Welcome to the April 2010 issue of the Psychology Debunked newsletter!
Last month, we looked at the first of three qualifications for overcoming that which overcomes us:
Qualification #1: Die to Self
Mat 16:24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Mat 16:25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Gal 2:20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
To review, dying to self means to stop giving time and attention to sinful and selfish thoughts and behaviors. It means absolute surrender to God's way over my own. God has declared my self-life--my old life--dead and buried with Christ, so it should no longer capture my attention and affection.
Why is dying to self so important? Because both Christ and the Apostle Paul taught, only what has died can be raised to life. You can’t really live unless you first "die:"
Jhn 12:24Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Jhn 12:25He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Most Western Christians want all the benefits of the resurrection life, without the necessary cross and suffering that must precede it. That cross could be self denial, practical suffering, or even demonic oppression. Whatever it is, it is the thing that keeps us humble and dependent upon the Lord each day.
Phl 3:8Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ,…
Phl 3:10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Phl 3:11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
As we depend on Him and can better relate to his sufferings, we experience the overcoming life—the resurrection life of Christ coming through us. We can daily live his death and resurrection in our own lives, and it all starts with denying self.
"When we receive insight into what the denial of self means, it becomes clear why the cross must be taken up daily. Taking up one's cross is not only called for during a time of special trial or suffering. During times of quiet and prosperity, the need is even more urgent. Self is the enemy that is always near and always seeking to regain its power." --Andrew Murray, The Secret of Spiritual Strength, page 63
In the news this month, OBAMAcare a boon for drug companies but a danger to moms and their babies; Prozac-poppers piloting our planes; "pre-drugging" kids; antipsychotics and pneumonia; a major cause of obesity you probably didn't know about; and Robert Whitaker's new book hits the shelves. In this month's Q&A, we counsel someone who feels worthless, and Letters offers us some surprisingly simple advice on how to overcome anxiety.
We hope you are edified, informed and encouraged by this month's issue.
In Christ's death and resurrection,
Lisa and Ryan Bazler
$13M - $16M in pharma money helps buy OBAMAcare
Activist Amy Philo documents the drug money sources that helped pay off politicians to pass OBAMAcare. Dubbed by many as the most disastrous bill ever passed in the history of Congress, this bill includes the insidious Mothers Act, described in detail in past newsletters. Pregnant mothers and their developing babies will now be subject to depression screenings and dangerous drugs for depression, before and after pregnancy. We will now see thousands more suicides, homicides, bizarre and violent behavior, and biological harm to mother and baby.Now is the time to warn new moms-to-be of this threat, and tell them to answer those required depression screenings in the negative. It could mean the difference between life and death, freedom and jail time, healthy baby and birth defects.
Feel unsafe yet? Prozac popping pilots can now fly
The ill-informed FAA has lifted the ban on airline pilots taking antidepressants, making air travel less safe for all of us. Antidepressants can cause drowsiness, and the FDA has already warned that antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal and violent behavior. Sites like this one prove the risk is real. We may now start to see stories reminiscent of 9/11 perpetrated not by terrorists, but by licensed, professional pilots unknowingly acting out their worst nightmares. Pray for your pilots the next time you board a plane--he or she may be on an antidepressant. more »
Sick trend: "pre-drugging" of healthy kids
"Who is Patrick McGorry and what does he promote? He's a psychiatrist just named Australian of the Year for his work in 'youth mental health reform.' What does that reform consist of? What he calls a 'new form of climate change.' It sure is.
"He not only promotes youths being put on antipsychotics and antidepressants, cited by international drug regulatory agencies as causing hallucinations, hostility, personality change, life-threatening diabetes, strokes, suicide and death, McGorry goes a giant step further-drug them before they've even developed a 'psychiatric' disorder.
