Counseling Issues

Longer essays and shorter, commentary-based articles that examine counseling-related issues. Information on psychiatric medication is located on this page as well. Look for the (New) and (Updated) postings as you browse.

ADHD: An Imbalance of Fire Over Water 

In 493 BC, Hippocrates identified a condition that seems compatible with what is now called ADHD. He described patients who had “quickened responses to sensory experience, but also less tenaciousness because the soul moves on quickly to the next impression.” Hippocrates attributed this condition to an “overbalance of fire over water.”

Antidepressant Withdrawal or Discontinuation Syndrome?

Concern with antidepressant withdrawal or “discontinuation syndrome” seems to be intensifying in the professional literature as more and more evidence accumulates about the risks of taking, and then stopping their use. “Despite its prevalence, the SRI discontinuation syndrome is under-recognized by both clinicians and patients.” (Shelton 2006, 3) In addition, both clinicians and patients may incorrectly attribute discontinuation symptoms to a relapse of the underlying psychiatric illness for which the SSRI was prescribed, or to another psychiatric or medical condition.

Antidepressants: Their Ineffectiveness and Risks

Increasingly, the ineffectiveness and risks from antidepressants are being reported in the media and scientific literature. Yet in 2007, antidepressants were the most prescribed class of drugs in the US with 232.7 million prescriptions; and fourth in revenue with $11.9 billion (IMS Health, 2007 U.S. Sales and Prescription Information). Read the following article and look up the given links before making a decision to use antidepressants. Also be cautious in stopping their use once you’ve started. Abrupt termination can be dangerous as well.

Big Pharma: The Truth About Drug Companies

I’ve read a book by Marcia Angell, M.D. entitled: The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to do About It. Dr. Angell is a former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, so her experience adds credibility to what she says. Some of what she reports is disturbing, and I've written a few articles for the website based upon the information she reports in her book. What follows is a compilation of the previously four separate articles: Big Pharma: Its Size and Profits; Big Pharma: The Black Box of R&D Costs; Big Pharma: Innovation and "Me Too" Drugs; Big Pharma: Innovation and Research Costs.

Distance Education in Biblical Counseling

The Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) is offering several different distance learning courses on Biblical Counseling. Classes start the first of February, April, June, August, and October. Please visit their site for further details.

The Illusion of Diagnosis (updated)

David Powlison observed in 1999 that, “We minister to an increasing number of biopsychologized people who think about themselves, their spouses, or their children as bodies run amuck.” Since then even greater numbers people are being prescribed “mind-, mood-, and behavior-altering drugs.” In 2005, the president of the American Psychiatric Association, Steven Sharfstein, said: "As a profession, we have allowed the biopsychosocial model to become the bio-bio-bio model. In a time of economic constraint, a "pill and an appointment' has dominated treatment."

The Least Religious Physicians: Psychiatrists

A survey of 1820 physicians published in the September 2007 issue of the journal Psychiatric Services indicated that psychiatrists were the least religious of all physicians.