As prescription rates soar in America, 23% of teens are turned away from mental health facilities that offer counseling instead of drugs

Saturday, May 28, 2016 by: Sarah Landers
Tags: mental health, nutrition, counseling therapy

---

(NaturalNews) New research into the state of mental health facilities shows that some services are actually denying support for various mental health conditions, according to The Guardian. The research provides valuable insight into the state of healthcare and the way that Big Pharma greed is prioritized over actual treatment for a range of conditions.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the US makes up just 5% of the world's population yet consumes 75% of the world's prescription drugs – a horrifying statistic. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Mental Health explains that mental disorders are common throughout the US and affect tens of millions of people every single year – with only half of those people receiving treatment.

Better mental health screening is required

Mental health services are actually refusing to treat nearly a quarter of all children and young adults under the age of 18 who are seeking help for their conditions, as reported by The Guardian. This is an extremely vulnerable demographic of people, and most of them are referred to mental health services by worried parents or family doctors.

Meanwhile, the waiting times reported by those trying to use child and adolescent mental health services can span for up to two and a half years – a length of time that is totally unacceptable and has doubled over the last two years.

One in five adult New Yorkers suffers from mental health problems and it is thought that better screening for conditions at a younger age would mean better prognoses. HealthLine suggests that schools should do more to screen children for potential mental health problems, such as depression and bipolar disorder. Schools are the ideal settings for increasing access to mental healthcare through screening and intervention, as they are the primary contexts in which children live and learn.

According to The Guardian, one of the main reasons that under-18s are refused access to mental health services is that the facilities felt they lacked the capacity to deal with the problem, or that the child hadn't been unwell for a long enough period of time. Researchers even found that young people suffering with anorexia were denied treatment because their body mass index (BMI) was not yet low enough.

Access to these services should be a priority over the provision of drugs, and yet Obama recently handed over US families and children to Big Pharma, expanding the medicalization of mental health rather than promoting access to therapists and mental and holistic healthcare providers.

Nutritional deficiencies and toxicities may actually be the cause

Nutrition is often ignored as one of the underlying causes of mental health problems – and yet treating nutrient deficiencies can be an extremely effective way to also relieve symptoms of conditions such as schizophrenia.

According to Experience Life, treating patients with vitamins was a breakthrough treatment for mental health problems back in the 1950s, and vitamin B3 was found to alleviate the symptoms of people suffering with schizophrenia.

Meanwhile, magnesium deficiencies are thought to cause depression, with magnesium treatments leading to rapid recovery from the condition as reported by Psychology Today.

Some of the nutrients that are vital for good mental health are:
• Fatty acids
• Vitamins B3, B6 and B12
• N-Acetyl cysteine (an antioxidant)
• Folic acid
• Zinc
• Healthy blood sugar
• Magnesium

Wilson's disease

Wilson's disease is a genetic disorder that can be fatal unless treated and is one such example of how a nutrient unbalance and resulting toxicity can cause mental health problems, according the Wilson's Disease Association. This genetic defect causes excessive copper accumulation in the liver or brain, which causes psychiatric and neurological symptoms.

Neurological and psychiatric symptoms include:
• Movement disorders
• Dysautonomia
• Insomnia
• Seizures
• Depression
• Neurotic behaviors
• Personality changes
• Psychosis

Early diagnosis is key; otherwise, severe liver damage can occur. Individuals with Wilson's disease might appear to be in excellent health, which is yet another reason why we need better mental health screening in the US.

Instead of pushing young adults and children away from mental health services and into the hands of Big Pharma, the US government should be doing more to treat these vulnerable people before their conditions develop further and have a massive impact on their day-to-day lives.

Sources include:

TheGuardian.com

DrugAbuse.gov

NIMH.NIH.gov

HealthLine.com

WilsonsDisease.org

ExperienceLife.com

PsychologyToday.com

Science.NaturalNews.com