"The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AHRPP) likens such concepts to 'performing mastectomies on women who are at risk of-but do not have-breast cancer.'"more »
Antipsychotics double risk of pneumonia for elderly
"The use of anti-psychotic drugs in the elderly doubles the risk of potentially fatal pneumonia, say Dutch researchers. A study of almost 2,000 patients found the increased risk starts soon after treatment begins and concluded that patients should be closely monitored."more »
Overweight? Perhaps your psych drug is to blame
"But overlooked in all this is one of the primary causes of America's obesity epidemic: The elephant in the living room is the skyrocketing use of psychiatric drugs. Many of these, which are used to treat emotional problems including depression and anxiety, cause weight gain -- often of the rapid and massive sort -- as one of their 'side effects...'"more »
The fix for this epidemic? Common sense would say to carefully withdraw from the drugs causing the weight gain. But these days, common sense gets trampled by the potential of profit-making. The solution, of course, is to take an obesity drug. Three obesity drugs are in the process of FDA approval now.
"This book explores each and every detail of this fabric of deception using the words of its proponents, then confronts each of these with the brutal truth. He then offers 'reality checks' in the form of real time stories of the true victims of this folly as the story unfolds.
"So we have a pack of lies. Let us look at these lies.
"The Big Lie, of course is 'Treatment Works.' It doesn't, of course. It just makes things worse. Much worse."more »
This reader shares how some simple solutions helped him overcome complex anxiety and panic attack problems. Our exchanges with this reader should minister to you or someone you know who is struggling with anxiety issues.See the letters »
"Pilots taking Prozac will be permitted to fly as U.S. regulators drop a decades-old ban on four antidepressants including the Eli Lilly and Co. drug.
"Risks from side effects, such as drowsiness, associated with the medications used to treat depression don't pose a safety threat, the Federal Aviation Administration said today.
"'We have a better understanding of the drugs,' FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in an interview. 'We know more about the illness, we know more about how to treat it.'
…"'We really need to remove the stigma, if you will, of being treated for an illness,' Babbitt said."
"Prozac Pilots May Fly as FAA Drops Ban on Medicines," Bloomberg
"It is striking that the weight of many Americans has ballooned just as the prescribing of psychiatric drugs has surged. The Obesity Society categorizes nearly two-thirds of adult Americans as overweight, the average weight of an adult having increased since 1960 by 25 pounds, and between 1996 and 2006 alone, prescriptions of psychiatric drugs for US adults increased 73 percent. The courageous Alaskan attorney James Gottstein in 2006 exposed drug company Eli Lilly's concealment of its knowledge about the effects of its drug Zyprexa3 (approved to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder but also prescribed for other conditions) on weight gain, and subsequent reports have revealed such effects of a whole range of psychiatric drugs. But nearly all researchers and journalists who focus on obesity fail to mention the drug link."
--"Fattened by Pills," Paula Caplan, Boston Globe
"WE ASK THAT YOU PRODUCE scientifically-valid evidence for the following, or you publicly admit to media, government officials and the general public that you are unable to do so:
EVIDENCE THAT CLEARLY ESTABLISHES the validity of"schizophrenia," "depression" or other "major mental illnesses" as biologically-based brain diseases.
EVIDENCE FOR A PHYSICAL DIAGNOSTIC EXAM -- such as a scan or test of the brain, blood, urine, genes, etc. -- that can reliably distinguish individuals with these diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric drugs), from individuals without these diagnoses.
EVIDENCE FOR A BASE-LINE STANDARD of a neurochemically-balanced "normal" personality, against which a neurochemical "imbalance" can be measured and corrected by pharmaceutical means.
EVIDENCE THAT ANY PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG can correct a "chemical imbalance" attributed to a psychiatric diagnosis, and is anything more than a non-specific alterer of brain physiology.
EVIDENCE THAT ANY PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG can reliably decrease the likelihood of violence or suicide.
EVIDENCE THAT PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS do not in fact increase the overall likelihood of violence and suicide.
FINALLY, that you reveal publicly evidence published in mainstream medical journals, but unreported in mainstream media, that links use of some psychiatric drugs to structural brain changes."
Robert Whitaker demanding answers from the APA, NAMI, and the US Surgeon General in his new book Anatomy of an Epidemic
