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The “Chemical Imbalance” Theory
Over the past two decades there has been a dramatic shift in the way our culture thinks about mood problems (depression, anxiety, fear, etc.). The trend is to regard these problems as treatable medical conditions caused by chemical imbalances in the brain that are easily corrected with medication. Drug companies have increased sales exponentially by marketing antidepressants directly to consumers, claiming that mood problems are caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain that can be “evened out” with medication.
The chemical imbalance theory, however, is far from enjoying any scientific consensus. Elliot Valenstein Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at Michigan University, states emphatically, “Contrary to what is often claimed, no biochemical, anatomical or functional signs have been found that reliably distinguish the brains of mental patients.”[1] It is not currently possible to measure serotonin levels or absorption rates inside the brain.[2] It can be measured in various bodily fluids, but the levels in those fluids may not reflect levels in the brain. In a psychopathology textbook used for second-year medical students, the authors state, “Psychiatry is the only medical specialty that … treats disorders without clearly known causes.”[3]
The only things we know for sure about these drugs are (1) they do something to the brain and (2) they affect the way a person feels.
Do Antidepressants Work?
In 2005 Joanna Moncrieff and Irving Kirsc published a review of the data from studies done by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the British Medical Journal. They point out that the NICE data reveals the following:
SSRI’s have no clinically meaningful advantage over placebo.
Claims that antidepressants are more effective in more severe conditions have little evidence to support them.
Antidepressants have not been convincingly shown to affect the long term outcome of depression or suicide rates.[4]
NICE continues to recommend that antidepressants should be first line treatment for moderate or severe depression, despite the evidence from its own research data.
The Placebo Effect
These findings are remarkable, particularly in light of the fact that it is impossible to know how much influence the “placebo effect” has in the studies.[5] The placebo effect refers to the fact that there are very powerful influences at work in the body in response to the belief that a medicine will work.
It is not unusual for doctors to prescribe placebos when no medical problem can be discovered, and research as demonstrated that this practice can be remarkably effective. The pharmacist fills a bottle with sugar pills, affixes a fictional label such as, “Reniphin, for severe pain,” and very often the patient experiences relief.
This does not mean the ailment was imaginary. The body has remarkable ability to heal itself when there is a high level of confidence in a remedy. Double blind crossover studies have shown that placebos have worked well for a variety of ailments, including:
severe pain (35 percent of those studied said a placebo had the same effect as an injection of morphine)
stomach ulcers (the placebo was found to be 50 percent to 75 percent effective in stopping the bleeding, even though there was no active ingredient)
incontinence (74 percent of the people with this problem improved with a placebo)
arthritis
high blood pressure (85 percent of those affected experienced a significant drop in blood pressure with a placebo).[6]
If placebos are that effective for physical problems, it would be no surprise to discover they can be even more effective for mood problems. And the placebo effect in mood medications is decidedly greater due to the fact that they take so long to take effect. A patient feels depressed, is given an antidepressant, and is told to watch for a change in the next couple weeks. It is normal to have emotional ups and downs over a period of weeks, and if a person has begun taking a medication the natural “ups” will be attributed to the drug rather than to the countless other factors that may have caused them.
It Isn’t Working
The use of SSRI’s has increase 1300% since 1990,[7] but the percentage of the population suffering from depression has not seen a corresponding decrease. In fact, studies have shown no decrease at all in the occurrence of depression over the past ten years.[8] There are some who report feeling better after taking certain antidepressants, but the reason remains unknown. There is a possibility that the drugs actually have a positive effect on the mood of certain people. However there are several possible explanations:
The Placebo Effect
The general deadening effect antidepressants often have on the emotions. Taking an antidepressant does not cause a person to feel refreshed, energetic, happy, and full of motivation. Even those who are helped the most by antidepressants usually report not joy or happiness, but rather feeling slightly less depressed.
Other medications. Sedatives are often given along with the antidepressant to alleviate side effects. Because of the calming effect of the sedative, the person may feel that his depression is less severe.
