The Commodification of Angst, Part 1: How To Succeed in the Health Care Industry: Sell the Disease and the Cure
In 2018 a $63 billion deal united Monsanto's agrochemical business with Bayer's pharmaceutical empire. That may sound like a beautiful union of nutrition and medicine. It may sound like a behemoth dedicated to feeding people and keeping them healthy.
But a more sinister aspect of this merger is that it bonded a massive conglomerate that sells toxic and even carcinogenic chemicals with a big pharma company that sells cancer cures.
The merger exemplifies a troubling paradigm in contemporary healthcare: the same corporate entities that cause disease profit from treating it. This pattern extends beyond physical ailments into the realm of mental health. Before we get to that, let’s look closely at the pattern in the Bayer/Monsanto merger.
Agricultural Chemical Exposure
Pesticide exposure impacts neurological health. This has been proven beyond any doubt:
Organophosphate pesticides, widely used in agriculture, inhibit acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme crucial for proper nerve function. A 2018 study in Environmental Health Perspectives found that children exposed to these chemicals showed increased rates of attention disorders and decreased cognitive function.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, disrupts the gut microbiome. As we learn more about the gut-brain axis, it continues to increase in importance for steady cognitive function.Research from the Journal of Clinical Medicine (2020) found that glyphosate’s impact on the biome can lead to increased anxiety and depression.
Neonicotinoid pesticides are linked to developmental disorders. A longitudinal study of agricultural communities found that prenatal exposure correlates with increased rates of autism spectrum disorders and learning difficulties.
Industrial and Consumer Chemical Exposure
Beyond agricultural chemicals, everyday exposure to other industrial chemicals affects mental health:
Bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates, common in plastics, are endocrine disruptors that affect hormone production. They exist in microplastics, which have been found even in human infants. The journal Endocrinology reports that these chemicals can alter thyroid function, leading to mood disorders and cognitive issues.
Flame retardants (PBDEs) accumulate in human tissue over time. Studies show they can affect neurotransmitter function, potentially contributing to depression and anxiety.
Heavy metal exposure from industrial pollution and consumer products affects neural development. Lead, mercury, and aluminum have been linked to several cognitive and behavioral disorders.
Those toxins are fundamental to the Monsanto half of the Bayer-Monsanto profit cycle. Now let’s look at Bayer.
Did Toxins Make You Sick and Sad? We’ve Got A Drug For That
While Monsanto's agricultural chemicals negatively impact neurological health, Bayer's pharmaceutical division stands ready with a supposed solution: long-term medication.
The approach of modern medicine to mental health conditions is as shameful as it is simple: come up with a diagnosis that requires the patient to take a big pharma drug for the rest of their life.
Most of these drugs are physically and/or psychologically addictive. That way, each diagnosis opens a decades-long revenue stream through prescription renewals. This creates a disturbing dependency that serves corporate profits while fundamentally altering human biochemistry.
In fact, these medications are also toxic, but in different ways. Withdrawal from most of them can be extremely dangerous, leading to suicidal thoughts among other horrors, and recovery from long-term use is not always complete.
We’ll break the impact of these drugs into two categories: physical and mental. First, let’s look at the physical and neurological impact of long-term exposure to these medications.
The Physical Impact of Psychoactive Pharmaceuticals
The long-term effects of psychiatric medications can fundamentally alter the body's natural regulatory and endocrine systems. Treatment can become a source of dysfunction, necessitating further treatment, compounding the patient’s misery while pumping up the company’s profit.
Antidepressant-Induced Changes
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and similar antidepressants can create persistent alterations in brain function:
Long-term use of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) fundamentally alters brain chemistry. It causes a reduction in serotonin receptor density, which diminshes the brain's ability to respond to naturally produced serotonin. By messing with this natural ability, SSRI’s disrupt core psychological functions.
Natural serotonin function plays a crucial role in our ability to feel pride in accomplishments, maintain healthy self-esteem, and conceptualize long-term plans. When this system is artificially altered, individuals often struggle with executive functions like decision-making and risk assessment, while experiencing diminished capacity for social bonding and emotional resilience.
The brain adapts to artificial serotonin levels by reducing its own production, leading to dependency. The neurological mechanisms that enable us to process grief, build trust in relationships, and maintain optimism about the future become compromised. While SSRIs may temporarily alleviate certain symptoms, their long-term use can destroy a person’s ability to flourish, making their depression or initial conditions much worse.
What’s big pharma’s solution? More drugs. A different “cocktail,” as they cunningly call it.
If you don’t want more drugs, withdrawing from SSRI’s can be agonizing. Over half of people experience nausea and dizziness. They endure fearful “brain zaps" or electrical shock sensations. They suffer through severe mood swings. They have cognitive difficulties. Terrifyingly, they have increased suicidal ideation. And many of them never fully recover.
Antipsychotics: Deep Alteration
If that’s not enough to make you wonder at a company that induces neurological dysfunction with pesticides and toxins, and then sells victims a cure that is toxic in another, even more insidious way, consider the impact all of this has on the endocrine system. That’s where your hormones come from, and they impact everything from your self-esteem to your friendships to your sex drive.
Antipsychotics, for starters, often throw a wrench into the delicate machinery of prolactin, a sex hormone. Men may have breast tissue development. Women may encounter menstrual irregularities. Bone density drops, increasing the risk of fractures.
