Drug use in relation to mental health is on the rise, and we’re not talking about the illegal kind of drugs. Over 65 million people in the United States are now taking at least one prescription medication to help with their mental health, equating out to one in five Americans.
COVID-19 is largely being blamed for this increase in mental health issues across the world, with an estimated 25% increase in anxiety and depression due to the pandemic.
However, an increasing number of these cases year over year isn’t anything new to this world. In fact, anxiety, depression, and other mental health crises have gradually gone up over time, which should be raising red flags with the introduction of the many medications that are being prescribed for them.
Are Medications For Mental Health Working? It Doesn’t Seem Like It.
Psychotropic medications are the drugs that are prescribed to treat mental health issues, and they’re broken into five main categories: antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and stimulants.
Constantly hailed as breakthroughs within the scientific community, these psychotropic medications also bring along with them a myriad of side effects, including the possibility of worsening the exact issues that they are attempting to treat.
In addition to a host of side effects, there’s also the question as to whether or not these medications are actually improving the mental health of the patients that they’re prescribed to. As the number of prescriptions of these drugs continues to climb, the number of reported mental health cases has climbed as well, which points to these drugs not being as “breakthrough” as many may think.
An article in Scientific American titled, “Has the Drug-Based Approach to Mental Illness Failed?” is a great read and brings up another great point: do these medications do more harm than good?
Natural Is A Better Approach For Mental Health
As always, we here at Truehope Nutritional Support always recommend the natural way to help with mental health issues, which is why EMPowerplus Advanced is trusted by so many doctors and patients with the mental health community. Additionally, EMPowerplus Advanced is backed by 35 research studies that have proven its efficacy without any of the side effects associated with psychotropic drugs.