Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation

From reading the passionate reviews pro and con on this site it's obvious that Barber's argument hits a lot of people where they live. The debate over the efficacy of psychiatric drugs, particularly the now ubiquitous SSRIs, is ferocious. Barber's conclusions are informed by years of experience with mentally ill clients in shelters in new york city, as well as a long, careful interrogation of the many thorny questions raised by this topic. Anybody who has had the pleasure of dealing with the mental health care system, whether seeking help for themselves or for a loved one, has stories of the inadequacy, inhumanity, and lack of resources and imagination the system embodies. a lot of our collective perception of psychiatry is a residual image from hollywood, from the mid-20th century freudian ideas that found their way onto the screen. a lot of people think that all psychiatrists are wise, kindly psychoanalysts. A lot of people think that psychopharmacology is an exact science, that we understand the unbelievably subtle, complex chemistry of the brain and how these medications work (or don't). Like David Healy, Barber doesn't say that all psychomeds are bad; used properly they save and transform lives. but drugs are no more the single answer to the painful riddles of mental illness than recycling is the single solution to climate change. Comfortably Numb lays out how oversold, overprescribed antidepressants have transformed our culture, but that's only one of the ideas in this rich book. Barber argues persuasively for the urgent need to transform our approach, to rouse ourselves from our numbness, to bring imagination and ingenuity and humanity to our treatment of mental illness.

This book helped me a great deal. So that you can "consider the source" when reading my thoughts, I am not a healthcare professional, but I have spent over 1000 hours on a suicide hotline, and am active in Operation Snowball--an anti-drug, anti-alcohol program for teens. It is in those volunteer capacities that I relish this work. I think the author, Charlie Barber, along with a great many others I have read in recent years, points to some very basic issues we have to face in the coming years. John Cacioppo, author of "loneliness," (another book I loved) feels we face an epidemic of loneliness. And while drugs can be effective as we battle the onslaught, I am concerned that we too often run for the bottle of pills. I loved the way Charlie details the issues in the first half of the book, and then leaves the reader with practical and useful strategies for moving forward. I don't pretend to have the training or experience to employ the therapies he describes, but knowing about them sensitizes me to alternative avenues for the callers I face and teens who struggle to make sense of the oft-tragic lives they have been handed. I apologize if what I am about to say seems hopelessly naive, but it is the world I navigate. Often the most effective "medication" for the people in my life is a word of hope, a non-judgmental ear or simply a hug.

I practically devoured this book. I think Charles Barber makes some excellent well thought out points. I feel he was also very unbiased. He makes it very clear that he is not against medication, and that it is helpful in many cases. I think by far his best statement is "before antidepressants arrived, depression was considered a rare disease, affecting about 1 percent of the population (as opposed to 10 to 15 percent today)." As with every book you have to take the facts and make your own opinion, but there are some things that cannot be denied. I think there is a huge distinction between depression and Depression and I have heard too many stories from people I know that doctors are overly eager to prescribe medications. I also do not feel that Barber has made therapy the cure-all. He states these statistics just as obviously as he does with the medication. Barber has a very realistic understanding of mental illness due to his background and his research. I think he says it very well when he claims that pharmeceuticals create the image that a pill will solve your problems when in reality it takes a lot of hard work.

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating A Nation Charles Barber ISBN 978-0-375-42399-4 Charles Barber was educated at Harvard and Columbia and worked for ten years in New York City shelters for the homeless mentally ill. The title essay in his first book, Songs from the Black Chair, won a 2006 Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in the The Washington Post, the New York Times and Scientific American Mind, among other publications, and on NPR. He is a senior administrator at The Connection, an innovative social services agency, and a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. He lives in Connecticut with his family. The experiences Barber shares are eye openers. Until I read this book, I didn't realize just how doctors were indeed over prescribing medications -- not that there are not real cases of mental health problems that benefit from medications, but should the same pill to help a real case of depression also be used for someone suffering an adjustment issue? I was surprised to learn that this is the case. Medication has an important role in the treatment protocol for severe metal health issues - schizophrenia and major depression, but we are lead to believe that drugs are an effective way to relieve the normal episodes of life, as well. The drugs may get you over the hump of occasional depressing days, but it will do little or nothing to help you learn ways to get over the humps without prescription drugs. This book confirms for me that it's easier for Americans to pop a pill than address the real issues. With fast food, fast cars, and fast computers - it's no wonder we have settled for nothing less than a quick fix to the inevitabilities of life - losses, changes, etc. While many of us cope and work through the issues, there are some that would prefer to take a pill - quick relief being only a prescription away. And what is startling is that at least half of those in need of real assistance with real mental health issues are not receiving it. The physicians who are prescribing the quick fixes for normal adjustment issues remind me of a mechanic and their customer who has a flat tire - instead of the mechanic showing you how to change the tire or sending you to someone that can instruct you, he hands you a can of his special fix-a-flat-tire. Instead of learning to help yourself and getting the spare out of the trunk, rolling up your sleeves and changing the bloody thing, you whip out the can of the mechanic's special fix-a-flat-tire and you go on your marry way. However, the next morning, you're saddened to learn that once again your tire is flat - and the mechanic is closed. You have not learned to remedy life's flat tires and are totally dependant on the mechanic to solve your flat tire dilemma. I also didn't know that "Americans account for two-thirds of the global antidepressant and psychiatric drug market," and "227 million antidepressant prescriptions were dispensed to Americans in 2006 - more tha

Barber gives a lucid account of how over the past fifty years our culture has embraced a pharmaceutical solution to what ails us. It's obvious he did his homework and knows what he's talking about from a researcher's standpoint. At the same time he poses a very convincing, hip perspective that resonates deeply with anyone who is willing to take a good, hard look at the evolution that has occurred resulting in the widespread acceptance of the medicating of our society. A great read.