Last summer was a time of “shock and awe” in my life. A sweet and caring person had been a constant companion and had made me a better person. Christian was my best friend, but eventually our bonds became tenuous; he became distant and when I pushed for reasons he’d say something like, “I’m fine Bella, I will tell you everything one day.” I, being the nosy person I am, wanted to know exactly what was wrong with him because I am a fixer and wanted to fix him. He, eventually, told me that he had been diagnosed with clinical depression at the start of the summer. I sat and listened as he told me about the medications he was taking and that the doctor had told him to stay away from marijuana and alcohol. It appeared to me that that the more his doctor cautioned him about the “weed and beer,” the more he was compelled to partake. I remember the day so clearly because it was one of the scariest days of my life. We were at a summer party and Christian knew that his drinking and smoking made me uncomfortable. Each time he would smoke weed or hit a dab (smoking wax) he would turn to me and say “Bella are you mad, are you mad”. Clearly, I had no right to be mad because it wasn’t my life, but what did anger me was when Christian came to me yelling about how he just snorted cocaine. My heart sank. Ironically Christian and I, during that entire summer, had been helping a mutual friend deal with her father’s rehabilitation for cocaine and OxyContin. I believe that Christian’s prescribed medications resulted in his erratic behavior. He began living his life as though dying meant nothing to him. Sadly, Christian and I are no longer close; to be honest, we are barely friends. 

Christian is the product of a society, widespread with increasingly more diagnoses of mental illness. Highly addictive medication has become the new normal in a community of people who are already psychologically struggling. Mental illness patients are prescribed one medication to the next, the purpose of which is to suppress their illness so they can be a mellowed version of themselves. The goal is to create a balance which might be present had they never taken the drugs at all. Modern medicine is constantly moving forward. New diseases are discovered and new treatments are implemented to either cure, or prevent repeated flare-ups. With the increase in mental illness comes the broadening of medication options. Because of this surge, there are always new medications discovered to deal with the increase of patients with mental illness. This has transitioned into an increase into the diagnosis of mental problems in our youth.  Medication has become a busy, hardworking, “keeping up with the Joneses’” American parent’s first choice. Alternate methods would aid in ending the over-use of medication. Those alternatives would take much more time and effort, but could be more beneficial in the long run. Therefore, I propose that using therapeutic methods such as music therapy, dance therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, and narrative exposure therapy for mental illness patients would not only help solve some of their immediate issues but it would also be a preventative action for the patient’s future.  

Most treatments are given to each patient case-by-case. Therefore, it is impossible to cover the entirety of options that patients are given after they are diagnosed with mental illness. It is important to note that there are many different types of options for treatment, these options, all, but separately do so, have a main goal to solve the issues at hand and better the patient’s life. Each separate treatment deals with an aspect of diseases that it may be there to help with. The severity of each patient is taken in to consideration and sometimes medication is unnecessary as a whole for treatment but doctors may glaze over that fact. There are therapies that can be done singularly or with groups, some are more laid back while others may be more structured. Whichever therapy is used there will always be the other side to this argument that keeps patient’s dependency and or necessity in being medicated.  

Alternative options for mental illness patients are abundant and very available. Such ideas for these other options would include all those therapeutic methods that are being studied and tested today. Therefore, it is unclear whether or not there is a specific mushroom therapy for all types of mental illnesses and all of the patients they include. This creates a more “case-by-case” outlook for each individual patient’s therapy options that would remove medication as a main source of relief. The same can be said for medicating patients case-by-case as well, because medication effects people in different ways. As stated in Roger Greenberg’s journal: “One corollary of this change in emphasis has been an increasing societal reliance on drugs to thwart negative feelings, and the maladaptive impact these negative emotions have on navigating life’s challenges” (“Rebirth of Psychosocial Importance”). This testimonial proposes that medication can have severely negative effects on patients’ lives. This may seem like common sense, yet I would then propose the question of why, if it is so greatly and widely known that medication can have so many negative effects that prescribing such would be so popular. The fact is that people need something easy to turn to in moments of distress, a “quick fix” and medication does that. Dr. Lissa Rankin explains that medication is just that, a fast solution, but that the world must put into place more preventative solutions rather than quick ones (“Is medicine killing you?”). Her point thus shows how preventative measures must be taken in order for the problems to be expelled and less likely to come back, rather than to suppress latent memories. Another negative side effect of the over prescription of medication results in the patient becoming highly addicted to that specific drug and a possible reliance on other drugs, perhaps even illegal ones. 

