The Truth about Mental Illness: Choices for Healing

This book has been very helpful to me to teach important subjects such as the choice of psychotherapy instead of drugs. It has also helped me to stress on the importance of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders. It is scientifically backed up and very easy to read. Very good book.

Most of what we've been told for years about mental illness is simply not true. It is not genetic, not the result of brain chemistry, and cannot be fixed through medication. Continuing in the vein of his prior book "The Truth about Depression," physician and psychotherapist Charles Whitfield chronicles countless studies linking childhood trauma to a host of disorders including generalized anxiety, substance abuse/chemical dependency, eating disorders, dissociative disorders, and schizophrenia. Whitfield unearths overwhelming evidence of the trauma-based roots of most mental illnesses and the physiological as well as emotional/mental implications. Nothing short of shocking and revolutionary in refuting the prevailing "biogenetic model." A must-read for anyone suffering from or interested in these widespread but poorly understood disorders. The book also raises serious questions about the influence that big pharmacy has on the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders.

This title is on target. This clear and easy read for both lay people and clinicians tells us what the drug industry, organized psychiatry and our government does not want us to know about the most common psychiatric and psychological illnesses. In this book Dr. Whitfield -- from his prior volume The Truth about Depression -- describes in some detail 1) that most of the commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs don't work well and have bothersome and often toxic side effects, 2) that there is strong to overwhelming data based and peer-reviewed published evidence that repeated childhood trauma and later trauma are significantly associated in a causal way with these mental illnesses, and 3) that the genetic theory for their cause is weak at best. Just as for any other product, we can be wise consumers about psychiatric theories, services and drugs that don't work well, which Whitfield gives us as an advanced but readable and practical course in this book.

I was unable to put this book down; finished it in five sittings. This should be mandatory reading for all teachers, therapists and medical professionals, and students in these fields. While the media, the industry and classroom messages insist we are suffering from biochemically-induced mental illness, Dr. Whitfield has pulled together overwhelming research indicating that it was our childhood traumas that set the stage for anxiety, depression and other disorders that overtake us later in life. Besides the inherent value of knowing the truth, the other benefit of reading this book is that it points the way to truly healing our mental health. Statistically we know that a third of girls and a sixth of boys are sexually molested by age eighteen. Dr. Whitfield explains the psychological and physiological results of that trauma, as well as the trauma resulting from physical and emotional abuse, and neglect. Collectively, we as adults are at risk of mental health problems stemming from our unacknowledged, untreated and ungrieved childhood trauma. The Truth about Mental Illness proves this, and explains how we can recover. It also explains why we as a society, and as individuals, must stop the cycle of abuse and trauma, in order to avoid handing down the same disorders and illnesses to our children. This is compelling reading that is straightforward and palatable to lay persons such as myself. Hopefully, this will reach a wide audience and create an open dialog about the truth about the human condition. As Dr. Whitfield states that truth is not as advertised!