Having observed my girlfriend&#x27;s &quot;mental illness&quot; [1], I can say, with confidence, that Psychiatry is the problem with America&#x27;s approach to mental health. As Dr. McHugh observes [2], conventional Psychiatrists &quot;diagnose&quot; their patients&#x27; symptoms, and treat the diagnosis without much concern about the actual causes thereof.<p>One of my girlfriend&#x27;s problems is that she has low energy levels - certainly caused by previous stimulant use, and her body&#x27;s inability to efficiently produce energy (ATP) by burning glucose&#x2F;fructose. Before she met me, she treated this symptom (low cellular energy levels) by drinking alcohol regularly. Alcohol is an energy-rich molecule, the metabolites of which are easily burned by the insulin-resistant brain cells which have become insulin-resistant. She started drinking a month after starting methadone, a drug which is known to cause sugar cravings.<p>Deciding to quit methadone was easy once she realized that she hated it. But when she lost access to alcohol, her brain went into a sort of &#x27;survival&#x27; mode, which led to her being taken to the hospital [1]...<p>The causes behind my girlfriend&#x27;s condition are fairly obvious to me, having observed her for months now. But the hospital staff had no context for why their patient was acting the way she was, so they just treated her symptoms. The doctors at the inpatient facilities she&#x27;s been at don&#x27;t care about physiology either, they just reach into the pharmacy and try new drugs with the proper label (&quot;anti-depressant&quot;, &quot;anti-psychotic&quot;, &quot;mood-stabilizer&quot; - these are marketing terms, imho). She&#x27;s still exhausted, but at least they&#x27;re giving her the coconut oil capsules I dropped.<p>There is another way. My grandfather, a dentist with an interest in hypnosis, didn&#x27;t remember much of his one class with psychiatrist Milton Erickson, M.D., except that Dr. Erickson was always &quot;bitching&quot; - about having to go to medical school, having to learn anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, etc etc, when all he really wanted to do was hypnosis (this was Dr. Erickson&#x27;s method of conversational hypnosis, applied to an audience of medical professionals). The Erickson Foundation released a really cool documentary [3] last year...<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10639657" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10639657</a>
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.commentarymagazine.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;how-psychiatry-lost-its-way&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.commentarymagazine.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;how-psychiatry-l...</a>
[3] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;wizardofthedesertfilm.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;wizardofthedesertfilm.com&#x2F;</a>