I am very disappointed in your obvious attack on antidepressants. Rise of Antidepressants

You're newsletter is continuing a rash of fear-mongering about these drugs without considering the extremely large wealth of evidence that proves their positive side effects. Would you suggest a person with bronchitis not take penicillin and instead allow the disease to progress? I doubt it. However you would alienate those who have debilitating mental diseases by making them afraid of a drug that could help them – claiming that they are simply weak for taking “a pill”. Is a person with bronchitis weak for taking penicillin? Should they try to cure it on their own somehow? As a supposedly intelligent organization promoting good health, why take such a narrow minded stance on something that helps so many people get healthy mentally?

As for me, had I not started on Zoloft seven years ago I would still be agoraphobic and social phobic, convinced I was “weak” for not being able to “heal myself” with all the self-help books and psychiatry. I would have never met my husband. I would have never fallen in love. So I shouldn't take Zoloft or I won't be capable of loving my own husband? That claim sickens me, truly. I am not weak. I have an illness, and I take a medicine for it. It may not be as socially accepted as taking penicillin for bronchitis, but I hope in a liberal society of intelligent people we will grow to see mental illness as another treatable disease and not a “weakness”. That is if we can get past only listening to the close-minded fear that you spread and realize the healing antidepressants can do for so many people.

Fear may sell books, but it doesn't help people.

The purpose of the e-health letter is to give people an alternative perspective and to provide thoughts and options for self care. Dr. Wysong argues that the most worthy role of any good doctor is to teach people how not to need them. So we teach independence and self-reliance and how not to be reliant on products.

We are engaged in no special campaign to discount mental illness, but not deny that some people in some circumstances can benefit from pharmaceuticals. Any reporting we do on drug dangers is documented in the medical literature, it is not merely our opinion.  Also, the e-Health Letter is free, so how do we make money – as implied – by creating fear?

If we have made a specific error as to fact we would appreciate your pointing that out so we can correct it.

We are a tiny voice compared to the trillion and a half dollar medical industry that is responsible for more deaths than any other modern threat. (see link http://www.wysong.net/health/hl_884.shtml ). Certainly people can go to any number of books, newsletters and doctors in that highly profitable industry and get the conventional drug-for-symptom approach.

Certainly if people have tried all options for a condition that are safe and nontoxic and find they do not work, then they should do what they need to in order to help themselves, even take dangerous drugs or undergo dangerous surgery.

We are happy to hear that you have done so and are doing well.

I just feel it is a shame that newsletters such as yours always highlight the bad aspects of drugs such as antidepressants, and not the good. After all, St. John's Wort can cause just as many side effects as Zoloft, yet as it is considered “natural” it is somehow pure and safe, and therefore not the subject of all these criticisms. People sign up for these newsletters hoping for unbiased information – after all, this is your claim. And as a small voice, perhaps you should try spreading a considered viewpoint instead of only the hype and nonsense that the news latches on to (i.e. antidepressants causing an increased risk of suicide).

 “ We just don't want to do the heavy lifting of taking care of ourselves, learning, taking responsibility...let's just take a pill “ is not only an attack on the drug, but a judgmental attack on those who take it. It is obvious you don't want to take the time to understand these people's illnesses – instead you immediately label them as weak, as if they are flunkies for the drug companies with no independent thought of their own. It is a sad way to attack the product – by judging, labeling, and mindlessly attacking those who use it. Also, you take a study on decreased sex drive due to antidepressants and randomly associate this with an inability to love. One is proven; the other is total hype that you have used (made up?) to further your attack on drug companies. So according to your newsletter, everyone who takes antidepressants is weak and incapable of love. Nice little label you have there, you obviously don't know or care about anyone who has actually taken these drugs for an illness.

That is just my opinion though. I suppose I signed up for your newsletter expecting something besides the shock stories and snap-judgments our society is saturated with. I will look elsewhere.

I thank you for your response however. It is more than I expected, and it shows that you care what people think about your newsletter. I do appreciate it. And although you may not be very smart about the way you attack drug companies, you are very good about the ingredients you put in your products. I do appreciate your cat food supplements for raw diets. Thank you for that as well. Although as a weak person incapable of deep feeling who has sold out to the drug companies, I suppose my opinion isn't worth much.

Thank you for your thoughtful, intelligent and kind comments.

It is our informed opinion that the majority of the trillion and a half dollar medical industry is not only unnecessary, but maims and kills...in fact, more maiming and killing than any other threat we face.  It also fosters the mistaken view that health is something someone else does to us, not what we do to ourselves.

Yes, medical intervention can do good and we do not deny that.  But it does far more harm than good and the majority of people who submit to it--unlike you--do so without thinking.

That is what we are trying to correct with our tiny voice.  People just need to be fully informed before making decisions that could ruin their health and lives.

We do understand your view and are delighted that you have had success.  Not everyone who submits to medical intervention is so fortunate however and that is what we would like to help with.

Your excellent thoughts will help us better allow for situations such as yours as we prepare future issues.