Filling the Gaps of Mental Health and Chronic Disease Care
The information presented in this article is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any specific disease, nor a replacement for supervised healthcare. The author of this article is not liable for any use or misuse of the information provided herein.
Blackness.
Nothingness.
Time doesn't exist.
Then...
My consciousness reignites out of the void.
In the darkness I hear "it's okay Brendan! It's okay! Breathe!"
But I'm gagging. Choking for air.
Blackness again. Nothingness encloses me once more.
You see...
My story begins at rock bottom.
6 years ago I woke up in the Intensive Care Unit.
"Brendan! You're awake!", said the overnight nurse. A sweet older woman with a kind smile and warm demeanor. "I've been looking out for you the past couple days", she continued.
"Past couple days?! What day is it?", I asked.
"Tuesday", she replied, "you were out quite a while".
My last memory was of Saturday night.
"I'll never forget you Brendan", she chuckled.
"Why's that?"
"Well, it's not everyday it takes 5 grown men to bring a patient down!"
Apparently my dreamlike memory of getting jabbed with a needle by a sneaky scrub was in fact less of a dream and more of a real memory. I suppose that also means that the concomitant profanity and straight right to the scrub's jawline was also a valid memory. It's all very fuzzy, but I have faint images and physical memories of a serious scuffle that ended with me being on the bottom of a multi-man dog pile with my face shoved into the floor.
"Do you have the security footage of that?!" I asked with a smirk as I tenderly found some scratches and bruising around my left orbital and cheekbone.
"Some things are better left unseen", she responded hesitantly.
I learnt that the dream in which I was choking with family voices swirling through my consciousness was due to the fact that they had reduced my sedatives while starting to remove my breathing tube that had been sustaining my life force for the previous 48 hours.
What was later deemed a suicide attempt by the overseeing medical doctor, was the climax of a very dark phase of my young adult life.
I spent 3 nights in the ICU before I was transferred to an inpatient psych ward for another 5 days where I and other "psychologically unstable" rock bottomeers' were cooped up with virtually nowhere to run from our thoughts. Twice a day we were lined up to receive our AM/PM drugs as one of the main objectives of time spent in the inpatient ward was to find the right psychiatric drug combo that would "stabilize" us enough to be released back into society. The medications were given at the desk, unlabeled in a small paper cup. You were forced to take the drugs right then and there in front of the nurse staff and not allowed to leave until you showed your empty mouth with tongue hanging out.
One night as we went through our routine line up, I stepped up to the desk to receive my dosing and I noticed an extra pill in my cup that I didn't recognize. "What's this other pill?", I asked. "Something to help you sleep", replied the administering and seemingly annoyed nurse. "I don't have sleep issues! I didn't ask for this and no one told me this was being prescribed", I said tensely. "Do I have to take it?", I continued. "Not if you don't want it." I firmly set the cup down and stepped away to allow the cattle line to continue receiving their mysterious and unconsented medication cocktails.
Many of the individuals locked up in there were so heavily medicated that all life had left their eyes and auras. They trudged droopily through the hallways as staff would walk by, as if they were ghosts already. I was disturbed to discover the length of time some of them had been locked up in that medical purgatory. Never even able to step outside to see the light of day.
For five days I lived in that limbo. Never able to taste fresh air. No options of real movement or exercise. No real nutrients to nourish my body as I half-attempted to choke down the processed and preserved hospital cafeteria food.
I had to go through multiple meetings with the overseeing Psychiatrist. A rather feminine man who stared at me as if I was a broken thing that could only be mended with pills. The tone he spoke with was that which most adults speak to young children. Perhaps I was more irritable in that environment, but virtually everything about him triggered me to the point I sharply asked him to speak to me like a real human. Being a health and fitness professional at that time, it was very difficult to refrain from attempting to open his very reductionistic and medically closed mind.
