pyrate999 said:

I've been there and come back after much difficulty, and have concluded these issues come from asking these questions.

Sorry if this is too simple an explanation, but less questioning and more doing will fix most (all?) of your problems.

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Is social anxiety or general anxiety a chemical imbalance by itself, one one triggerd by external triggers

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there is a genetic component to many serious psychiatric conditions but the mental health MYTH, its model and it's approach is perverse to say the least

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The familial aggregation of all of the major subtypes of anxiety disorders has been well established (21). As reviewed below, the results of more than a dozen controlled family studies of probands with specific subtypes of anxiety disorders converge in demonstrating a 3- to 5-fold increased risk of anxiety disorders among first-degree relatives of affected probands compared to controls.  The importance of the role of genetic factors in the familial clustering of anxiety has been demonstrated by numerous twin studies of anxiety symptoms and disorders (22,23). However, the relatively moderate magnitude of heritability also strongly implicates environmental etiologic factors. Table 61.2 summarizes the results of family and twin studies of anxiety disorders.

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bigmike7104 said:

just because the anxiety meds help, doesn't mean it's needed to get better though yes it does help many people.

what the meds do is increase serotonin levels, but that doesn't mean the cause of depression is low serotonin levels, it just means boosting the amount helps, though it also usually includes many unwanted side effects.

an analogy ive heard in relation to antidepressants that makes sense is aspirin helps headaches, but that doesn't mean the cause of headaches is a lack of aspirin.

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happymealplease said:

I don't get how anyone can honestly say that the "chemical imbalance" concept is a myth.  Yes, it may be getting abused in order to push pills but everyone's trying to sell something, even those who have more "natural" methods.  It's up to the individual to decide what works for them, and it's up to the individual to accept that something not working for them doesn't mean it's a hoax and doesn't work for others.  Medication doesn't work for me, but I know a guy whose life pretty much did a 180 when he started taking anxiety meds.  It made my life shit, but it gave him an honest chance.

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i don't see how they can say that the chemical imbalance theory has any valid truth to it at all.. have you ever read the pamphlet that comes with the medication? you know the one when you finally unravel it and consider the size of the print it reads like a small novel? well look under action of this drug or how this drug works or what ever the drug company chooses to hide the reality of the medication and every single one of them will say something like "it is believed that dopamine plays a role in schizophrenia" it is believed? BELIEVED????


it should say "research clearly demonstrated that there is a chemical imbalance of the brain involving dopamine" but instead it'll say it is believed that dopamine plays a role in schizophrenia... and in the case for depression it'll say "it is believed that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance of low serotonin" because there is no blood test and there never will be a blood test... you would think that if a person with low serotonin were given 200-300mg's of 5-htp their serotonin levels would immediately rise since 5-htp is a direct precursor to serotonin but instead many go without relief...  yes, in some people it does work but if this is the case why not give the patient a harmless amino acid the body makes in place of paxil or prozac...

and as far as anxiety being a heredity disorder i don't by it sorry... they can do all the fucking studies they'd like but anxiety is a psychological thingie...  there may be a hereditary issues regarding food sensitivities which set the person up for tripping over due to anxiety but anxiety is a reaction to a thought that generally has no basis or stress, but you can believe what you'd like to believe but answer just one question if you will....  why are programs like the linden method which teaches neuroplasticity working for hundreds of thousands...  why is merely thinking differently working for so many people if it is purely genetics?  neuroplasticity is the new or relatively new buzz word for subconscious reprogramming, who knows what it'll be called ten years from now... but it really won't matter because it'll be the same shit doing it's job at healing people...  i'm just saying based on my own experience and then learning about others afterwords...


Kensho