There are studies that point to antidepressants having slightly better short term results than placebo. Care must be taken, however, in examining the credibility of the various studies. Particularly relevant is the question of who funded the study. Antidepressants are a $12 billion a year industry. It would be naïve to assume there is no bias in studies funded by those who stand to gain billions of dollars by increased use of antidepressants. Drug companies are under no legal obligation to publish unfavorable study results, and an estimated 23% of their studies on mood medications have not been published.[9] They are required, however, to report them to the FDA. Using the Freedom of information Act, Irving Kirsch gained access to the unpublished studies and found that those studies showed antidepressants as actually being less effective than placebo. This means a person taking a sugar pill would be more likely to recover from depression than a person taking an antidepressant. Kirsch argues that the preponderance of the evidence shows that antidepressants do not have a clinically meaningful advantage over placebo,[10] his findings have been almost universally accepted within the scientific community.[11]
The Dark Side of Antidepressants
It is common for doctors to understate the side effects of mood medications. Drug companies market their products not only to consumers, but also to doctors. Physicians receive a sales pitch from drug company representatives, and the doctor who wants to know the negative effects or other drawbacks has to research those on his own.
With the newer medications, many of those effects are still unknown. As time goes by, however, more is coming to light about the negative effects of antidepressants.
Physical side effects
Side effects of SSRI’s include nausea, insomnia, anxiety, diarrhea, headache, drowsiness, and loss of appetite. For cyclic antidepressants, add to the list dry mouth, constipation, difficulty with urination, blood pressure problems, nervousness, irritability, palpitation, rapid heartbeat, tremors, sweating, weight gain, indigestion, swelling, stiffness, slowness, restlessness, and rash.
More serious effects include movement disorders, agitation, sexual dysfunction, improper bone development, improper brain development, and gastrointestinal bleeding, which can become a life-threatening condition. Improper bone development in children is a serious problem that can lead to increased skeletal problems and frequent bone fractures as they age. Most studies examine the effect after six weeks, but the most significant harm appears only after months or years of use and therefore do not become evident in the short term studies.
Antidepressants have been shown to produce long-term, and in some cases, irreversible chemical and structural changes to the body and brain. The administration of Prozac and Paxil raises cortisol levels in human subjects.[12] Given the fact that elevated cortisol levels are associated with depression, weight gain, immune dysfunction, and memory problems, the possibility that antidepressants may contribute to prolonged elevations in cortisol is alarming to say the least.
Psychological side effects · Deadening of Positive Emotions
Since the primary effect of antidepressants is to deaden all the emotions, they function as a double edged sword. They mitigate the intensity of the pain of depression, but at the same time they deaden sensations of happiness, joy, and hope. Perhaps this explains why the long term recovery rate is so abysmal for those treated with antidepressants.
A growing body of research supports the hypothesis that often the long-term effect of antidepressants is to cause depression to become more chronic,[13] and more severe.[14] Most episodes of depression, when left untreated, end after three to six months. However, almost half of all Americans treated with antidepressants have remained on medication for more than a year.[15]
Other psychological side effects include the following:
· Amotivational syndrome
This is a condition with symptoms that are clinically similar to those that develop when the frontal lobes of the brain are damaged. The syndrome is characterized by apathy, disinhibited behavior, demotivation and a personality change similar to the effects of lobotomy.[16] All antidepressants, are known to blunt emotional responses to some extent.
· Agitation
Studies by Eli Lilly employees found that between 21% and 28% of patients taking Prozac experienced insomnia, agitation, anxiety, nervousness and restlessness, with the highest rates among people taking the highest doses.[17] Agitation is such a common side effect with SSRIs that the drug companies have consistently sought to hide it during clinical trials by prescribing a tranquilizer or sedative along with the antidepressant.
· Movement disorders (restlessness, shaking, etc.) · Suicide
The risk of suicide in children on SSRI’s increases 300%[18] – an alarming statistic given the fact that the fastest growing segment of the non-adult population being prescribed SSRI’s is children ages five and under.[19] Children as young as 4 have attempted suicide while influenced by such drugs and 5 year olds have committed suicide. Between 1995 and 1999, antidepressant use increased 580% in the under 6 population and 151% in the 7-12 age group.[20] Even among adults SSRIs have consistently revealed a risk of suicide (completed or attempted) that is two to four times higher than placebo.[21]
Combining Side Effects
Antidepressants typically cause nervousness, so physicians often prescribe a sedative to enable sleep. Many people then need a third drug to help them wake up. And doctors are starting to prescribe acid-inhibiting drugs such as Nexium to prevent the gastrointestinal bleeding caused by antidepressants. It is not uncommon for a person who takes an antidepressant to also have to take several other drugs to help him cope with the side effects. Very little is known about the long term effects of the various combinations of these drugs. Author Ed Welch tells about a man experiencing periodic confusion and intellectual decline who was treated with medication and diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at age 52. His situation had deteriorated to the point that he was put in a nursing home, where he stayed for nine years. After almost a decade, when he was 61, the family’s resources were depleted and his wife took him out of the hospital and discontinued his medications. After going through withdrawal symptoms he improved dramatically and went on to teach college math.[22]
Withdrawal
Once a person has begun taking a mood medication getting off that medication can be agony. Typical withdrawal symptoms include dizziness, lightheadedness, irritability, fatigue, nausea, etc. Benzodiazepines (tranquilizers) are one of only two kinds of drugs that can result in fatality if discontinued too abruptly.