After several private meetings with the Psychiatrist, my family was summoned to create an "action plan of release" to ensure my discharge was a smooth transition into reality. Virtually every fragment of my personal privacy was splayed open as they all concernedly discussed everything "wrong" with me that had led to such a crisis. It was easily the most uncomfortable and invasive conversation I've ever had to be a part of.
By the time I was finally deemed psychologically fit and ready to be released, I was fifteen pounds lighter, and yet I felt heavier than I ever had before.
It was easily the most hopeless and soul crushing week of my life.
After being released, all I wanted was to move forward and go back to my normal life.
Part of the discharge action plan entailed having to attend three hours of intensive group therapy at the hospital three times per week. It made for a very awkward and uncomfortable conversation with my employers at the Health Club to try to convince them I was fit for duty and ready to return to work. Worse though, was the air of assumption, judgement, and gossip that swirled around me as I walked by my colleagues and peers who seemed much more uncomfortable than I felt myself. It was suffocating.
Within three months I resigned to start a fresh new chapter at a different health club where no one knew me.
At this point I'd like to end my personal account of that experience.
Did my story make you uncomfortable?
I can assure you that the discomfort you may have felt reading that pales in comparison to what those suffering from mental health impairment experience daily as they attempt to navigate their darkness. Let alone when they feebly try to talk about it in hopes someone, anyone, will recognize their subtle cries for help.
The taboo air that hangs over mental health is nothing but destructive to progress in Filling the Gaps in Mental Health Care.
Mental Health and Chronic Disease Crisis in America
In 2013 a study found that 1 in 6 Americans take some type of psychiatric drug.(1,2)
Antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs being the most common.
Psychiatric drug use has dramatically risen with the largest demographic of these consumers being middle aged women. Although interestingly, young men (ages 20-44) usage increased the most between 2001 and 2010, at a whopping 43%.(3) Considering I contributed to that disturbing statistic, I find it particularly provoking.
In 2017 there were 47,173 confirmed deaths (death certificate data compiled) by suicide in the United States, making it the tenth leading cause of death for Americans.(4) Perhaps more disturbingly was the fact that suicide was the second leading cause of death for individuals between the age of 10 and 34, or that "we" are killing ourselves twice as much as we are killing each other (homicide).
Heart Disease and Cancer were of course the top two causes of death for all ages, accounting for a combined total of over 1 million American fatalities. Alzheimer's deaths actually outranked Diabetes by nearly 40,000 fatalities!
Speaking of Alzheimer's, I wrote a very comprehensive article about Mental Health, Neurodegenerative Disease, and some of the major underlying causes and contributing (etiological) factors, that you can read here.
The above chart illustrates prevalence of psychiatric drug usage in the United States by Region. Of interest is the fact that the "Diabetes Belt" of America had the highest usage of mental illness drugs.(5)
In 2017, Diabetes claimed the lives of 83,564 Americans.(6) Approximately 45% of the ENTIRE American population is diabetic or pre-diabetic, costing our great nation a staggering 327 BILLION dollars!(7,8)
Perhaps it's just a coincidence that the most diabetic population of the US also uses the most psychiatric drugs?
Let's keep going....
In 2016, 71.6% of Americans, ages 20 and up, were overweight and/or obese, with 14% of children, ages 2-5, being obese.(9) It's truly hard to fathom how a child not even three years old could possibly be diabetic and obese!
Obesity prevalence has more than doubled since I was born in 1992, as we can see illustrated on the graph below.(10)
At the time of writing this, I am self-quarantined as mandated by the US Government due to the novel COVID-19 Pandemic. As of this moment as I sit here writing on a beautiful spring day in the heartland of Kansas City, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 2,237 Americans out of the 124,683 total cases in the US.(11)
Although the Coronavirus is not at all something to overlook or take lightly, the "Doomsday" sensationalism feels awfully misleading and leads me to postulate....
What about the Mental Health and Chronic Disease Pandemic?
