpresent in respect to the mainstream medical establishment if one were not exposed to it.

Bottom line, not only does Brogan absolutely eviscerate the Depression is a “chemical imbalance” meme with truck loads of data, but she also gives the reader precise methods in which they can retake their health back.

Now, if that’s not self-empowerment, what is?

 

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Sources & References:

[1] Dr. Joseph Mercola, The Great Bird Flu Hoax, p. 39.
[2] Dr. Kelly Brogan M.D., A Mind Of Your Own – The Truth About Depression, p. 52.
[3] http://www.naturalnews.com/037226_drug_prescriptions_medical_news_pills.htm
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/05/03/researchers-medical-errors-now-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-united-states/?utm_term=.d262ea291b26
[5] http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139
[6] Dr. Kelly Brogan M.D., A Mind Of Your Own – The Truth About Depression, p. 35.