Chemical Sanctification?
Even in cases where a medication does seem to help, it does not follow that the problem must have been caused by a chemical imbalance. When aspirin takes away a headache we do not assume the headache must have been caused by an aspirin imbalance in the brain. A spiritual problem can have physical effects, and reducing those effects with drugs does nothing to address the spiritual problem.
For example, if a person robs a bank and is plagued with debilitating guilt, so he drinks an entire bottle of wine and then feels much better, the fact that the wine seemed to “help” with his guilt problem does not mean it was a purely physical issue with no spiritual component. If a man brutally beats his wife when he gets mad, and then he takes some lithium and stops beating her, does that prove he was without sin while he was beating her? Not at all. It does point to a physical
component
to his problem, but not a physical
cause
. If a married man routinely commits adultery, then begins taking a drug that drastically reduces his sex drive so he no longer commits adultery, does that mean his adultery was caused by a chemical imbalance and was therefore not a spiritual issue? If a slothful person becomes more motivated after taking speed, does that mean his sloth was not a spiritual issue after all – only a speed deficiency in the bloodstream?
The level of temptation can be dramatically affected by physical things, but the
decision
to sin is always a matter of the heart. Is it possible for a person to have some physical defect in the brain that makes a particular temptation harder to resist? Yes. Any kind of physical weakness can contribute to spiritual weakness. Most people tend to be more selfish and irritable after two nights without sleep than when they are well rested. But it is not the sleeplessness that causes the sin. Sin is in the heart already, and when a person is physically strong that sin can be resisted (or hidden) more effectively than when the body is weak. This is why sin tends to increase with physical weakness – whether it be a brain injury, old age, fatigue, or illness. But the decision to sin is always a spiritual decision made by my spirit and merely carried out by my body.
What about the effect of hormones? How is it that a woman may have a tremendous struggle with irritability, sadness, or some other form of moodiness like clockwork during her period each month, but not other times in the month? There are a couple possibilities. One is that the effect of the hormones is to weaken her, so it is more difficult for her to resist wrong beliefs, since physical weakness contributes to spiritual weakness.
Another possibility is that the chemical imbalance theories of our culture have taken a toll on the woman’s attitude toward her level of responsibility for her mood. Just as the test subjects in chapter four tended to be more likely to cheat on a test when they were told they had taken a drug that would make them more emotional, so a woman who feels more emotional due to hormones may have a reduced sense of culpability for wrong attitudes during that time, so she does not restrain them with the same urgency she normally has.
Of course the body has an effect on the spirit. That is why Paul tells us our battle is against the flesh. But for the Christian, there is never a moment when the flesh is so dominant that there is no choice but to sin. Psychiatry has replaced “the devil made me do it” with “my body made me do it,” but neither excuse holds in light of God’s promise never to allow us to be tempted beyond our ability (1Cor.10:13).
Whatever the connection between hormones and the spiritual struggle, it must be remembered that sanctification is not accomplished by means of chemicals. Part of the fruit of the Spirit is joy (Gal.5:22). The Holy Spirit dwells within the believer, acts upon the soul, and the fruit – the result — is joy. What happens, then, when the Spirit encounters a chemical imbalance in the brain? Is He rendered incapable of producing His normal fruit? Not at all! The person who claims that his lack of joy is a purely physical issue and not a spiritual one is no different from a person who claims he is not responsible for his anger because there is a physical component to it. The close connection between the body soul does not mean that spiritual conditions have a physical cause. Anything Scripture speaks of as a spiritual issue, including joy and hope, is a spiritual issue.
It is not God’s design for us to be dependent on drugs for the basic functions of life. When a person is using prescription medications to calm down, wake up, go to work, relax, improve the appetite, etc., it is difficult to see the difference between him and the addict who uses just one drug to do all those things. Ephesians 5:18 tells us, “Do not get drunk with wine … but be filled by the Spirit.” The implication is that we should not look to chemicals to provide what we should be getting from the Holy Spirit. What is the difference between a person who looks to antidepressants for his joy (or caffeine for his strength[23]) and the person who says, “I just seem to handle life better after I’ve had a few beers”?
