Antidepressant Survival Program : How to Beat the Side Effects and Enhance the Benefits of Your Medication

by HEDAYA, ROBERT J. MD

• ISBN13: 9780609604656
• ISBN10: 0609604651
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Crown Pub

Summary

You or someone you love may be one of an estimated 25 million Americans currently taking antidepressants for a wide range of psychiatric and physical disorders. But there is a dark side to these "wonder drugs" --- punishing side effects such as weight gain, lethargy, and sexual dysfunction that afflict up to 80 percent of the people who take them. Until now, side effect sufferers have had nowhere to turn for help. All too often their doctors dismiss side effects as "necessary evils" and urge patients to "learn to live with them." Even compassionate doctors rarely have the specialized expertise to manage side effects. InThe Antidepressant Survival Program, Dr. Robert J. Hedaya, a leading psychopharmacologist and clinical psychiatrist, shares his comprehensive mindbody program to reduce or eliminate the side effects of antidepressants. Now everyone can benefit from Dr. Hedaya's life-restoring prescription that has worked wonders for hundreds of his own patients. "Why settle for half a life," asks Dr. Hedaya, "when you can have a full and satisfying one?" Drawing on his expertise in multiple fields, including psychopharmacology, nutrition, and endocrinology, as well as from his extensive clinical practice, Dr. Hedaya has created an integrative program of nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, and hormone supplementation that corrects the imbalances created by antidepressants. Best of all, his program actually enhances the benefits of medication while reducing or completely eliminating its side effects. Beginning with a Five-Day Jump Start that motivates and shows quick results, Dr. Hedaya takes you step by step through his lifestyle program for restoring lost vitality, sex drive, and desired weight. Then he offers results-oriented advice about how to work with your doctor to supplement vital hormones, vitamins, and micronutrients that are often depleted by antidepressants. There are also special sections written expressly for your doctor. TheAntidepressant Survival Programsupplies a medically proven solution for everyone who is caught between the rock of depression and the hard place of antidepressant side effects. Dr. Hedaya has created this program for everyone who believes, as he does, that it is not enough to survive depression -- you can thrive!

Author Biography

Robert J. Hedaya, M.D., is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Hospital's Department of Psychiatry. He also maintains a private practice and, through his clinical work, writing, teaching, and lecturing, has earned a reputation as one of the world's leading clinical psychopharmacologists. He practices in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Excerpts

Restoring Balance to Your Body and Life
Thanks to recent medical progress, the biochemistry governing antidepressant side effects -- particularly weight gain, loss of sexuality, and decreased mental acuity -- is gradually coming to be understood. These side effects are the results of specific, usually treatable imbalances in the brain and body. You will see that this program employs a wide range of treatment modes -- nutrition and exercise, hormonal and herbal supplements, meditation and much more -- to redress the imbalances caused by medication and reestablish healthful function.

There is no simple, one-size-fits-all remedy for side effects, because every person responds differently to antidepressant medications. Every person's body is different. But nearly everyone can benefit from my program because its goal is the same for all people: to diagnose and counteract the imbalances in the body.

When imbalance occurs, the body struggles to compensate and to reassert its natural balance and healthy order. This innate drive toward equilibrium is your body's hidden gift. Antidepressants are powerful agents. Overcoming their negative side effects is not and cannot be effortless. But as you draw nearer and nearer the rewarding life you seek, this wellness program, in collaboration with your body's innate drive to heal itself, will prove to be a surprisingly unstoppable force for recovery.

Mine is an integrative, holistic approach that incorporates recent breakthroughs in psychopharmacology, nutrition, immunology, gastroenterology, and endocrinology -- what I call Whole Psychiatry. Rather than getting bogged down in meaningless distinctions between "natural" and "traditional" treatments, this program is guided by two simple and pragmatic questions: Is it safe? and Does it work?

It is safe. The danger to most patients lies in going off their medication; 80 percent of people who have had more than two depressive episodes will relapse within one year if they stop taking their medication.

And it works. More than three hundred patients have proven that all motivated individuals can enjoy increased self-esteem, confidence, vitality, vigor, and sex drive -- in short, a level of healthfulness they may never have experienced before.

My program is grounded in the basic principle of returning the body's natural healthfulness and balance. Specifically, it
Restores the vital biological factors -- including micronutrients (e.g., vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fatty acids) and hormones -- that are often depleted and are essential to the body's health
Restores the optimal function and proper balance of the body's metabolic and energy systems
Restores the ability to experience pleasure in life (inability to experience pleasure is a classic symptom of depression)
Restores the crucial balance among work, stress, and play
This program is for anyone who believes, as I do, that it's not enough to survive depression. You can thrive. Since you're reading this book, I probably don't have to convince you that there's a fuller, more satisfying life than the one you have.
So, do yourself a favor. Get a life!

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Excerpted from The Antidepressant Survival Program: How to Beat the Side Effects and Enhance the Benefits of Your Medication by Robert J. Hedaya, Deborah Kotz
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.