Mental Illness and Chronic Disease Co-Morbidity
Now that I've shed some light on the ghastly statistics of mental illness and chronic disease in America, allow me to elucidate the point I'm getting at.
The above chart comes from a thorough report of chronic conditions among medicare beneficiaries.(12) It's a touch overwhelming and confusing to look at upon first glance. Essentially the graph is illustrating co-morbidity statistics and demonstrates the overlap in many chronic conditions.
For example:
Less than 10% of these individuals ONLY had ONE chronic condition.
About 35% of those with High Cholesterol had ONE or TWO other chronic conditions.
The purple bar represents individuals with FIVE OR MORE other Chronic Conditions!
Looking at the Depression line on the Y axis, we can see that OVER 40% of individuals with diagnosed Depression had FIVE OR MORE OTHER CHRONIC CONDITIONS!
NEARLY 50% of the individuals with Alzheimer's Disease had 5+ other chronic conditions.
OVER 70% of beneficiaries with Diabetes had at LEAST 3+ other chronic conditions.
As the statistics mixed with a small amount of rationale logic would suggest, perhaps Chronic Disease and Conditions (including but not limited to Mental Health and Neurodegenerative Disease) have some of the same underlying pathophysiological mechanisms and etiological root causes?
Have you or a loved one fallen through the gaps of conventional care?
I was 17 years old when I was first prescribed an anti-depressant drug. It was my senior year of high school and I was doing my annual physical for athletic participation. I can't remember my exact words, but I admitted to feeling down and not vibrantly happy. I can't recall who used the word depression first, or if it even was mentioned at all. Being a 17 year old with a rigorous daily schedule and nearing graduation to enter the real world, I had no real concept of what depression was, let alone what it felt like. Either way, I walked out of the brief General Practitioner appointment with a script for something to "help me feel better". Being a good lad, I of course followed the Doctor's orders and filled my new prescription for Zoloft. After all...the Doctor knows best right?
Besides...I didn't want to be a sad white blob anymore. I wanted to be a HAPPY white blob!
Ultimately the SSRI did nothing but make me feel more cognitively incapacitated. I didn't feel like myself on the drug. I felt joyless, spacey, lethargic, unmotivated, emotionally numb and detached.
Turned out that I wasn't alone in experiencing an unfavorable response to the drug. Zoloft in particular ended up being linked to increased suicidal tendencies, dependency and withdrawal effects, heart defects, pregnancy complications, and birth defects. (13)
SSRI drugs have undergone much scrutiny due to the fact that "some evidence suggests that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors [SSRIs] may cause worsening of suicidal ideas in vulnerable patients."(14)
These days you'll notice antidepressant commercials disclose the risk of such horrible side effects. Although you'll have to pay attention and listen carefully as they rattle through them subtly and quickly while distracting you with images of happy people experiencing a beautiful quality of life.
In 2004, the FDA issued a black box warning on antidepressants due to their associations with increased risk of suicidal behaviors in young people.(15)
Despite the black box warning, antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication use is on the rise with 1 in 6 Americans on such a drug as of 2013, as previously mentioned. The United States is the global leader in such prescription use with 11% of Americans over the age of 12 using an antidepressant.(16)
When I was 21 years of age, I again found myself being prescribed an antidepressant by my General Practitioner during a routine check up in which I had mentioned I was feeling depressed, and anxious about the upcoming winter months adding to my depressive state. This time I was given a dopamine agonist, Wellbutrin. I was also referred to a Clinical Psychiatry and Psychology office to undergo psychiatric evaluation for my historical trend of mental illness.
I began the new drug and did find some relief in my symptoms as I proceeded to undergo evaluation at the Psychiatric Clinic. After hours and hours of subjective questionnaires and having to sit in an enclosed space to complete a computer test in which I was to click the space bar as quickly as I could once a designated number flashed on the screen, I met with the Psychiatrist who formally diagnosed me with Major Depressive Disorder and ADHD. He proceeded to add a second prescription to my drug regimen, Vyvanse, and referred me to an in-house Licensed Professional Counselor to begin weekly Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
It wasn't even two weeks later that I woke up breathing out of a tube in the ICU after having intentionally swallowed an entire bottle of my antidepressant Wellbutrin. I hadn't even begun my second prescription of Vyvanse yet.
