The Problem of Keeping Balanced

EARLY Wednesday morning, August 7, 1974, downtown New Yorkers were startled when they looked upward. A tightrope walker was doing stunts on a cable stretched between the tops of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1,350 feet above! What did it take to perform in this way? Physical balance.

Balance of another kind is becoming ever more difficult to maintain today. Just as a strong gust of wind could have unbalanced that tightrope walker, so things are occurring in people’s lives to cause more and more of them to become mentally or emotionally unbalanced.

Precipitating Factors

Pointing to what often brings on mental illness, psychiatry professor Peter Sainsbury of Chichester, England, says: “When social stresses prove too strong” mental illness results.

Sainsbury explained that stressful changes​—such as loss of employment or enforced separations—​often immediately precede the onset of mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia. Another report showed the emotional toll taken by sickness in a family. It revealed that when a child died of leukemia, in more than 50 percent of the cases the families involved needed psychiatric care.

The stress of living in the public eye is another factor that can bring on mental illness. For example, one of the first astronauts to walk on the moon suffered a “nervous breakdown” shortly thereafter. Upon recovering he was made chairman of the National Institute of Mental Health. But here again there was too much stress, for he had to cancel a speech in May 1974 because of a recurrent attack of depression.

More recently, the case of the wife of a prime minister attracted public attention for a similar reason. Discussing the causes of her needing psychiatric treatment, she stated that she was ill-prepared for the pomp and publicity that went with being in such a prominent position. She confessed: “I long for the day when I will no longer be the Prime Minister’s wife.”

The distresses of war also contribute to mental ills. A New York Times heading of January 22, 1975, reported: “Heavy Psychological Toll Is Half-Hidden but Shattering Result of Long Vietnam War.” There has been a great increase of depression among Vietnamese mothers, and of schizophrenia among their teen-age sons. This mental illness is reflected in skyrocketing suicides and a great increase of violent crimes. These crimes are unusual for the Vietnamese, who are disciplined from infancy to smother aggressive impulses in personal relations.

Scope of the Problem

The number of those succumbing to mental illness in one form or another is shockingly high. According to the United States National Institute of Mental Health, at least one out of ten Americans suffers from some mental or emotional disturbance. There are close to one half million patients in mental hospitals. In addition, some ten million others suffer from mental illnesses, and 250,000 new patients enter mental institutions every year.

Staggering also is the expense of mental illness, costing Americans some $20,000,000,000 annually. And even more tragic are the statistics on suicides. There are upward of 20,000 suicides a year, with mental illness accounting for ever so many of these, even as it does for the ten times as many unsuccessful suicide attempts.

In Britain, the National Association for Mental Health reports that mental disorders are the single greatest cause of long-term incapacity. Some 32 million workdays are lost annually because of it. The association complains that, whereas mental patients fill half of the hospital beds, only one fifth as much is spent on them as is spent on patients with physical disorders.

Have you or a loved one ever suffered because of too much stress, or have you ever had a “nervous breakdown” or a struggle with mental illness? If so, you know that it can bring with it the worst kind of suffering, as well as great hardship to one’s immediate family.

What forms does mental illness take?

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HIGH PRICES

PROBLEMS WITH THE CHILDREN

TOO MUCH TO DO

FEAR OF CRIME

ILLNESS

The Many Faces of Mental Illness

THE tragedy of mental illness takes many forms. It can be likened to an actor who wears various costumes or disguises, depending upon the character he portrays.

So much uncertainty exists about the condition that some widely known psychiatrists even claim that there is no such thing as mental “illness”! They feel it is merely a matter of ‘erratic behavior.’ But there is evidence that blood taken from schizophrenics and injected into sane persons can cause them to become temporarily insane, which would seem to refute this claim, as does the fact that the condition is often hereditary.

There are also some authorities who strongly object to using such words as “schizophrenia” and “manic depression” in describing mental illness. They say that use of these names, which have a terribly ominous meaning to many persons, only makes matters worse.

However, a patient and his family should not allow a diagnosis and a name given the illness to cause them to be frightened or to abandon hope. The fact is, mental illnesses are seldom precise insofar as the symptoms and cause of the disease are concerned. This makes diagnosis and treatment inexact and so there may be considerable disagreement among authorities. Actually there are differences of opinion as to which names should be applied to which conditions.

“Organic Illnesses”

It is a general practice to divide all mental illnesses into two classes, “organic” and “functional.” Among the many faces of organic illness are those present at childbirth or shortly thereafter, such as cerebral palsy, mongolism, cretinism and other forms of mental retardation.

Other organic illnesses make themselves felt late in life, such as senility with its varied mental aberrations, often characterized by childishness. Such mental conditions call to mind the words of Shakespeare about being ‘once a man but twice a child.’

Neuroses

In contrast with organic mental illnesses, there are functional mental illnesses, a common and mild form of which is a neurosis. Those suffering from it are termed “neurotic,” usually mistakenly implying that little if anything is really wrong with the individual.

A neurotic person is in touch with reality but is handicapped by a lack of confidence, or by mistrust and/​or by tension. A person suffering from a neurosis may be excessively anxious about his job, his family or his health. He may have exaggerated fears about people or places, such as being afraid to use an elevator. Among his symptoms may be compulsive eating, being edgy all the time, or having violent outbursts of temper at slight provocations. Generally he is aware of his problem but not of its cause, and does not seem to be able to control it.

You may think you can readily recognize a neurosis. But then again you might not, for neuroses have a way of disguising themselves. How is that? In that they often cause physical ills, because of the psychosomatic principle involved. So the sufferer may concentrate on the physical ailments instead of getting to the real cause. Neuroses may be evidenced physically in many forms, such as digestive disturbances, heart trouble, difficulty in breathing and skin rashes.