Spiritual goals cannot be achieved by chemical means. There is no drug in the world that will ever be able to solve the following problems:
Lack of love
Unwillingness to accept suffering from the hand of God
Ungodly thoughts
Ingratitude
Selfishness
Unfaithfulness
Pride
Disrespect
Disobedience
Joylessness
Discontent
Lack of faith in God
Confidence in God’s Word (Taking advantage of the placebo effect)
I believe the placebo effect is a God-given mechanism for our healing. The placebo effect is not restricted to drugs with no active ingredient. It is present whenever there is a high level of confidence in a remedy. For example, if a person takes an aspirin for a headache, pain is reduced by the aspirin, but even more if the person has a high level of confidence that the aspirin will work. This underscores the importance of working with the counselee to increase his confidence in the power of God’s Word.
Conversely, it may also be helpful to reduce the counselee’s level of confidence in antidepressants. When the counselee believes the problem is mainly a chemical one, and drugs are the primary hope of recovery, any improvements that come will be attributed to the drugs rather than to the true source. In one study, for example, depressed individuals who were given an exercise program without antidepressants were less likely to relapse into depression than those who used both exercise and medication.[24] Those who recovered by means of exercise had a sense of accomplishment, which is a great help in fighting depression. Those who were treated with medication and exercise tended to attribute the recovery to the drugs, so instead of thinking, “It wasn’t easy, but I worked hard and licked it” it was, “I have a disease and took a pill and felt better.”
This is not to say the power of God’s Word is dependent upon the level of one’s faith. The Word of God is living and active, and it has divine power. However the way one experiences that power can vary according to attitude. Where there is a low level of confidence, the healing power of God’s Word will be hindered. Where there is a high level of confidence it will go unhindered and have its full effect. The sad reality is that many Christians place more confidence in a psychiatrist’s medical degree or the properties of a drug than in the Word of God.
Curing the Disease
Physical pain is a very important gift from God. Without it we would destroy ourselves. If the brain received a signal saying, “There is a rock in my shoe,” but that signal did not involve pain, laziness might win, the rock would remain, and damage would be done to the foot. So to overcome our laziness God gave us a signaling system that cannot be ignored: pain. Ongoing pain insists that we remove whatever is causing the problem. Emotional pain functions the same way. It shouts to us, “There is a spiritual problem that is causing damage. Fix it!”
Treating painful emotions such as depression, fear, or anxiety with mood medications is like treating a compound fracture with morphine. Morphine can do wonders to relieve the intensity of the suffering, but it does nothing to set the broken bone. Imagine an emergency room where morphine was always prescribed, no matter what problem a patient presented, and no other treatment was given. That is the way many psychiatrists work. Someone comes in complaining of emotional pain, and they prescribe something to deaden that pain. Very few psychiatrists understand spiritual causes. For example, I knew a woman who mentioned to her doctor that she was getting ready to go on a trip and was not looking forward to being with the people she was going to be staying with. Her doctor immediately suggested that she take tranquilizers! There was no concern or even awareness that the ability to deal with unpleasant social situations is a spiritual issue.
Even when antidepressants bring a measure of relief, they do nothing to address the spiritual problem that is creating the emotional pain. And if they reduce the suffering enough to enable the person to get by, the urgency of finding a cure for the actual problem diminishes. It is not necessarily wrong to use a painkiller, but it is foolish to use a painkiller instead of treating the real problem. Treating depression or anxiety or distraction with drugs alone is like taking care of a red warning light on the dashboard of your car by disconnecting it. If a drug alleviates the pain just enough to rob the person of the urgency needed to find a solution to the real problem, then it is doing far more harm than good.
Addiction
The addictive nature of these drugs should not be minimized. Many of them are very addictive, especially benzodiazepines (Xanax, Librium, Valium, etc.). The fact that a person with a medical degree authorizes taking them seems to legitimize it, but the reality is, taking anti-anxiety drugs is essentially the same as having a couple shots of Scotch each day.
Any kind of addiction is sin, even if is a substance prescribed by someone in a lab coat. Part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control (Gal.5:23), and we are not to be mastered or controlled by anything (1 Cor. 6:12, 2 Pet. 2:19).