I had truly fallen through the gaps of conventional care...
My Candid Stance on Psychiatric Drug Dispensing
Look...I'm not here to use my personal tragedy to make the generalized accusation that all psychiatric drugs and their dispensers are evil. In fact, after I survived my near death experience and my liver enzymes dropped out of the thousands, I did find benefit in using the Vyvanse and Wellbutrin for alleviating my depressive and ADHD symptoms.
These drugs have demonstrated clinical efficacy through large studies for the majority of participants. Such drugs are very powerful artificial modulators of natural neurochemistry signaling which can be quite helpful in some cases when used intelligently AND responsibly.
What I question and postulate is: How Intelligently and Responsibly is our Healthcare System using these powerful drugs?
As my testament illuminates, it wasn't until FOUR YEARS after I was first prescribed an antidepressant that I was actually sent to be evaluated by a Clinical Psychiatrist and Psychologist. Further, I heavily question the efficacy of subjectively evaluating mental illness and the practice of labeling patients, aka real humans suffering from very real health complaints and not having the education or empowerment to help themselves, with a socially taboo diagnosis to then be given very powerful drugs that are linked to everything from nausea, liver toxicity, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, birth defects, and suicidal ideations.(17)
I am not a big TV person, but every time I travel for work, to lecture and educate Medical Doctors and Clinicians on Functional Medicine/Health strategies, I am disturbed to see the overwhelming number of drug commercials being blasted at consumers nationwide. Drug commercial, high sugar processed food commercial, drug commercial, high fructose corn syrup product, "have you been diagnosed with cancer after being exposed to glyphosate? You may be entitled to compensation!" Such travesties seem to make up the vast majority of commercialized airtime today.
Did you know the United States and New Zealand are the ONLY countries in the world where direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs is legal?(18)
Further, I find it disturbing that most psychiatric prescriptions are being dispensed by General Practitioners without any thorough, or objective, health evaluation at the slightest mention of any depressive or anxious tendencies, despite the stern black box warning.
It's truly difficult to deem all of these practices responsible or ethical. It feels as if our Healthcare system is dispensing antidepressants like Halloween Candy...and based on all the above statistics, I think it's highly questionable how well that is serving our national health.
If you simply go along with the unconscious consumer standard American lifestyle, you are statistically inclined to become overweight, diabetic, depressed, and develop multiple chronic conditions!
The First Step of my Self-Healing Journey
Given the arguably unethical nature of our commercialized pharmaceutical industry, coupled with the reductionistic practices of dispensing these drugs through conventional healthcare, it's easy to want to point the finger at "the system" for failing us. HOWEVER, despite the shortcomings and gaps of conventional care, I must further postulate: How does pointing the finger serve you?
Such action is a profound demonstration of what I like to call The Victim Mentality Fallacy.
In today's modern and largely virtual world, I feel there has been a dramatic increase in the expression of victim mentality. Rather than taking ownership of oneself, many would rather point the finger elsewhere to rationalize and justify their self-indulgent and egocentric behavior. In my personal Self-Healing journey, I found taking ownership of my life and choices was perhaps the most powerful step I took in overcoming my greatest struggles.
The ironic thing I have observed about victim mentality is that those that have actually suffered from heinous tragedies tend to be some of the strongest, most resilient, and humble individuals. Whereas many of those who demonstrate victim mentality thinking tend to also demonstrate many narcissistic and co-dependent behavior tendencies.
I believe the first step towards Self-Healing and Empowerment is taking a good, hard look at yourself in the mirror and staring into the depths of your own soul in order to make the conscious decision to no longer accept your toxic self-suffering-perpetuating behavior. I believe the vast majority of our suffering is self induced and it is not until we take ownership of our thoughts, actions, and behaviors, that we can set our souls free!