The thyroid gland, the body's metabolic maestro, also feels the impact of many psychiatric medications. This can lead to a cascade of issues: altered metabolism, mood swings that defy explanation, unexpected weight fluctuations, and a constant battle with fatigue.
But the story doesn't end there.
Long-term use of these medications can create lasting changes across multiple bodily systems. Doctors have their patients take a steady stream of these “drugs” and so the body has to adapt to their presence.
Metabolic shifts become the new normal: glucose regulation falters, lipid metabolism goes awry, weight management becomes a constant struggle, and insulin resistance may emerge.
Neuroplasticity, the brain's remarkable ability to adapt, is subtly altered. Neural pathways may develop differently, the stress response may go haywire, emotional processing can be thrown off balance, and even memory formation can be affected.
The immune system tries to cope, too, but inflammation markers can rise, immune responses can become unpredictable, and susceptibility to certain illnesses may increase.
Even the delicate balance of the gut microbiome, a crucial player in overall health, can be disrupted – remembering, of course, that environmental toxins already disrupted it.
Once the body incorporates these drugs into its very fabric of being, getting rid of them is just as traumatic as it is for antidepressants.
The brain has rewired itself around the drug’s presence. Abruptly removing the drug can trigger a cascade of physical withdrawal symptoms, from dizziness and nausea to more severe issues. These effects can last for years, and again, many people never make a full recovery.
Psychological dependence casts a much longer shadow. Fear of relapse pushes people to want the drug again. It gnaws at their confidence and resolve. The mind has become accustomed to the drug’s effects, and people may question the authenticity of their own emotions. They may wonder, “Are these feelings genuine, or is it because of the drug? This uncertainty can be deeply unsettling, enveloping a person in disorientation that can hinder their ability to find a way to true emotional well-being.
Navigating medication discontinuation requires a delicate dance, a careful collaboration between patient and clinician. It demands patience, understanding, and a commitment to supporting the body and mind as they relearn to function without the crutch of medication."
Prevention and Cure: Talk Therapy
I meet many people in my practice who are confronting this nightmare. Many of them were started on drugs as children. Many others started taking them without knowing the full implication of what they were doing.
To be sure, there are severe psychological maladies that can be treated with drugs. In those rare instances it is possible that the downsides of the drugs are less severe than the downside of the disorder.
But the vast majority of the time drugs are not needed. As you can see, using them is more of a risk than it’s worth. Most of the time, they end up making the very condition they were supposed to cure far worse than it was before the patient started taking the drug.
I mentioned how the brain adapts to the presence of these drugs. The brain can do that because it is remarkably plastic. You can literally modify the physical neural pathways in your brain with your thoughts. You can exercise your brain with thoughts and make it stronger.
You can learn to find a path forward as yourself, not as yourself on some prescription from big pharma.
The Role of Talk Therapy and Human Connection
The doctors who prescribe these drugs have a simple task. In a consultation that often lasts ten minutes or less, they will determine which disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Then they prescribe a drug for it.
And that’s it.
There is no human element at all. Every aspect of the interaction is designed to produce dividends for Wall Street, not your personal well-being.
Talk therapy is the only solution that actually produces tangible, lasting results. The downside of talk therapy is that it requires thought and self-exploration. The impact of talk therapy is profound but it unfolds over time. The techniques you are taught don’t always work, but used consistently they will produce the desired outcome.
Taking a pill is a lot easier, and might provide a quick fix, but it does not address the “why.” The underlying cause of your angst is never understood, never addressed, never processed. Without that, you cannot attain lasting peace and well-being.
Therapy can uncover the hidden roots of your emotional struggles. It teaches you how to cultivate resilience and emotional intelligence, giving you a clearer understanding of the world around you so you can navigate it more skillfully. It helps you craft a meaningful narrative around your experiences, transforming your struggles into a source of strength and personal growth.
Most significantly, it addresses the impact that past trauma had on your ontology. The things that happened to you, especially when you were a very young child, have an enormous impact on your mental health in adulthood. Most of the time, people suffering from any of a wide range of psychological challenges suffer because they are responding to past trauma in ways that are no longer effective.
Talk therapy can help a person discover their true self, empowering them to trust their inner compass and intuition.
People on drugs who want to get off of them can benefit from talk therapy, as it can help them navigate the detoxification process and reconnect with their own innate healing powers.
The Commodification of Angst
The normal human condition is challenging. Even in ancient times, people dealt with anxiety and depression. They struggled to fit in. They longed for love. They chased dreams and didn’t catch them. They suffered setbacks and reveled in joys. That’s life. It’s not an excuse to sell someone drugs.
The medical profession seems to want us to think of our life journeys as slogs through a disease-ridden mire. They seem to imply that taking their drugs will make us happy and successful. In Part 2 we'll take a very close look at this.
Obviously, declaring that normal human experiences are actually disorders that require life-long treatment with drugs does a lot more good for the manufacturers of the drugs than it does for the patients.
But this is the system that is deeply entrenched in our society. To escape it, we must first save ourselves. For many people, especially those who were started on drugs when they were children, the first step is to accept emotional struggles as part of life. They don't represent disorders to be medicated away. They are natural responses to life's challenges. They are useful for personal growth.
They are you. To be your best self is the whole adventure of life. Engaging that adventure under your own power, as yourself, produces real results that are far more satisfying.
