In my first article about depression, 'Is There A Cure For Depression', I showed that conventional medicine labels symptoms of depression as a 'syndrome' or 'disorder' for the convenience of prescribing chemical medications. I demonstrated that prescribed chemical antidepressants do not cure depression, have dangerous and sometimes fatal side effects, and have more commercial than health benefits. I concluded that therapies most likely to be successful in curing depression are holistic therapies. Research updates will focus on evidence of the efficacy of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies in depression.
This article reviews the encouraging results so far and compares them with recent developments of allopathic medicine in its attempts to find a cure for depression. The main feature of this article is an interview with the hypnotherapist Dr Frank Lea, which includes an example of his success in curing depression, using non-invasive, drug-free therapy, which respects the whole person.
Encouraging research results
Although our research is still in the early stages, it already shows that there is a variety of successful treatment options that can replace the $20 billion-dollar-a-year antidepressant industry.1 Some examples of therapies successful in curing depression are hypnotherapy, spiritual healing, traditional Chinese medicine and thought field therapy, to name a few. What drugs cannot accomplish in years, CAM therapies can achieve in hours. We warmly thank all those who have contributed so far and welcome more to contribute to the ongoing research.
Developments in allopathic medical science
While CAM has been effective for centuries in curing depression, allopathic medical science has recently invested its resources in experimental brain surgery as a solution to depression. In a Sixty Minutes video 'Battling Depression', Lesley Stahl interviewed patients with long-term depression that conventional methods failed to cure, who agreed to participate in the experiment as a last resort. The operation involves the insertion of a pacemaker in the patients' chest. The pacemaker provides shock stimulus to 'area 25' of the brain via wires through blood vessels to electrodes implanted in the brain.2
After six months of shock stimulus, the two participants interviewed showed improvements in symptoms. However, the procedure did not constitute a cure, as none of the patients could turn off the stimulator without the depression returning. If the same mildly 'positive results' are reproduced in a large-scale clinical trial this year, the implantation of electrodes will create a multi billion dollar a year industry. The risks associated with the surgery are stroke, infection and unknown long-term effects. There is a clear conflict of interests since there is no evidence that the results were not due to placebo effect, yet any positive results will be used to justify profits before cure.
Interview with Dr Frank Lea
Profile - Introducing Dr Lea:
Dr. Frank W. Lea, DD, Dip. NLP (Master Prac.), RPHH, DCMT, APHP, POSH, DASH. Developer of 'Creative Mindpower Techniques',Professional trainer in Advanced Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Stage hypnotism, Business Consultant and trainer in Conflict Management, Mediating, Stress Management, Personal and Performance Development and Life Coach. Registered Practitioner of Clinical and Holistic Hypnotherapy. A Founder Member of the Hypnotherapy Practitioners Association, Patron and Chief Advisor to the Institute of Hypnotherapy and Energy Sciences (India) and the Indian Hypnosis Association, Advanced Practitioner of Freeway-CER, Registered with the NHS and BUPA, holds Diplomas in Hypnotherapy & Psychotherapy and Advanced Stage Hypnotism, Certificates in Counselling Skills and Advanced Psycho-Sexual Therapy, Appointed Therapist for National Phobics Society and Smokebusters.3
Martha: Have you heard about brain surgery as a treatment for depression and what do you think of it?
Dr. Lea: Yes, I know even nowadays occasional surgery is carried out whereby they destroy part of the brain with electrical shock. My opinion is that this is utterly stupid, almost pre-historic. To destroy part of the brain has to cause further problems and is obviously stupid and dangerous. Even though using my techniques it is possible to completely remove a memory (some therapists try making a client forget they smoked, for instance), I believe that everything is interconnected and it is unwise to interfere with any part of the memory or brain.
Martha: Do you agree with the medical classification of three types of depression: 'Major', 'Dysthymia', and 'Bi-polar Disorder', and can you identify other types of depression?
Dr. Lea: The medical profession have to label everything, if they can't label it or put it in a bottle they deny its existence or cannot treat it. Personally I ignore any labels. Clients come to me stating they have been diagnosed with 'acute' or 'manic' depression. I listen but ignore it because whatever level or depth the so-called depression is it can be helped and the client can be lifted out of it, often in less than one hour.
Martha: My research has discovered that definitions of depression as 'disorder' or 'chemical imbalance' are constructed by pharmaceuticals for the purpose of selling their products. How would you define depression?
Dr. Lea: I would agree that 'labels' are created by pharmaceuticals and doctors for their convenience, much in the same way as there are hundreds of different phobias listed, yet to me it matters not what the phobia is of, the treatment is pretty much the same. I define depression almost as a self-inflicted habit, the habit of thinking in negative ways, the person's perception of the world being negative or 'bad', even a deep lack of self-esteem or self-worth: "everything is bad", "there is no hope", "nothing will ever go right". When a person thinks like this they actually make these things come true, thus strengthening their negative belief. My approach is to turn all this around and completely change their perception of life and create a truly positive frame of mind. In short, depression is a state of mind and a state of mind can easily be altered.