Certainly this is much easier said than done, which is where there are countless books and resources to aid you in the journey inwards. My two favorite books being: The Four Agreements and The Mastery of Self, by Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
As humans, we are social creatures and draw our power from the collective consciousness of humanity. You are not as alone as you feel. Although there is still an unfortunate and destructive taboo that surrounds Mental Health, I hope you are beginning to see just how common Mental Health struggles are!
The New Paradigm of FUNCTIONAL HEALTH: How I overcame Major Depressive Disorder and ADHD naturally, and lessons I have learnt along the way...
I'd like to briefly outline some of the main strategies I personally used to regain control of my health, while explaining the system I now teach to various types of Medical Providers (MD), Naturopathic Physicians (ND), Dietitians (RD), Holistic Practitioners, and Health Coaches alike!
What is commonly referred to as "Functional Medicine", or "Root Cause Medicine", is an exploding field these days. Allied Health Professional, Functional Practitioner, Holistic Health Coach, Integrative Clinician, Biohacker. Just some of the titles professionals are throwing around in the space. It's exciting to see such an explosion of interest in natural healing and holistic health!
In some ways Functional Medicine is just as amazing as everyone seems to think it is! However, I must candidly admit that after "doing my rounds" in the industry and interacting with thousands of health professionals with varying backgrounds, credentials, and education, I must admit that there is a severe lack of consistency or agreeance in the space. Sometimes it feels that the industry is better at creating problems than solving them, and unfortunately sensationalism and egocentricism seem to be present everywhere humans and money are found.
Movement as Medicine and Food as Medicine is my background, so when I entered the industry of mostly licensed practitioners, I assumed we were all on the same page. Sadly, I have not found this to be true. The majority of the conferences I attend and lecture at, there is little to no talk of nutrition in clinical practice, and I have yet to hear any of these events discuss the role of fitness in functional treatment. Many times after I get done lecturing I will receive questions to the effect of "so what products do you use, what dose, and for how long?" The same straight forward reductionistic thinking is applied. Just now it's using natural supplements in place of pharmaceuticals.
This has led me to build my own educational institute for Functional Health and Fitness Practitioners which teaches a truly comprehensive, evidence based, functional system that encompasses all aspects of holistic self-healing.
I've started including the above Intervention Spectrum into my lecture slides to illustrate what I feel is a complete model of Healthcare.
Environmental Intervention: if we're trying to improve the health of an organism (aka patient/client), shouldn't we first consider the environment (physical and psycho-emotional) that the organism is in? A philodendron could simply be a small domesticated house plant, or a massive force of nature with roots larger than a grown man's thighs. It all depends on the environment it is growing in.
Lifestyle Intervention: pharmaceuticals and supplements can be very powerful targeted treatment tools. With that said, NOTHING is as powerful or influential in building health, or fueling disease, as the hundreds of lifestyle choices we each make every single day. Nutrition, Exercise/Activity, Rest/Sleep, Stress Reduction/Management, Psycho-emotional work. I believe these to be our most powerful clinical tools in combating the Chronic Disease Pandemic!
Supplemental Intervention: botanical and nutraceutical supplementation are well proven as powerful treatment tools to provide targeted support to various metabolic dysfunctions and physiological systems. A good example is the similar mechanisms of berberine and metformin in the treatment of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. (19,20)
Allopathic Intervention: our conventional healthcare system saves countless lives allopathically every single day. I personally wouldn't be alive without such a system. There will always be a need for such methods and I am forever grateful to those medical professionals that saved my life. Right now, countless medical professionals are working around the clock to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic and we all need to do our part to support them. With that said, I dream of the day that our Healthcare System incorporates more proactive and preventative measures by educating and empowering patients on how to reach optimal health. Technology with drugs and surgery has never been better, yet chronic disease prevalence has never been worse. Makes sense if you don't think about it. Until healthcare does more than dispense drugs and apply surgery, it is the responsibility of each individual to become a Self-Healer and their own greatest health advocate.