Ritalin
I recently asked a secular psychologist which of the commonly prescribed psychotropic drugs is creating the worst problem with addiction, and her response surprised me: “Ritalin—by far.” Ritalin is a drug commonly given to children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
According to the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), “Ritalin is a Schedule II stimulate, structurally and pharmacologically similar to amphetamines and cocaine and has the same dependency profile of cocaine and other stimulants. Ritalin produces amphetamine and cocaine-like reinforcing effects including increased rate of euphoria and drug liking. Treatment with Ritalin in childhood predisposes takers to cocaine’s reinforcing effects. … Ritalin produces behavioral, physiological and reinforcing effects similar to amphetamines.[25]
Side-effects of Ritalin include increased blood pressure, heart rate, respirations and temperature; appetite suppression, weight loss, growth retardation; facial tics, muscle twitching, central nervous system stimulation, euphoria, nervousness, irritability and agitation, psychotic episodes, violent behavior, paranoid delusions, hallucinations, bizarre behaviors, heart arrhythmias, palpitations and high blood pressure; tolerance, psychological dependence, and even death.[26]
Like other mood medications, it is not known how Ritalin works or what it does to the brain. Nor has any physical abnormality been discovered in the brains of ADD or ADHD patients. Ritalin is a stimulant, and its effects are experienced by anyone who takes it. We could all focus better if we were on speed, but the “cure” would do far more harm than the “disease.”
ADD and ADHD
It is not a disorder for a seven-year-old boy to have a hard time sitting still for seven hours a day at school. God designed young children – especially boys – to run! Drugging them may make it easier for teachers to control the classroom, but there are better methods.
Discipline
If a child is unruly teach the parents to bring his behavior under control through consistent, firm discipline. Disobedience is not a mental disease; it is the folly of the heart that must be driven out with loving, consistent use of the rod (Pr.22:15).
Whatever a person believes about ADD, one thing is certain—all sinful behavior comes from the child’s heart, not from a brain disorder. If a child is disrespectful, lazy, disobedient, or undisciplined, those are spiritual problems and should not be overlooked simply because the world diagnoses him with a mental disease.
Activity
My son had an extremely difficult time sitting still in school or anywhere else. In the years we homeschooled him, when we saw that he was unable to focus we would send him out to the backyard to jump on the trampoline for ten minutes, or run around the block. He would come back in the house huffing and puffing and much more able to concentrate. It worked wonders!
Nutrition
In some cases, feeding the child a healthy, high protein, low-carbohydrate breakfast can make a difference in his ability to focus through the day.
These solutions are healthy, free, and have none of the dangers of Ritalin. If you counsel someone with a child who is doing poorly in school, urge him to be very slow to start his child on a drug. Our children face enough struggles without becoming subject to addiction and chemical dependence by their own parents.
And even if other remedies do not seem to work, we should ask ourselves, “How important is academic excellence in the third grade in comparison with spiritual issues, anyway?” Many Christians put far too great an emphasis on performance in school, even though performance in school—especially elementary school—has not been shown to be related to success in life. A student who gets D’s in school and is drug free will generally do far better in life than a child who gets A’s and is dependent upon stimulants from an early age.
Marijuana
As more and more states legalize “medical” marijuana the use of this drug is becoming a significant problem in the Church. With the legal prohibition removed many Christians see no problem with the use of this drug. After all, doesn’t Genesis 1:29 clearly say that God has given us every herb for our use? Before using marijuana the believer should consider the following ten factors.
1) Misuse
If smoking marijuana is justified on the basis of Genesis 1:29, cocaine use would also be permissible, as it comes from the coca plant. All plants are indeed given for our use, but none of them are given for our misuse. The mere fact that God placed a particular plant in this world does not mean He intended for us to smoke it. In fact, Genesis 1:29 specifies that the various plants are given to us “for food,” not for smoking. This does not mean every plant is to be ingested. Indeed, many plants are lethal if eaten. Therefore, Genesis 1:29 is speaking about food-producing plants.
2) Pharmaceia
The Greek word pharmaceia (from which we get our word pharmacy) appears in lists of sins in Gal.5:20, Rev.9:21, 18:23, 21:8, and 22:15. It is usually translated “magic,” but it refers to the use of drugs – especially hallucinogens like marijuana. Very often when people used drugs at that time it was connected with magic – some attempt to get closer to God through a chemically altered state, but the word itself points to drug use. Each of the passages that include pharmaceia in a list of sins, then, condemns the use of mind altering drugs for their mind altering properties.
3) Ephesians 5:18 and Drunkenness
Proponents of marijuana use often point to alcohol as being a more harmful drug. If alcohol is permissible for a believer, it is argued, why not pot?
When alcohol is used in a harmful way, however, it is not permissible for a believer. Drinking to the point of falling under the influence of the alcohol is forbidden in Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled by the Spirit.” At exactly what point does one cross the line from being sober to violating the principle of that verse? Is it the end point (being so plastered you cannot even stand up)? Or the beginning point, when the alcohol first begins to have any effect at all?