In contrast to the neurotic person, the psychotic or truly insane person has a more extreme problem. He actually loses touch with reality and reacts and responds in, grossly abnormal ways. Thus there is a common saying: “The neurotic builds castles in the clouds, the psychotic lives in these castles, and the psychiatrist collects the rent.”

Depression’s Face

While a measure of depression may be experienced by neurotic persons, psychotic depressive states usually go further, reflecting a more serious state of mental illness. Depression, of varied degrees, has been labeled “the leading mental illness in the United States.” The United Nations World Health Organization called it the world’s top health problem. The present decade has been termed “the age of melancholy,” because of its prevalence.

Associated with depression are feelings of loneliness and in particular the feelings of hopelessness and uselessness. This doubtless accounts for the great number of suicides among those afflicted, thirty-six times as many as among the population in general. Often persons suffering depression have extreme feelings of unworthiness or guilt. They may show little interest in food, clothing or members of the opposite sex. Such symptoms likewise often mark what is popularly termed a “nervous breakdown.”a Women are more likely to suffer from depression than are men.

In its more severe form this problem is termed “deep depression” or “depressive psychosis.” Many such affected persons alternate between times of excitement and activity and periods of deep depression​—this ‘up and down’ condition being called a “manic-depressive” state. It is these persons who are more likely to be assaultive and destructive. And yet such persons, when in their “manic state,” are at times highly creative.

The Schizophrenias

Among the most serious and widespread forms of mental illness is schizophrenia. It also has many faces, for which reason psychiatrists often refer to it in the plural form. Schizophrenia is the main cause of hospitalization, at least in the United States. It has well been said that, while heart disease causes the most deaths, schizophrenia causes the most heartaches.

About three out of every one hundred persons will be affected by some degree of schizophrenia sometime in their lives, primarily between the ages of sixteen and thirty. Rightly it is termed “one of the most disruptive and disabling of mankind’s afflictions” and “one of the most appalling of human experiences.”

Those suffering from any one of the schizophrenias often withdraw from social life and retreat into an inner fantasy world, even to the extent of experiencing hallucinations and/​or delusions. They have gross changes in the functioning of their senses, in their feelings and in their behavior. People and objects may take on strange appearances; food may taste peculiar; odors may become repulsive; sounds may become either unbearably loud or scarcely audible. Internally the person may suffer from depression, tension and fatigue. Among schizophrenia’s more serious forms are paranoia, that is, delusions of grandeur, a sense of hostility, fear of being persecuted, and so forth; also catatonia, a stupor characterized by inability to speak and/​or to move one’s limbs.

Generally those suffering from any one of the schizophrenias are more dangerous to themselves than to others. Thus one psychiatrist stated that in a neighborhood comprised entirely of schizophrenics, there would be far less violence than in the average neighborhood. But suicides among them are twenty times as frequent. It is estimated that one third recover spontaneously, one third remain as they are and one third worsen.

However, it should be observed that for most of his life the average schizophrenic is not actually insane. Thus schizophrenics have made and can make outstanding achievements.

Hyperactive and Autistic Children

Mental and emotional ills are also taking their toll among the very young. A modern malady affecting ever more children is hyperkinesis or hyperactivity. Such children want to be on the go constantly. They are very restless, troublesome and have a very brief attention span, ever jumping from one thing to another. Five percent of the children in America, or upward of one and a half million, mostly boys, are afflicted in this way.

To the opposite extreme are autistic children. Autism is defined as “a mental state marked by daydreaming and fantasy with a loss of interest in external reality.” It likewise is far more prevalent among boys than among girls, in fact, four times as much. Thirty years ago both the term and the condition were relatively unknown. But today recognized cases of autism are quite common. There are even societies for autistic children in America, Britain, Germany and Japan (noteworthily all highly industrialized countries where stress and pressures abound).

The foregoing describes only the more common or better known kinds of mental illness. Truly it has many faces, and there are varying degrees of severity to each, from very mild to extremely severe. Regardless of the name given, no two cases are exactly alike.

But why do some people develop mental illness while others do not? What are the underlying causes of mental illness?

[Footnotes]

What Are the Roots of the Problem?

ARE you enjoying good mental health? If so, you have reason to be thankful. Still it would be wise for you to know some of the basic factors that could cause you to lose this prized possession. It is not enough to know about things that can “trigger” mental illness, such as sudden tragedy, severe sickness, loss of job, and similar things. For these to bring on mental illness there must first be underlying conditions that contribute to the loss of balance.

These root causes might be said to fall into three basic categories: (1) the social fabric or “environment,” which includes relations with others, economic conditions, and so forth; (2) biological factors, including such things as heredity and metabolism; and (3) personality flaws.

The “Environmental” Factor

The environment can be said to play a major role in mental illness because of the stresses and pressures of modern living. This is so widely recognized that Langner and Michael have written a large volume, Life Stress and Mental Health, dealing with just this subject. Similarly, Dr. Karl Evang of Norway says: “Although large numbers of people are able to resist some of the most feared bodily diseases, almost everyone seems susceptible to mental illness if the strains and pressures are strong enough and the social climate is sufficiently unfavourable.”

Also recognizing environment as a factor is a caption appearing in The Schizophrenias​—Yours and Mine. It reads: “What May Schizophrenics Do to Diminish Stress?” In answer it says: “Move to a desert island, or become a hermit!” But then it adds, “These escapes . . . are becoming harder to find.”