Gateway drugs are may be “old wives’ tales” but the truth is that gateway drugs are very real and very serious. Yet, even today drugs like LSD are being used to treat mental illnesses such as depression, there are less and less boundaries for these more intense drugs in the modern day society (“LSD to Cure Depression?”). Christian smoked marijuana, but after he had started taking his prescribed medication, I noticed that his smoking marijuana had increased and that experimenting with new, different and extremely dangerous drugs became commonplace. Dr. Sullivan’s research article opened my eyes to the fact that medications are in fact somewhat gateway drugs. He speaks of the association between mental health disorders and problems with drug use, specifically opioid use. In his article, Sullivan states that “It also has not been possible to determine whether mental disorders increase the risk of opioid use or whether opioid use increases the risk of mental disorders” (“Association Between Mental Health Disorders”), but this article investigates the fact that such may be possible and is hypothesized about and researched often. Therefore, in this study such conclusions help to infer that the association between opioid use may be a leading issue in the future. One chart that aids in representing and explaining the data found in Dr. Sullivan’s article is as follows: 

(“Association Between Mental Health Disorders”). Observations that can be made from such a chart include the association between the use of opioids and general drug abuse between different types of mental illness patients. This data helps to prove that there is a general increase in the number of patients who have begun to abuse other types of drugs because of the prescribed medications they use and how these medications may be becoming gateway drugs. Gateway drugs mean that there is a great abuse of drugs as well, this is unsafe for both the patient and the doctor. 

Today, medication seems to do more harm than it does help for mental illness patients. In George Albee’s article his title enforces the thought that people should just avoid psychotropic drugs as a whole; this man stated something that came to be true in the following years and his points are valid. The statement is as follows: “I am opposed to the prescription of drugs by psychologists doing individual therapy for mental disorders. A handful of years ago, we reached the point (that I had predicted in my APA Presidential Address; Albee, 1970) where practicing clinical psychologists greatly outnumbered psychological scientists and took over the governance of the American Psychological Association. I predicted that there would be two different psychological associations, one concerned with practice, and the other concerned with science. And that has happened” (“Just Say No to Psychotropic”). The statement shows how the world of medicine is conflicted. There are people who find that the over-prescription of medication is a problem and others who think that it is the proper therapeutic option for mental illness patients. Therefore, Albee’s point is that “Prescribing drugs for mental disorders by psychologists means accepting an invalid model—the brain disease, biological-defect explanation of psychopathology—that is advanced by political conservatives and accepted by some naive, well-intentioned, but misinformed moderates who have not thought critically about the issue” (“Just Say No to Psychotropic”). He is saying that medication hurts patients more than it actually benefits them. I experienced this first hand. The human brain is an amazing organ, and (I think) a tool that should not be tampered with unless it is completely necessary. Albee is trying to say something similar; by medicating these “brain illnesses” it is actually affecting the brain and creating more serious issues for the patients. Christian may very well be a victim of such. On the surface, he is a muted, suppressed version of his “old self.” He was diagnosed with anxiety and social issues after being on the medication for merely two months. This further proves that mediation can make more problems before it can even solve the pressing ones. Yet, with these issues comes even more solutions, solutions that are more therapeutic and being tested case by case throughout the world. 

One new type of therapy that is being used for mental illness patients is music therapy. Music therapy is a new and “up and coming” option for therapeutically aiding mental illness patients. A study was orchestrated by Ms. Yasmine Iliya, in which she took an abnormal human emotion that is caused by extreme sadness, grief, and studied how music therapy helped grieving patients to cope. Ilya defines music therapy in her article: “Music therapy is a ‘therapeutic method that uses musical interaction as a means of communication and expression’ (Mossler, Chen, Heldal, & Gold, 2011, p. 1)” (“Music Therapy as Grief Therapy”). Such expression helps to communicate feelings with which patients are struggling. In this specific study Iliya uses research to explain the effects of music therapy: “In a meta-analysis of 27 studies with bereaved children and adolescents (N1⁄41,073), researchers found music therapy to be the ‘most successful...[and] promising venue for grief intervention’ of all the interventions reviewed in the meta-analysis (Rosner, Kruse, & Hagl, 2010, p. 130)” (“Music Therapy as Grief Therapy”). Music therapy can help patients to cope by adding music, which is often associated with something happier; it may depend on the moment that is associated with the song; it may even be associated with something sad, but that expression of a feeling may help people to move forward. This option is a healthy one for some but there are plenty of other options in the world of mental illness. 

Another option that is recently being studied and given praise is dance therapy. Specifically, Ted Ehrhardt is a leading researcher in the dance movement therapy and mental illness studies. He, himself, has been integrating his mental illness patients with this newer idea of dance therapy; specifically, a 19-year-old woman with severe mental illness has been participating in his dance therapy for a month now (“Dance/Movement Therapy”). Through this he is able to help mental illness patients who are severely ill and may be institutionalized. “Caroline” (the name given to the 19-year-old woman), was slow to begin her dance movements, even after six weeks of the program. One day Mr. Ehrhardt had Caroline show everyone her movements, she moved her body in circles for two minutes, and everyone in the group mirrored her (“Dance/Movement Therapy”). This somewhat small step for Caroline was actually a monumental moment that sparked her participation and had immersed her into the program which would be beneficial to her in many ways. One day during one of Mr. Ehrardt’s dance therapy sessions one of his patients finally related the movements to an actual thought and feeling, and this is the exact goal of dance therapy: to transport the movements into a realm of imagination where the patients can interpret their thoughts and feelings and say them (“Dance/Movement Therapy”). This alternative method for treatment is a solid contender for the replacement or lessening of medicated treatments.