Now that I've outlined my Intervention Spectrum, I'd like to introduce you to my paradigm of Functional Health.
As much as I love the Functional Medicine field, I feel it is not complete on it's own. I feel there are many gaps in this space as well that desperate and frustrated patients/clients fall through. I see way too many chronically ill individuals that window shop from self-proclaimed Functional Medicine Provider to self-proclaimed Integrative Physician, and are still not getting well. Over the years I have increasingly gotten more and more individuals that come to me from a who's who list of providers and are still struggling, even after pouring all of their money, time, and energy into their protocols. Many of these individuals display orthorexic behavior and seem to be stressing themselves out greatly as they hyper-focus on their strict protocol of pills, to no avail.
As great as Functional Medicine can be, I feel the complete model we need now more than ever is that of Functional Health, which I define as the sum of:
Functional Medicine: a branch of medicine that focuses on "getting to the root cause" of a condition, rather than only focusing on the allopathic management of a chronic condition. I will admit that I feel the "root cause" paradigm can be misleading and often is used as a selling point to individuals desperately searching for answers. There never is any single root cause, but rather a compilation of underlying etiological factors, or hidden stressors that are contributing to cellular and metabolic dysfunction. Assessing and navigating these metabolic puzzles takes a sophisticated investigation and requires a high degree of clinical critical thinking skills. The "what products, at what dose, for how long?" demonstrates the lack of such critical thinking. Coupled with an excessive reliance on "functional lab tests" that have minimal scientific validation, creates a host of gaps for ill individuals to fall through. Mental Illness and Chronic Disease is LARGELY driven by Chronic Inflammation and many underlying factors can contribute to the inflammatory burden.(21, 22, 23, 24) Some of the major underlying factors that can drive depression, mental illness, neurodegenerative disease, and chronic conditions include:
Gut Health (25)
Dysbiosis (26)
LPS induced Endotoxemia (27, 28)
Fungal overgrowth
Leaky Gut
Toxicity (29)
Mold Toxicity (Mycotoxicosis) (30)
Environmental Toxicants (31)
Heavy Metals
Nutrient Deficiencies
Food Allergies and Intolerances (32)
Genetic Polymorphisms
COMT
MAO
TPH
etc.
Functional Nutrition: "food as medicine" is a very valid paradigm that I feel gets a bit too overlooked. My observations cause me to feel that nutrition isn't utilized enough in clinical practice and many Doctors seem to lack knowledge within the realm of nutritional science and biochemistry. Considering all biochemistry is ultimately nutrient driven and our nation has never been more overweight, yet malnourished at the same time, I feel proper application of individualized nutrition, coupled with a "root cause mindset" is crucial for positive clinical outcomes. Food sensitivities, oxalates, salicylates, histamine, FODMAPs, nightshades, lectins, and the list goes on. We all know there is no "one size fits all" and yet our nation continues to orthorexically pursue the "perfect diet" to please their instant gratification addicted minds.