The mental health that can accompany an escape from daily modern pressures is testified to by the example of the men operating the isolated Weather Bureau station atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire, said to have the world’s worst weather. Expressing why these men prefer to live there, one of them says: “There are no pressures, no traffic, no bosses breathing down your neck. We’ve all given up higher paying jobs for this work. People think we’re mad but we’re not. . . . We’re at peace with the world.”

Among other basic environmental factors that can be underlying causes of mental illness are hostility, broken homes, poverty and racial discrimination. In this category must also be listed selfish ambition and greed on the part of the parents, which is likely to harm the young.

With old age comes another kind of “environment” that can well become a root of mental illness. Dr. Evang describes in this way the characteristic “environment” of the aged that is so damaging: “The lack of meaningful activity, the feeling of being forgotten, isolation from the rest of society in institutions, the abrupt fall in income.” In fact, a noted American psychiatrist states that “senile decline” is more likely due to such conditions than it is to the actual deterioration of the body.

The Biological Factor​—Heredity

And yet, whereas many persons live under unfavorable conditions, only a comparatively few suffer mental illness as a result. Why does it affect these few and not the others?

More likely than not, because of heredity. Some persons have a predisposition toward mental illness. They are not very well equipped at birth to cope with these stresses. It is like persons who are born financially poor compared with others who are born rich. Certainly. those born poor are far more likely to run into debt, or land on the welfare rolls, than those born rich. Similarly, due to heredity some are born “poor” emotionally and so are more likely to run into “debt” psychologically, and suffer some form of mental illness.

Supporting this illustration and conclusion are the words of Dr. David Rosenthal: “In most cases, an inherited factor needs to be present for schizophrenia to develop. However, without severe environmental stresses the illness may not appear in those who have a predisposition to it.”

Research has disclosed that the closer one’s blood relationship to a schizophrenic, the greater the likelihood that one will also become a victim. Thus if one parent is afflicted, there is one chance out of six that a child will be also. If both parents are, the chances are four chances out of six.

That schizophrenia might have such a physical source was demonstrated by a group of psychiatrists who injected blood from schizophrenics into two normal prison volunteers. Soon after the injection, one lapsed into a stupor-like state and had hallucinations. The other became paranoid; he suspected everyone was talking about him. After about two hours both became normal again.

Regarding the root cause of depression, psychiatric researchers have come to similar conclusions. Thus we are told that “there is growing evidence that some forms of mental depression are hereditary and . . . that a person is 10 times more likely to contract ‘primary’ depression [the sudden kind] if a member of his immediate family is depressed.” Some psychiatrists hold that this is due to some faulty body chemistry or some chemical abnormalities in the brain.

Another Biological Factor​—Metabolism

Today there is increasing interest shown in the role that faulty diet plays in causing mental illness in that it can affect metabolism. For example, there is the psychiatric research done in the past year by Dr. J. F. Greden, at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He implicated large doses of caffeine in coffee, tea, headache tablets and other commonly used products such as cola drinks as causes of some mental illness. In a speech at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association he said:

“For an undetermined number of (people) subtracting one drug​—caffeine—​may be of greater benefit than adding another.” He described certain cases as “caffeinism” and further stated that restlessness, irritability, insomnia, headaches, hallucinations, muscle twitching, vomiting, and diarrhea can be caused by it. He noted, however, that some people can and do drink 15 or more cups of coffee a day without any bad effects, whereas others may be affected by as little as two cups.

Of similar import are the findings of British psychiatrist Richard Mackarness. He believes that in many cases of mental illness the principle of psychosomatic medicine is put in reverse, that instead of the mind causing the body to become ill, the body causes the mind to become sick. How so? Because of allergies. He tells of patients who spent years shuttling in and out of hospitals and mental institutions but who were cured when they eliminated from their diet certain foods to which they were allergic. The specific items of food varied according to the person.

A Faulty Personality Structure

In addition to the environmental and biological factors, there is also the factor of faulty personality structure. This is often largely due to failure of parents to rear their children with love and firmness.

Underscoring the role that parents may play in the forming of such flawed personalities are the observations L. E. Martin makes in his book Mental Health/​Mental Illness. He notes that parents often pay little attention to the direction that their children’s personalities take until the children get in trouble with the police. Also he explains that parents contribute to the problem when they show themselves more concerned with outward appearances than with basic values, and when they set bad examples themselves in personality traits.

Of the same conviction is psychiatrist Dr. Robbins, associated with Hillside Hospital in New York. According to him, proper youthful rearing is vital for mental health; neglect can lead to psychiatric problems. Says he: “The young patients referred to Hillside Hospital become frustrated easily and want immediate gratification. They enter the hospital demanding that their needs be met rather than wanting to change.” Obviously, those words describe nothing more or less than very spoiled children.

Thus, too, stresses that seem injurious to adults may be such because of personality flaws. Mental depression is a symptom more frequently found in a modern culture in which work itself is no longer considered a worthy thing bringing satisfaction. It is not that working conditions are always more stressful nowadays, but often the problem is that workers’ expectations are so much higher. They want their jobs, not only to provide a living for themselves and their families, but also to satisfy their ego.

Since mental illness is such a complicated matter, you can readily appreciate why there are many differences of opinion as to how best to treat the various mental illnesses. What methods are being used and how successful have they proved to be?

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MENTAL ILLNESS

ENVIRONMENT

HEREDITY

METABOLISM

PERSONALITY FLAWS

Can Shock, Drugs or Psychosurgery Solve the Problem?