Martha: Evidence shows that medications do not cure depression and cause horrendous side effects. Do you have experience of drug free cure of depression?
Dr. Lea: I believe my previous answers show that my techniques make drugs of any kind completely unnecessary, this goes for 99.9% of all human maladies.
Martha: Can you briefly explain what hypnotherapy is, and how it works?
Dr. Lea: Briefly, hypnotherapy is the use of the natural state of hypnosis, sometimes called trance, which has been known about for at least four hundred years. Hypnosis, named after the Greek god, Hypnos, meaning sleep, occurs naturally in everyone, sometimes as a result of shock, stress, or during a long time of repetitive activity such as reading, driving, etc. It is like being on autopilot. In the state of hypnosis the conscious mind goes to sleep causing the subconscious mind to take over. This allows a person to access the subconscious, which is responsible for all our actions, feelings and emotions. It is the subconscious that causes us to do things we may not really want to do such as smoking, overeating, and developing fears and phobias. It affects our behaviour and so on.
When a hypnotist helps a person enter the state of hypnosis and then uses that state to access the subconscious and resolve whatever issues that have been causing the problem, this is known as hypnotherapy. The miraculous effect is that once the causal issue has been dealt with, the habit or problem changes instantly just like changing a program in a computer. The power and ability of the subconscious is awesome and virtually unlimited. Using that power through the state of trance can help people achieve almost anything they want.
Martha: I understand it has taken some time to develop your techniques. Can you describe how you combine hypnosis with other techniques such as NLP?
Dr Lea: NLP is the art of using words and utilising the natural response to "triggers" that the subconscious uses all the time (a certain smell, sound or tune will trigger a memory for instance, an example being Pavlov's dog salivating at the sound of a bell). This technique is powerful by itself but when used in conjunction with the state of trance where the imagination and all senses are greatly enhanced it becomes ten times more powerful, thus enabling a good hypnotist to resolve life-long problems in a few minutes. It seems like magic, almost unbelievable, but is very true. I have helped agoraphobics who have not been out in twenty years to be able to go out happily in less than fifteen minutes.
Martha: Thank you so much for this information. I find your explanation of hypnotherapy very interesting - it has taught me much that I didn't know, and also explained some things that have happened in my personal experience.
Can you give detailed case histories of clients who were diagnosed and unsuccessfully treated by allopathic medicine?
Dr. Lea: Here's the first one:
Depression Case Studies
By Dr. Frank Lea, hypnosis, (NLP) and personal development trainer
In these studies, which I shall post from time to time, I will name males as Jack and females as Jill, regardless of their real names.
Case 1
Jack came to see me after five years of psychiatric treatment for “manic depression”. He stated that he had attempted suicide three times in that period and that if this session with me did not help he would definitely “do himself in”.
The first thing I did was to use hypnosis to completely eliminate any idea of suicide, getting his subconscious to agree that there was plenty to live for and too many people would be saddened if he were to die.
Following that I used NLP techniques to discover the origins of the depression, what started the thoughts that he was useless, that life was too complicated and not worth living, etc. Then with a combination of NLP techniques, whilst utilising the immense power of hypnosis allowing Jack to enter the deep recesses of his subconscious, we dealt with those causal factors, eliminating the negative effects and building on the positive things until the causal factors were no longer important and had no negative effects on his mind.
After this session Jack reported feeling exceptionally good and was motivated to get up in the mornings and begin to do things such as repairs to his home, cleaning, the garden etc., things which he had previously no interest in whatsoever - in other words he now had goals and an interest in life, which were for the last 5 years non-existent.
Because of the seriousness of the original depression I arranged a second session during which we built on his newfound confidence, trust and respect for himself. He remarked that his girlfriend was amazed at the change in him and he could not understand why only an hour or so with me could achieve so much when five years with a psychiatrist only made the problems worse.
I explained that this was because psychiatrists need to put a label on things, then followed tried, tested and proven not to work treatments and drugs, whereas I understand that all such problems are created by the mind for various reasons and only the mind knows why and only the mind can change things. Therefore it is only necessary to ask the mind (subconscious) why etc. then get it to agree to make the desired changes, which, provided they are for the benefit of the client, it will do instantly.
A few months after this last session Jack contacted me to say he was getting married and they were moving to a new home in Cornwall where he now had a job as a woodcarver and was really looking forward to their new life.4
Depression is curable without drugs, shock or surgery
Dr Lea points out on his website that the health service does not realise the many millions of pounds it could save by using skilled professionals such as himself. Evidently more needs to be done to inform the health service and the public that depression is curable without recourse to drugs, ECT or surgery.
This update will be followed up with further case studies from Dr Lea and other therapists who have successfully cured depression, using non-invasive methods, without the use of drugs, for clients whom conventional medicine could not help.
If you are a CAM therapist with experience of curing any kind of depression and would like to be included in this research, please send in your case histories for publication in subsequent issues. We are particularly interested in patients who have been unsuccessfully treated by primary care but successfully by a CAM therapy. Please mail to: research@infoholix.net
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