Chaim* was admired in yeshiva for his incredible diligence. His days were consumed with learning and he could be found in the Beis Midrash almost 24/7. For him, sleep was a waste of time. Great things were forecast for his future until neighbors found him lying in the middle of the street in Geula, hallucinating that he was Moshiach. Medications stopped his racing mind but made him feel like a zombie. He became depressed and shell of his former self. His parents thought they were acting responsibly when they had him hospitalized and then put in a hostel.
Rivki*, a lively high school senior, was flattered when she was chosen to lead fifty girls on a two-week, end of the year outing. It was exciting, but between planning the next day’s activities and studying for her final exams, Rivki barely had time to sleep or eat. In fact, she discovered that she needed no sleep at all. By the end of the two weeks, she began to hallucinate and ended up in the emergency room. Despite a six-month stay in a psychiatric facility, where she received shock treatments and a variety of drugs, Rivki’s condition deteriorated over the next three years. Her mother heard about me and was willing to try a different approach. When I first met Rivki, she was overweight, lifeless and depressed. Eventually, during the three months it took to wean her off the meds, she adopted a healthy diet, went to aerobics classes and took the natural mood-stabilizers I recommended. She soon lost weight, regained the spark in her eyes and enrolled in college. She told me recently, “I feel like I’m alive again, having emerged from a three-year nightmare during which I completely lost my sense of self.”
While I do not hesitate to recommend drugs for the severely disturbed or for a short-term crisis, I believe the vast majority of people can improve by learning to overcome negative thoughts and self-harming habits, and especially by getting adequate sleep and propernutrition. Telling people they must be on meds forever is like saying that we must take antibiotics forever due to one infection. This is especially true during the turbulent teen years or during a single crisis, when it is normal to suffer from intense emotions, fears and identity issues.
I know this because I went through one such experience myself forty years ago, at the age of thirty. Like many emotional and sensitive types, I loved the excitement which came with creative endeavors. So, as I was writing my doctoral dissertation in psychology, I gave full expression to the impulse. With ideas flooding my mind, I easily skipped breakfast and then lunch; I was on a high which filled me like no food possibly could. I felt no need for food or sleep. I wrote day and night, only stopping to take care of my daughter until she went to gan or returned. This continued for three weeks during which time I did not lose weight; I was sustained by a delicious divine energy. I thought I had reached such a high level of spirituality that I no longer had physical needs! But then, at the end of three weeks, I began to hallucinate, thinking that I had G-dly powers and secret information to reveal to the world. A relative took me to Dr. L., chief psychiatrist of a prestigious hospital who, after reviewing my history, looked grimly at my family member and said, “She will need to be medicated for the rest of her life and will probably need frequent hospitalizations.” He handed me a list of prescriptions and ushered me briskly out.
Thankfully, this relative took me to a n alternative healer who had helped her in the past. He gave me a shot of vitamins, as well as various supplements to help me calm down. He told me about the importance of sleep and good nutrition, which no one had ever mentioned before. Since then, I have never relapsed, although I still take natural supplements, avoid junk foods and gluten, and make sure to get adequate sleep. I share this in a public forum because Big Pharma and its advertisers have teamed up to convince people that they cannot be sane without psychiatric meds. They minimize the fact that, in addition to the “minor” side-effects, such as dry mouth, stomach upset and loss of libido, these drugs accelerate Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Parkinson’s, internal bleeding and osteoporosis. True, some people want to be put out of their misery quickly with drugs, but they must be informed of the consequences. If this article gives people hope to heal without drugs, then it is worth facing the ridicule and censure which is bound to come from people who are threatened by the concept of self-healing techniques.