TREATMENT of the mentally ill in most lands has made considerable progress. How were the mentally ill dealt with in times past? One authority says: “Starving, freezing, cramping, and terrifying were routine procedures, and one of the least cruel methods was just plain beating, beating with clubs, whips, wires, chains, and fists.”

Especially notorious was London’s Bethlehem Royal Hospital, which came to be known as Bedlam. There on certain days people paid a penny to watch mental patients being abused. To this day “bedlam” is used to refer to “a place or scene of wild mad uproar.” Not even royalty were spared if mentally ill, King George III of England being one such hapless victim.

The lot of the mentally ill changed from treatment by cruelty to treatment by neglect, unspeakable filth and vermin in prisons. But toward the early part of the nineteenth century certain humanitarians pioneered the treatment of the mentally ill with education, recreation, and human kindness, treating them as sick persons instead of as those possessed by devils. Since the late nineteenth century many new theories and methods of treating the mentally ill have come to the fore.

On the one hand there are the psychotherapies, often named after such men as Freud and Jung. And on the other hand, there are the “somatic” or “organic” methods, most widely used of which are shock and drugs. Psychosurgery, once very popular but then fallen into disrepute, is now again being revived though in a greatly altered form. Generally it is the custom to make use of more than one of these various methods when treating a certain patient.

The Use of Shock

Shock to treat mental patients might be said to have gone through three stages. First, there was shock induced by insulin, pioneered by Manfred Sakel. But it had its disadvantages. To be most effective the insulin-induced shock had to last from 30 to 50 hours, and at times the patient failed to come out of the shock. It was also costly, since it required much attention by nurses or attendants. Thus, after some ten years, it was largely dropped in the 1940’s for other forms of shock treatment.

Secondly, the use of the drug Metrazol was pioneered by psychiatrist Meduna. He found that Metrazol caused epileptic-like convulsions, and these, he theorized, could cure mental illness. However, this method was also found wanting for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that the convulsions at times caused bone fractures.

These shock treatments have been by and large replaced with electroshock treatment, which today is commonly prescribed. It consists of applying electric currents to the brain to cause the body to convulse; usually a drug is given so that the patient does not feel anything. It lasts about 50 seconds and results in a confused state of mind that may last for an hour, or in amnesia that may last for weeks. Many psychiatrists and patients credit it with doing much good.

But electroshock therapy, known as ECT, is not without its critics. Should it be used as frequently as it is? Not according to Dr. Perry C. Talkington (1972), president of the American Psychiatric Association. “Electroshock,” says he, is to be “used to cure deep depressions when other forms of treatment​—chemotherapy [drugs], psychotherapy or combinations of those two—​are not effective.”

None other than Professor Cerletti, the first one to use electroshock, termed it “unesthetic​—ugly . . . gruesome” and said he was trying hard to find a substitute. And Drs. F. G. Alexander and S. T. Selesnick, in their work The History of Psychiatry, state: “Shock treatments effect only a relief of symptoms. They do not reach the basic psychological disturbance underlying the illness, and patients who receive electroshock without psychotherapy​—which reaches the source of the illness—​frequently relapse.”

A widely read autobiography of a psychiatrist noted that electroshock treatments may be so popular because they are covered by insurance, with the psychiatrists getting $35 (in 1972) every time they ‘press the button.’

The Use of Drugs

Early in the twentieth century, experiments were made with radical drugs the effect of which seemed well-nigh miraculous​—but only for a matter of minutes or hours. Then the use of bromides became popular. But here also disillusionment set in. Concerning all such efforts we are told: “Despite the repeated shattering of the drug dream, physicians still hope eventually to alleviate man’s inner strife by chemical means.”

Particularly since the 1950’s are mind-controlling drugs being used in the Western world. Some are said to be of greatest value in treating the schizophrenias, others to combat depression and still others to reduce anxiety.

The use of these drugs has made patients easier to handle and has eased their sufferings. However, it appears that the use of these drugs is being overdone and especially in institutions for the mentally retarded. Thus The National Observer of January 11, 1975, quoted many psychiatrists who had harsh words for custodians who ease their task “by essentially bludgeoning the patient into semiconsciousness.”

“What we’ve done,” said Brandeis professor Dybwad, “is supplant mechanical restraint [straitjackets and solitary confinement] with chemical restraint. And this is even more vicious because you can’t see it.” Another authority is quoted as saying: “We’re going to have to break what has come to be an acceptable pattern of putting people off in institutions and then drugging them to keep them quiet.”

Drugs often are but a crutch. They may actually delay rather than hasten recovery, and may even harm the nervous system. Thus, regarding drugs used to suppress violent patients, one psychiatrist found that 20 to 30 percent of such patients were showing deficient muscular control.

Summarizing the psychiatric drug situation, a 1970 textbook states: “Despite the encouraging progress . . . much more effort is needed. We are woefully ignorant of [what causes] most of the illnesses we treat. We still understand little how drugs ameliorate these conditions, or why they may fail. And although we have many patients who get better, we still have too few who get well.”

Psychosurgery?

Psychosurgery, or efforts to cure the mentally ill by operating on their brains, dates particularly from 1936. It was in that year that a Portuguese researcher, Egas Moniz, observed that by severing part of the frontal lobes of the brain, anxiety could be relieved. But after he had performed twenty such frontal lobotomies the Portuguese government outlawed them. In spite of that, the operation caught on in the United States. Walter Freeman, its chief advocate, performed 4,000 of them.

The operation has been compared to “swishing an ice pick around behind the eyeballs to destroy portions of the brain’s frontal lobe.” Science News reports: “After perhaps 50,000 lobotomies in the United States, and 15,000 in England, the fad died down in the 1950’s, probably because of developments in electroshock and drug therapy.”