 Another new type of therapy is cognitive behavioral group therapy; I am personally involved in cognitive behavioral therapy. I was recently diagnosed with anxiety and depression and I am finding my cognitive behavioral therapy extremely effective. The type of cognitive behavioral therapy that Hiroko studies and writes of is group therapy; I am not involved in that specific type.  Group therapy is a different angle of this type of therapy, and in Hiroko’s study the groups he chose were not randomized they were specifically chosen in order to see the effects this experimentation had on each of the mental illness patients (“Effect of cognitive behavioral group therapy”). Cognitive behavioral therapy is put in place to get to the root of the issue. This study took place in order “…to examine over a 12-month post-intervention period whether the participation of community-living individuals with mental illness in cognitive behavioral group therapy for recovery of self-esteem (CBGTRS) resulted in improved outcomes” (“Effect of cognitive behavioral group therapy”). The study was used to help improve the way mental illness patients viewed themselves and their lives in general, in order to improve their general theme of life. This idea of cognitive behavioral therapy was put in place in order to give mental illness patients more helpful options other than turning to medication. This type of therapy will find the root of the issue and give patients ways to change the feelings that they are having. Doing this in a group helps to give a common diagnosis for all different people. 

Narrative exposure therapy for stress disorder has been a researched topic for mental illness patients as an alternative method. This type of exposure “builds on the theory of the dual representation of traumatic memories (Elbert & Schauer, 2002)” (NET).  “The primary aim of this study is to evaluate NET in SMI patients with comorbid PTSD associated with repeated interpersonal trauma to get insight into whether (1) the PTSD and present dissociative symptoms changes and (2) changes occur in the present SMI symptoms, care needs, quality of life, global functioning, and care consumption” (“Narrative exposure therapy for posttraumatic”). The researchers introduce the fact that these issues must be dealt with in order to move forward from the harsh feelings the patient was battling with each day. In doing so there was a clear result that showed how this exposure therapy was beneficial to its patients. This type of therapy is a solid replacement for medication as well. 

On the other side of this argument medication should be the main consideration for people who are struggling with mental illnesses. Although this statement disagrees with my argument, it is supported by many valid points and factual information. This is seen in Reza’s study about the prescribing pattern of antidepressant drugs in the population of mental illness patients. Reza writes: “The present study aimed at exploring this issue by reviewing the prescriptions of general practitioners (GPs) and psychiatrists” (“Prescribing Pattern of Antidepressant Drugs”).  This study was put in place in order to view the normal patterns of drug distributions that are given to people who struggle with mental illness. Drug patterning, in this specific study helps to show how diagnosis and treatment with medication affects mental illness patients. “Prescribed medications play a key role in the treatment of co-occurring disorders. They can reduce symptoms and prevent relapses of a psychiatric disorder” (“Medications Play a Key Role”). This assertion refutes my argument that the symptoms are completely erased. Therefore, this article and others help to show the fact that medication can act as a preventative measure for some. As I said earlier, when dealing with mental illness patients it really is a case-by-case battle in terms of diagnosis and treatment. There was also a very interesting point made by Brown and Gray in their article about medication and non-adherence in which they explained why medication is so heavily prescribed: “Although the professionals that we talked to recognized that treatment adherence was a major issue in their clinical work, they did not make best use of evidence-based interventions to address the problem. Often their practice was based on what they believed would work (e.g. patient education) even when the research shows that way of working to be ineffective” (“Tackling Medication non-adherence”). Such citation helps to show the fact that, yes, in some cases medication is extremely necessary. Brown and Gray say that health care professionals prescribe based on what they think will work. It appears that it is all speculation and guessing. People are prescribed one drug and another until the drug that really “works” is implemented, but who is to say it is “working” if it changes the person’s uniqueness in some way. Medication, although it is very helpful, changes a mental illness completely… is this really what people want? 

Medication is a “people fixer”, it is given away like candy, it is easy to obtain and ingest, it is highly addictive and most Americans turn to medication as a first relief. I contest the beliefs of many about medication. It is a slow killer. It alters lives, perhaps not always for the better.  I may have a limited history of experience but Christian has taught me that prescribed medication is not the “cure-all” we are led to believe. His dependence on pharmaceuticals cannot be the only answer. By using other methods for relief and prevention, dependence on drugs would be diminished to the benefit of patients with mental illness. Alternative options should replace medication in the future.  