Functional Fitness: "movement as medicine" has always been a phrase near and dear to my heart. Exercise has always and will always be one of our greatest forms of Self-Healing. Unfortunately, I don't find many fitness professionals have the knowledge to know how to cater an exercise regimen to a client that is struggling from a chronic condition, which sadly are the majority of individuals seeking out the help of a fitness professional. I find myself regularly consulting with fitness professionals to advise them on how to adjust their exercise prescriptions to their clients. As powerful as exercise is in combating chronic disease, it is only as effective as the body is able to recover and adapt to the stimuli. We need to adapt the movement recommendations to suit the individual's current state of physiology and metabolic health. Appropriate exercise can have a dramatic therapeutic effect on depression and many chronic conditions. Exercise is also one of the most powerful modulators of BDNF which is associated with the development of new neural networks through the neuro-plastic model. (33)
Functional Psychology: I feel the classic psycho-therapy model is outdated. I feel we need more psychologists and therapists that are functional and holistic minded and trained to recognize when their patient's/client's behaviors may be a symptom of an underlying metabolic dysfunction. I also believe the "root cause" paradigm is helpful in psychological practice to help individuals unlearn their faulty beliefs and behaviors that are perpetuating their self-induced suffering through a neuroplastic model. We must educate and empower our clients so that they can change the story they tell themselves, dismantle self-limiting beliefs, and form new neural networks. Thoughts become proteins! My good friend, colleague, and client, Dr. Nicole LePera (@the.holistic.psychologist) is doing some outstanding work in this area. Check out this episode of my Holistic Savage Podcast, in which Dr. Nicole and I discussed the emerging field of Holistic Psychology.
Functional Spirituality: Psyche refers to the human soul, mind, or spirit. Whereas I look at science as the objective pursuit of truth, I consider spirituality to be the subjective pursuit of truth. Humans need a sense of purpose to be psychologically and metabolically healthy and happy. Spiritual Practice of some kind is a crucial component of overcoming mental illness and chronic disease in my humble personal opinion. (34)
Where I am Now
I am very proud to report that I have been completely medication free for over 4 years and have never felt healthier, happier, or more fulfilled! I have found myself in my purpose which is to Elevate, Educate, and Empower as many individuals as I can reach with Functional Health Science to help them become Self-Healers so that they too can overcome their greatest health struggles! I have climbed from the bottom of the Fitness Industry to the top of the Functional Medicine Industry over the past 10 years and spend my time developing cutting edge, evidence based education for Health Professionals and Practitioners. Although many of my clients, colleagues, and friends call me an expert in Metabolic Health, I don't claim to be anything except:
I'm just a boy from Kansas out to save the world from Chronic Disease and I believe the greatest medicine of all is to teach people how to not need it!
To my family and friends, I am so incredibly sorry for putting you all through my dark phase and I am so incredibly grateful for your unwavering love and support through those dark times.
My hope, my goal, my vision, my mission is that this personal account and experience will illuminate and elucidate the gaping holes in our Mental Health and Chronic Disease Care System.
We must NEVER forget that the masses are composed of individuals. Individuals with their own unique individualized needs. Individuals need to feel seen, heard, understood, accepted, respected, and loved. Education and Empowerment is the ONLY way forward!
To the individuals that took the time to read this article...from the bottom of my heart, I thank you! Please do not keep this article and information a secret! It is needed now more than ever! Please share with your friends and family that might be suffering from mental health ailments. It might just save their life.
If you are a Health Professional interested in advancing your education, I offer an advanced courses on how to navigate such clinical complexities in your patient/client demographic and 1:1 clinical advising sessions. Click here to learn more about my Mastering Mold course.
I also offer 6-month mentorship programs for Functional Doctors, Naturopaths, Nutritionists, Holistic Health Coaches, and Allied Health Professionals alike! Click here to learn more about this program.
Namaste,
Brendan Vermeire
Your Functional HEALTH Bro™
Making Health More Functional Since 1992
#FunctionalMedicine
#FunctionalFitness
#FunctionalSpirituality
#FunctionalPsychology
#FunctionalHEALTH
#Elevate #Educate #Inspire
#SelfHealer #SelfHealing
References:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/1-in-6-americans-takes-a-psychiatric-drug/
https://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/MEPS_topics.jsp?topicid=11Z-1
https://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s19032en/s19032en.pdf
https://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s19032en/s19032en.pdf
https://www.diabetes.org/resources/statistics/statistics-about-diabetes
https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics/statistics-report.html
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/Obesity/state/ALL
https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-largest-antidepressant-drug-users-2016-11
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/ssris/art-20044825
https://www.goodrx.com/blog/prescription-drug-advertising-regulation-united-states/