Lobotomies often resulted in far more serious personality disorders. In fact, even their American pioneer, Freeman, testified that they robbed a person of his “morale,” his ability to imagine, to foresee and to be altruistic. The patient experienced a “progressive loss of . . . insight, empathy, sensitivity, self-awareness, judgment, emotional responsiveness, and so on,” says a leading Washington, D.C., psychiatrist.

Recently, however, the issue of psychosurgery has again come to the fore, as more refined methods are being used to destroy portions of the brain. Reportedly some four to six hundred of these operations are being performed yearly in the United States, and, we are told, “every psychosurgeon agrees that we are just beginning to witness a massive increase in psychosurgery.” However it is of interest that these operations are banned throughout the Soviet Union, indicating their undesirable aspects.

The plans to perform psychosurgery on the criminally insane, provided they voluntarily consent, raised a furor in the United States in the spring of 1973. What many fear is that these operations will open the door to manipulating humans by means of brain surgery. Among those strongly speaking out against them is brain surgeon Dr. A. K. Ommaya. He feels that, far from being helped, mental patients are being harmed because “every part of the brain requires the other parts to function.”​—New York Times, April 2, 1973.

Clearly, electroshock, drugs and psychosurgery all leave much to be desired in treating mental patients. There is, in fact, great controversy as to whether certain of these methods should be used at all. What, then, about alternatives?

What Help from Hormones, Vitamins and Minerals?

CAN there be a connection between one’s diet and mental and emotional ills? Can mental illness be relieved by nutritional or hormonal elements?

Back in the fifth century B.C.E., Hippocrates, called the ‘father of medicine,’ believed that there could be a connection between poor nutrition and mental illness. And none other than Sigmund Freud, the ‘father of psychoanalysis,’ in his later years wrote: “I am firmly convinced that one day all these disturbances we are trying to understand will be treated by means of hormones or similar substances.”

Use of Hormones

In recent years a number of mental patients have benefited from hormone treatment. Thus a psychiatrist in New York Medical College found synthetic sex hormones to be more effective as well as “less traumatic than electroshock and more rapid than conventional drugs.” By means of hormones he has cured some male patients of depression, and others improved.​—Washington Star-News, May 9, 1974.

The results being obtained with similar sex hormones by a team of Worcester, Massachusetts, biochemists and psychiatrists are even more striking. They produced improvement in 80 percent of their women patients. And they got these results although they chose as patients only hospitalized women who had been “treated unsuccessfully with a ‘variety’ of the conventional therapies, including shock treatment, other anti-depressant drugs and psychotherapy.”​—The Boston Globe, September 30, 1974.

Nutrition

The role that nutrition plays in mental illness has long been recognized in the case of pellagra. It is a disease caused by a lack of vitamin B₃ (niacin), and has insanity as one of its symptoms.

Among those stressing the nutritional approach to mental health is George Watson, a former university professor who is now devoting all his time to psychochemical research. In his book Nutrition and Your Mind he reasons that people are either slow or fast oxidizers, and so must arrange their diet accordingly. His view is: “What you eat determines your state of mind and, in a sense, the sort of person you are.” Watson further claims: “Most erratic behavior is caused by an undernourished brain, an exhausted nervous system or any of a number of other physical problems directly related to imperfectly functioning metabolism.” He tells of curing a patient having an extreme form of schizophrenia by feeding her the needed or lacking nutrients.

Approaching mental illness in a similar fashion are the more than 500 physicians and psychiatrists belonging to the Hypoglycemia Foundation. These hold that low blood sugar can cause depression, anxiety, forgetfulness, tremors, nightmares and nervous breakdowns.

The nutritional approach also stresses the importance of trace elements in treating mental illness. The value of lithium, for example, is generally recognized. A Texas biochemist found that in a number of Texas cities where there were higher levels of lithium in drinking water there was less mental illness. Thus Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry Dr. Leon Eisenberg says: “We can help manic depressive patients to stay well after they recover from an episode of illness by administering the element lithium as a prophylactic.”​—World Health, October 1974.a

In addition to lithium, other trace elements found in certain foods, including zinc, calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron, copper, cobalt, chromium, selenium and molybdenum, may also play an important role in mental illness. In fact, more and more psychiatrists are recognizing the importance of these.

“Orthomolecular Psychiatry”

The term “orthomolecular psychiatry” was coined by Nobel prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling to designate a treatment which stresses “the importance of having the right concentration of the right substances in the right places.” The term comes from two root words​—ortho meaning that which is straight, right, correct (as in the word “orthodox”), and molecular, which comes from the word “molecule.”

Pauling explains: “The proper functioning of the brain is known to require the presence in the brain of molecules of many different substances,” which reach the brain in the blood. He holds that in certain mental illnesses there is a failure on the part of the body to utilize properly the vitamins and trace minerals found in food. To compensate for this genetic defect, he recommends that the patient be fed massive doses of vitamins and/​or have his diet adjusted in other ways. The emphasis is on the use of vitamins B₁, B₃, B₆, B₁₂, C and H.

However, there is the most violent disagreement over the relative merits of “orthomolecular psychiatry.” Professor Carlos A. León of Ecuador, for example, says that “there is as yet no conclusive proof of [its] effectiveness.” In the same vein the American Psychiatric Association has gone on record, saying that the “proponents of megavitamin therapy have made striking, and often unsupported, claims regarding its efficacy.” And Dr. S. Kety, professor of psychiatry at Harvard’s Medical School, claims that this approach is “premature application of incomplete knowledge.”