With other sins we understand that sin is to be cut off at the beginning point. Lust must be resisted not only at the end point of sleeping with someone outside of marriage, but at the point of a lustful look. If the sin of drunkenness is to be treated the same way, then the line is crossed the moment the alcohol begins to have an effect on the brain (not an easy thing for the drinker to detect – which is why drinking calls for a great deal of carefulness). The same principle applies to marijuana use. As soon as there is a chemical effect, the line into sin has been crossed.
The juxtaposition of drunkenness with the filling by the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18 implies that we are not to look to wine (or any other substance) for those things we should be seeking from the Holy Spirit, (such as peace, hope, or joy). Inability to sufficiently relax is a spiritual issue that should be addressed spiritually, not chemically.
4) Clarity of Thought
As Christians we are always on the clock. At any moment you might be in a position to present the gospel to someone, or help a brother or sister who is struggling and in need of counsel, or you might be faced with an especially difficult decision. It is crucial that we keep our minds as lucid as possible all the time. Even those who claim marijuana does no harm to the clarity of their thinking, if they were going to have open heart surgery tomorrow, would probably prefer a sober surgeon over one who had been smoking marijuana on a daily basis.
5) Weaker Brothers
Suppose there is someone who was saved out of a really wicked, sinful lifestyle that involved all kinds of immorality and pot was a big part of that lifestyle. As a new Christian he might not be able to make distinctions between the pot itself and that whole sinful lifestyle. For him it is just one big package. When a person like that sees a mature believer using marijuana he is likely to think, “It must be OK to dabble in that lifestyle” so they do, and they are then caught up in the whole immoral scene they used to be a part of.
6) Addiction
Like alcohol and other drugs, some people seem to be easily addicted and others are not. But long term exposure to anything that is addictive to a large percentage of people is foolish if it can be avoided.
7) Marijuana Culture
Smoking marijuana brings a person into a culture that is never a good influence. Association with that culture is a step in the wrong direction.
8) Gateway to stronger drugs
No one who has never been high or drunk just decides one day to go out and try methamphetamines or heroin. They work their way up to it. And since pot is so socially acceptable it is an easy first step to take. Once a person gets used to the idea of getting stoned, getting stoned on something a little stronger is not such a big step.
9) Stewardship
Pot is not a harmless drug. The only sources that claim otherwise tend to be sources with a pro-pot political agenda. Neutral sources consistently agree that there are harmful effects, which brings up issues that have to do with stewardship. It is poor stewardship to do unnecessary harm to one’s body, because doing so limits the ability to serve God’s people and carry out one’s calling.
Medicine?
Paul urged Timothy to use wine in a medicinal way (1 Timothy 5:23), so why not use marijuana as medicine? In instances where the drug can do more good than harm it would be fine to use it as medicine. However those instances are rare. The pill form of the active chemical in marijuana (dronabinal) can be helpful for the nausea caused by chemotherapy, but not as effective as other nausea medicines. Research is being done on the use of marijuana for chronic pain, but while research has pointed to limited clinical value in one compound of the FDA approved form, the same benefit is not attained in its smoked or raw form. Smoking is an ineffective and illogical way to deliver medicine – dosage cannot be regulated, and tar and other harmful compounds are delivered directly to the lungs along with any helpful cannabinoids. In fact, Dr. Robert DuPont, former director of NIDA, says, “There is no acceptable role in modern medicine for using burning leaves as a drug delivery system because smoke is inherently unhealthy.”[27] Other delivery methods are also problematic. Vaporizing does not filter cancer-causing tar or other chemicals, and eating delivers the same damaging compounds as well as the insecticides and fungi found in unmonitored crops.
Most sources agree that in the short term pot causes distorted perception (sights, sounds, time, touch), problems with memory and learning, loss of coordination, trouble with thinking and problem-solving, increased heart rate, reduced blood pressure, and in many cases anxiety, fear, distrust, or panic.
A person who smokes pot four times a week can have active THC in their system for about two weeks and a daily user up to six to eight weeks. There is even a slang term for it….”perma-buzz”….as in permanently buzzed. This means an “occasional” user who smokes only once every several weeks is in reality a continuous user.
When I have counseled people after they have smoked pot and are still under the influence they are incoherent, distracted, irrational, and either remember nothing I said or remember it in such distorted fashion that it’s not what I said at all. These people tend to think that they are perfectly lucid and can think clearly – even more clearly than normal. It is obvious to everyone around them, however, that they are in a fog. And being in a fog is a very dangerous place to be spiritually. It makes a person easily influenced by Satan.
Brain researchers tell us that while pot can help with pain due to the fact that there are cannabinoid receptors in the portions of the brain that process sensations of pain and pleasure, there are also many cannabinoid receptors in the parts of the brain that influence memory, thought, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.
When high doses of marijuana are used it can result in hallucinations, delusions, disorientation, and adverse effects on the heart. Within a few minutes after smoking marijuana, the heart begins beating more rapidly and the blood pressure drops. Marijuana can cause the heart beat to increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute, and can increase even more if other drugs are used at the same time. Because of the lower blood pressure and higher heart rate, researchers found that users’ risk for a heart attack is four times higher within the first hour after smoking marijuana, compared to their general risk of heart attack when not smoking.
Additionally, even occasional use of marijuana can result in many of the same respiratory problems as tobacco smoking. And marijuana contains more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke and because marijuana smokers typically inhale deeper and hold the smoke in their lungs longer than tobacco smokers, their lungs are exposed to those carcinogenic properties longer when smoking.
Research indicates that THC impairs the body’s immune system from fighting disease, which can cause a wide variety of health problems. One study found that marijuana actually inhibited the disease-preventing actions of key immune cells. Another study found that THC increased the risk of developing bacterial infections and tumors.
If marijuana were a real medicine it would be treated like any other medicine. Can you imagine buying Amoxicillin for your child with an ear infection at a dilapidated “Medical Antibiotic Clinic” that is unregulated and the antibiotic is produced in someone’s basement? If marijuana were a legitimate medicine you would take your prescription to the pharmacy window at Walgreens and buy it just like you do any other prescription. Medical marijuana is thinly veiled effort to get around the current marijuana possession laws. One clinic in Denver is even named “The 420 Medical Marijuana Clinic”. “420” is slang for “Let’s go get stoned”.
10) Stunted Spiritual Growth
Marijuana has a freezing effect on the maturing process. A young person becomes overwhelmed with his problems, begins smoking marijuana, and escapes from caring about the rent being late, or a relationship falling apart while he plays video games. His problems pile up, so he smokes even more, resulting in more problems, and a decade can slip by. A young person who begins smoking pot at 16 years old and continues until he is 25 will basically be a 16 year old in a 25 year old body.
Most people who smoke marijuana do so for the purpose of reducing stress and anxiety. Marijuana accomplishes this quite effectively, but it does so by creating feelings of apathy. A person who is high on pot does not care about anything. I believe this to be the most damaging effect of marijuana use. Apathy is one of the greatest enemies of the Christian soul. God has promised that we will find Him only when we seek Him with all our heart and soul (Dt.4:29), and He will not demean His greatness by allowing Himself to be found by halfhearted seekers. This means no one who is apathetic can find God.
The Christian life is a constant struggle against apathy. Caring too little about important things derails everything in the believer’s walk with God. For prayer to be effective it must be earnest (James 5:16). Our love for God and hatred of evil must be passionate (Romans 12:9). The Christian life requires brokenness over sin (Isaiah 57:15) and compassion for others (1 Peter 3:8) – both of which are a kind of anxiety. We are to care so deeply for others that their weeping makes us cry, and their joy makes us laugh (Romans 12:15). Apathy destroys all of these things. Why would a true child of God intentionally take a drug that would increase the lethal spiritual disease of apathy?
Many proponents of legalizing pot will make the argument that pot is less harmful than alcohol because no one ever smoked pot and then beat his wife. That may be true. But a pot smoker can watch his wife pack her bags and walk out the door with their children and respond with a giggle, saying, “Oh well, she was hassling me all the time anyway. I need another joint.” Beating your wife is a horrible thing, but not caring about important things and being unable to cope with life’s problems any other way than being stoned are also horrible and destructive.
Electroshock Therapy
Electroshock Therapy (ECT) is a procedure in which an electrical current is sent through the brain causing a grand-mal seizure for 20 seconds. The patient generally wakes up about 30 minutes after the procedure confused, unaware of what has happened or where he is, and often with an aching jaw, sore limbs, and severe headache. The most common side effect of ECT is memory loss. Some patients report memory loss for events that occurred during the day, weeks, and months preceding ECT.