On the other hand, Dr. David Hawkins, in Manhasset, New York, tells of treating 5,000 schizophrenic patients in this way, and claims that more than 4,000 registered improvement. In fact, he has found that by adding vitamin treatment to regular psychotherapy and chemotherapy he can nearly double the recovery rate, cut hospitalization in half and entirely eliminate suicides, which are very high among schizophrenics.

Dr. Abram Hoffer, president of the Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation, as well as of its American counterpart, says: “My patients think I’m a nutty psychiatrist because they come to me with mental problems and I send them home with a diet. But eventually they convince themselves it’s important.”

At present more than 300 American psychiatrists are employing this “orthomolecular” approach in their practice, and their number is increasing. They claim to have benefited upward of 30,000 patients. And an item not to be overlooked is that this form of treatment costs only a fraction of what other forms of treatment cost patients and their families.

What to Do

Perhaps you or a loved one have had a struggle with mental illness. If so, as we can see, there are things that can be done to aid recovery.

Since excessive stress is frequently a precipitating factor in mental illness, do all that you can to remove or diminish the source of the stress that may be causing the problem. One may have anxiety over some personal relationship, a situation affecting one’s marriage, or some decision as regards one’s employment or similar problems of life. Then resolve the indecision, or else do all you can to put the matter out of your mind.

In the case of severe mental aberrations, there is the possibility of using drugs or even electroshock to control the situation. However, these treatments are advisable only under professional oversight, and generally as last resorts. In recent years some fine successes are being reported from the use of vitamins and hormones. You may find it beneficial to investigate the possibilities.

But basically the mentally ill person needs help in getting control of his or her thinking. To get help many turn to psychotherapy, perhaps the most well-known form of treatment. What is psychotherapy? Can it help a person to regain mental balance?

[Footnotes]

Does the Solution Lie with Psychiatrists?

PSYCHOTHERAPY is the art of trying to help mentally or emotionally disturbed persons by listening to their problems, and endeavoring to offer them insight to cope with these problems. Psychiatrists​—persons who employ this form of treatment—​have increased sevenfold in number in the United States during the past twenty-five years.

The most popular psychiatric approach has been that of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical “couch” theory. Its use, however, has been chiefly in the United States. Thus New York city, with nine million inhabitants, has almost a thousand psychoanalysts, whereas Tokyo, with eleven million people, has but three!

The value of psychiatric treatment is by no means universally recognized. In fact, even the director of the United States National Institute for the Psychotherapies recently spoke of the “controversy and frequent disillusionment that currently characterize the field of psychotherapy.” Also, psychiatrist Karl Menninger observed: “Nine tenths of people with so called schizophrenia get well without going near a hospital.”

In an especially strong indictment, Dr. H. J. Eysenck of the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, wrote in the Medical Tribune of April 4, 1973, that the result “claimed for different methods of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis was almost exactly that found for spontaneous remission.” In other words, according to Eysenck, persons receiving psychiatric help had about the same recovery rate as those receiving no psychiatric treatment at all!

Help Provided

However, it cannot be denied that some persons have received genuine help from psychiatrists. A man in California writes: “The help I received from that kind man was extremely beneficial, and my problem was resolved quickly.” Posing the question, “What did this psychiatrist do for me?” he answered: “He listened. He really listened. . . . he helped me to realize that within myself I had the ability to develop self-control.”

This disturbed man had a behavioral problem, one that evidenced a serious sexual aberration. But through kindness and encouragement the psychiatrist helped him to correct his weakness. Even extreme cases have responded to such psychiatric treatment. Giving pertinent testimony along this line is a case history described in The Vital Balance, authored by a team headed by Karl Menninger.

The case is that of “Mary Smith,” who, at the age of sixty-three, was admitted to a state hospital. Somehow she had gotten the idea that her husband, a kind, gentle, typical farmer, was involved in illegal liquor traffic and that he had repeatedly tried to poison her. So she had attacked him with a hammer while he was sleeping.

She was diagnosed as “disturbed, restless and confused.” Six years after her admission she was judged incurably insane. Seven more years passed, and a new doctor came along who took an interest in her. He patiently listened to her strident complaints, sympathized and agreed with her whenever he could. He took walks with her, tactfully helping her to clear up some of her delusions. He had glasses fitted for her, and had the nurse give her things to read, as well as to chat with her.

Gradually the tone of her voice changed, she became helpful in making beds, and was permitted to go walking on the grounds by herself. Soon she was allowed to be away for a few days. Then, at the age of seventy-six, she obtained a position as a practical nurse, caring for an elderly woman. Years later her daughter reported regarding her: “She is an excellent worker, helpful and cooperative . . . one of the best-organized women I ever knew at any age.”

Such successes in helping the mentally disturbed point to the type of treatment they especially need. Sir Geoffrey Vickers, as chairman of the Mental Health Research Fund, years ago explained: “By far the most significant discovery of mental science is the power of love to protect and restore the mind.”

Yes, love, kindness, patience and understanding are now generally recognized as vital in the successful treatment of mental patients. Yet, as noted earlier, psychiatrists often fail to help patients recover. Is there some fundamental reason why?

Basic Failure in Approach

It has well been observed that people need to know the reason for their existence, what purpose there is to life, so as to have strength to endure in the face of tragedy. But are psychiatrists best able to provide this? Can they help people to answer the basic questions about which they wonder, such as: “Why am I here?” “What is life all about?” “What destiny awaits me?”

The truth is that, not any human, but only the Creator of humankind, Almighty God, can provide sound, satisfying answers to these questions. And he has done so for our hope and comfort in his Word the Bible. But how do psychiatrists generally feel about God?