Proponents of the procedure claim an 80% success rate. These “successes,” however, are short-lived. There is no evidence that ECT remains effective for more than four weeks.[28] The relapse rate is close to 100%. Nothing is known about why it helps in the short term or exactly what it does to the brain. One possibility is that the shock damages the brain, causing memory loss and disorientation that creates a temporary illusion that problems are gone. Psychiatrist Peter Breggin warns, “Taking a chance at electroshock is like playing Russian roulette with your brain.” He explains that what looks like “relief” is really just the “slap-happy” effect of a head trauma. “For a time, people become silly, shallow and giggly, like a teenager who has sniffed glue – – or a person who has just had shock treatment.”[29]
If a counselee is considering electroshock therapy alert him to the risks and the lack of evidence for any long term effectiveness.
[1] Elliot Valenstein, Blaming the Brain, 125.
Cited by Chris Kresser http://thehealthyskeptic.org/the-chemical-imbalance-myth
[2] “Estimates of brain neurotransmitters can only be inferred by measuring the biogenic amine breakdown products (metabolites) in the urine and cerebrospinal fluid. The assumption underlying this measurement is that the level of biogenic amine metabolites in the urine and cerebrospinal fluid reflects the amount of neurotransmitters in the brain. However, less than one-half of the serotonin and norepinephrine metabolites in the urine or cerebrospinal fluid come from the brain. The other half come from various organs in the body. Thus, there are serious problems with what is actually being measured.” (http://thehealthyskeptic.org/the-chemical-imbalance-myth)
[3] Maxmen and Ward,
Essential Psychopathology and Its Treatment,
1995, p.57. Cited by John D. Street, “The Failing Attempt of Integration Psychology,” lecture, Shepherds’ Conference, 2004.
[4] Joanna Moncrieff and Irving Kirsc (http://talkingcure.co.uk/articles/bmj-331-moncrieffkirsch.pdf)
[5] Even double blind studies are not truly blind because the subjects who receive the antidepressant rather than placebo experience the side effects of the antidepressant, so they know they got the real thing.
[6] Lecture by Carey Hardy, “A Prescription for Sanctification,” Shepherd’s Conference, 2001.
In the studies placebo was more effective when the following factors were present:
an enthusiastic doctor
white lab coat
hospital machines in the room
capsules rather than tablets
bad taste
exact dosages
warning labels
[7] Kresser, http://thehealthyskeptic.org/the-heart-of-depression
[8] http://www.pophealthmetrics.com/content/2/1/9
[9] Kresser, http://thehealthyskeptic.org/a-closer-look-at-antidepressants
[10] Irving Kirsh,
The Emperor’s New Drugs.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Grace Jackson, MD,
Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent
,Bloomington, IN, AuthorHouse: 2005, 90.
[13] Weel-Baumgarten 2000 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10771465.
[14] Moncrieff & Kirsch 2006 http://www.bmj.com/content/331/7509/155.full see also www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1992.tb03218.x?journalCode=acp, http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/171/5/427)
[15] David O. Antonuccio, David D. Burns, and William G. Danton, Antidepressants: A Triumph of Marketing Over Science? 2004 http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2002-07-15-Antonuccio-therapy-vs-med.htm
[16] Marangell et al.
2001, p.1059.
Cited by Troy Centazzo (http://www.mblwellness.com/community/shining-a-light-on-the-dark-side.htm)
[17] Beasley et al. 2001.Cited by Chris Kresser (http://thehealthyskeptic.org/the-dark-side-of-antidepressants)
[18] David Healy, Antidepressant Drug Use and the Risk of Suicide, 2005. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16194787
[19] http://www.fightforkids.org/facts.php
[20] Ibid.
[21] Healy, Antidepressant Drug Use and the Risk of Suicide, 2005. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16194787 There are volumes of published research and many books which present this information with much more detail on long term negative effects, including Peter Breggin’s landmark “Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry” and Grace Jackson’s “Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs.”
[22] Edward T. Welch,
Blame it on the Brain?
(Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 1998), 72-73.
[23] It is not necessarily sin to ingest caffeine, but when a person becomes dependent upon that drug to function in life he has violated the principle of Ephesians 5:18.
[24] Kresser, http://thehealthyskeptic.org/treating-depression-without-drugs-part-i In a study published in Psychosomatic Medicine in 2000, another important advantage of exercise over antidepressants was revealed. Participants in the exercise group were less likely to relapse than participants in the two groups receiving medication. Other studies have confirmed this effect, demonstrating that aerobic exercise is especially helpful in the prevention of relapse and recurrence of depression.
[25] http://drbate.com/Ref/DEA.html
[26] Ibid.
[27] http://www.dfaf.org/questions-answers/marijuana
[28] Andrew Weil, MD, http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA400268
[29] http://www.electroboy.com/electroshocktherapy.htm. For more information see Peter Breggin,
Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex, Second Edition
(2008).