A 1970 survey indicates how. Of the psychiatrists interviewed, 55 percent said that they considered belief in God to be “infantile,” and “incongruous with reality.”

What an unreasonable, illogical conclusion! For think: How else can we explain the origin of life if we leave out the existence of a supreme God? Or what about love​—from where does this marvelous quality come that is so vital to mental health? Only the Bible’s explanation is both reasonable and logical. And its explanation is that a supreme, loving Creator is responsible. (Ps. 36:9; 1 John 4: 8-11) Prominent men of science, who were by no means “infantile,” have expressed belief in such a God.

Science Digest says of one of these: “Most historians of science would declare at once that Isaac Newton was the greatest scientific mind the world has ever seen.” And in his masterpiece, Principia, Newton said: “From his true dominion it follows that the true God is a living, intelligent, and powerful Being; and, from his other perfections, that he is supreme, or most perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient.”

The basic failure of worldly psychiatrists is that generally they do not look to this true God for wisdom and guidance in treating the emotionally and mentally disturbed. And undoubtedly one of the consequences of their attitude is that they themselves have the highest suicide rate among all those in the medical specialities! Regarding this, one of their own number says: ‘Until psychiatrists have the lowest rate, all their teachings are subject to suspicion.’​—Journal of the American Medical Association.

Further Effects of Basic Failure

Failing to recognize the sound instruction of God’s Word, psychiatrists seldom apply love in a balanced way. For example, in one case a father who was unable to wean his teen-age son away from drugs sent him to a psychiatrist. With what results? The father wound up $2,000 poorer and the son had not changed in the slightest.

The father wanted to help his son. However, neither he nor the psychiatrist appreciated the teaching of God’s Word, namely, that firm, yet kind, discipline is a vital part of the exercise of love. (Heb. 12:6-9; Prov. 23:13, 14) Finally, listening to sound counsel, the father ordered his son out of the house until he was willing to go to a drug rehabilitation center. Later the son told his father: “You know, when you and Mom threw me out, that’s when I knew you really wanted to help me.” The son is now cured.

The general failure of psychiatrists to appreciate God and his teachings on morality has resulted in great harm’s being done. As an example, the Long Island Press carried the front page heading: “Sodomy Ring Smashed. Group charged with sexually abusing youths.” The article said: “Four men​—including an internationally known child psychiatrist . . . were arraigned yesterday on sodomy, sexual abuse and conspiracy charges involving adolescents.”

While this may be an isolated case, the incidents of male psychiatrists having sexual relations with women patients are not. Thus one Christian woman went to a psychiatrist for help because of her frustration in her marital relations with her husband. He told her that she had three choices: Try to get her husband to see a psychiatrist; get a divorce; or have an extramarital affair with a “boyfriend,” and he volunteered to serve as her “boyfriend.”

Then there was the psychiatrist who was sued because, as reported in the New York Daily News: “He prescribed sexual relations with himself as therapy and then charged for the ‘treatments.’” Another psychiatrist was sued for $1,250,000 damages in the Supreme Court of the State of New York because he forced his patient to have sex relations with him under the guise of psychiatric treatment. In fact, one psychiatrist wrote a book recommending that psychiatrists be “sexually available to the patient, but not ‘insistent.’” He called the book The Love Treatment.

Two clinicians who run America’s leading sex clinic said that a large proportion of eight hundred patients they treated admitted to having had sex relations with their psychiatrists or counselors. While some of these reports may be mere fantasies, wishful thinking or bragging, one of the doctors observed: “If only 25% of these specific reports are correct, there is still an overwhelming issue confronting professionals in this field.”

Clearly, there is reason to exercise caution as regards worldly psychiatrists. For, while one may receive help, there is also a real possibility that one may be encouraged to pursue a course of conduct contrary to God’s righteous principles. But even if that were not so, the failure of psychiatrists generally to know how properly to apply the best medicine for mental ills​—the divine quality of love—​is likely to render their treatment ineffectual.

Does this mean that there is nowhere that people can receive reliable psychotherapy in the sense of receiving help to see their problems through and solve them? Happily such help is available, and by means of it many persons have achieved mental health in this mixed-up world.

How Mental Health Can Best Be Restored

WHEN mental illness strikes, it is a cause of great sadness to those affected. Yet there is no need for a family to feel shame when this happens. In many cases mental illness can come just as does some physical illness, such as the flu or heart disease. And even where physical causes are not a major factor, there is still reason to be hopeful and take a positive attitude. The question is, What best can be done?

Often a combination of treatments is best. Most importantly, however, the suffering one should receive help from understanding family members or friends who are able to impart real hope and encouragement. These ones can take comfort in the fact that, as with other ailments, persons often recover from mental illness spontaneously, as the body in time adjusts and heals itself. And even when this does not occur, there is much that can be done to help the sufferer.

The greatest need of such a one is to be loved. The importance of this is now stressed over and over again in medical literature. This means that family and friends should be patient, putting up with the person when that one acts erratic, irresponsible, or is unreasoning or otherwise difficult.

Where can this needed help best be provided the mentally ill? In some mental hospital or institution? Quite likely not. In fact, a book prepared by four medical doctors says: “A major goal is to keep patients out of the hospitals whenever possible. Sometimes that alone is a victory, because with some of our present mental hospitals, there is a probability that the patient may be better off at home.”

At home the patient is in familiar surroundings. He or she has the attention of vitally interested parties. Care can be given with the goal of recovery or improvement. But is education in a worldly school of psychiatry necessary in order to provide this help?

Psychiatric Schooling Necessary?

Interestingly, psychiatrists themselves acknowledge the shortcomings of psychiatric schooling. David S. Viscott, for example, states that the psychiatric board certifications have “overlooked many of the most important qualities which make a good therapist, such as his interest, his honesty, his curiosity, his openness, his humanness, and his willingness to help. Most of [these] were things they didn’t teach in school.”

Going farther, Dr. J. D. Frank, author of Persuasion and Healing and coauthor of Group Psychotherapy, says psychiatric schooling is not necessary to aid the mentally ill. Psychology Today of April 1973 explains: “Frank believes a person with no training at all can be just as successful a clinician as a psychiatrist. ‘The therapist’s personal qualities,’ he says, ‘may have more to do with his success than his training in a particular method.’”

Certain psychiatrists have acknowledged that the wisdom and understanding contained in God’s Word the Bible is of greater value in treating the mentally ill than is worldly schooling. At the close of a long and successful career, the late psychiatrist Dr. James T. Fisher wrote this in his book A Few Buttons Missing: the Case Book of a Psychiatrist:

“If you were to take the sum total of all the authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene​—if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out the excess verbiage—​if you were to . . . have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summation of the Sermon on the Mount.” That sermon by Jesus Christ is recorded in the Bible at Matthew chapters five through seven.

Time and again, mentally unbalanced persons have been restored to health by receiving from qualified Bible teachers proper guidance and instruction based on the contents of that Divine Book. Consider some examples.

Remarkable Recoveries​—How?

The patient was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as a paranoid schizophrenic. After ten years he was pronounced incurable and was able to stay out of a mental institution only by taking thirty-three pills every day. He took no interest in his appearance or in life in general. Then one of Jehovah’s witnesses calling from house to house managed to start a Bible study with him, and patiently inculcated in him its righteous requirements and the promised blessings to come to mankind under God’s kingdom. After eight months the man needed no more pills, and four months later he was pronounced fully cured.

Then there was the woman in Michigan who, for many years, had received regular psychotherapy, shock treatments and had spent $5,000 on drug treatment. Yet, she still kept threatening suicide. However, after studying the Bible with Jehovah’s witnesses she was able to discontinue taking drugs as well as quit smoking. She phoned her psychiatrist to tell him that now she felt better than she had ever felt before and what accounted for it. He replied that he wished all his patients could find a cure like that.

What made the difference with these persons? How did Bible instruction help them?

As a result of their studies they gained a strong faith in the Creator, Jehovah God, as a personal God, and a real helper. (Isa. 50:7; Dan. 6:27) They came to understand why God has allowed wickedness and human suffering until our day, and how, soon now, God’s government will crush out of existence the causes of world troubles. Gaining confidence in God’s promises of the righteous conditions soon to be enjoyed on earth changed their whole outlook on life. They had hope!​—Dan. 2:44; 1 John 2:17; Rev. 21:3, 4.

But that is not all. They also learned to live by Bible principles, including how to apply love, joy, peace and self-control in their lives. (Gal. 5:22, 23) Certain persons have been especially helpful in aiding them to do this.

Qualified to Help

Due to their years of study of God’s Word and practical experience in handling personal problems, many Christian elders of Jehovah’s witnesses are well qualified to help those mentally or emotionally sick. The Bible command may be fittingly directed to these men: “Speak consolingly to the depressed souls, support the weak, be long-suffering toward all.”​—1 Thess. 5:14.

Guided by such divine counsel, Christian elders are aided to be sympathetic and upbuilding to persons coming to them for help. They thus manifest genuine interest, patiently hearing the troubled one through. They know the importance of not being quick to censure, but agreeing whenever they can with the ill person, recognizing the mental disturbance. Thus they are in position to work to comfort and help that one to recover. Kind and understanding elders have thereby assisted many persons to gain and maintain balance in this mixed-up world.

Providing the Help Needed

When helping a mentally disturbed person, Christian elders try to determine what has precipitated the unbalance. Is it deep-seated feelings of guilt? If so, God’s mercy can be stressed, as the Bible explains: “If anyone does commit a sin, we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one.” (1 John 2:1, 2) And the elders can show the Scripturally prescribed course, namely: “He that is confessing and leaving [one’s sins] will be shown mercy.”​—Prov. 28:13; Ps. 32:1-5.

Or perhaps it may be determined that the problem is that of anxiety. Here there is a need to stress the importance of, and the reasons for, faith in Jehovah God. He welcomes us to ‘cast our burdens upon him.’ One way we can do this is by heartfelt prayer, and the elders can demonstrate by praying in behalf of the listening troubled one.​—Ps. 55:22.

Obviously, it does not follow that every case of mental illness can be cured solely by helping persons to apply in their lives the Bible’s divine wisdom. Other measures may also be indicated, an important one, meriting early attention, is a complete physical examination. There have been cases, for example, where something as simple as an impacted tooth has been found to affect the brain, causing mental aberrations, even though it caused the sufferer no physical pain. When the pressure was relieved by removing the tooth, the mental disturbance ceased.

In other severe cases, use of certain medically prescribed drugs may be necessary to help relieve mental unbalance. And not to be overlooked is what has been said about the role that nutrition can have in restoring mental health.

However, based upon what experience has shown, we can be confident that mentally or emotionally disturbed persons will especially be helped by the counsel and guidance from God’s Word. It is the desire of Jehovah’s witnesses to make available the soothing and healing effects of this Divine Word to as many persons as possible in this distressed world of mankind. If you care for such assistance, or know of anyone who does, please contact Jehovah’s witnesses. They will be happy to call and help persons to benefit from the healthful, upbuilding principles of the Bible in their lives.