Turning Your Down Into Up

Here is what one of the world’s greatest psychiatrist has to say about Turning Your Down into Up and Dr. Jantz’s treatment philosophy:

“Turning Your Down into Up” Forward By Abram Hoffer, Ph.D., M.D.,FRCP(C), co-founder of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, president of the International Schizophrenia Foundation

I became a psychotherapist in July 1950 because there was no other kind of treatment available. Psychoactive drugs were just on the horizon and electroconvulsive therapy was reserved more or less for psychotic depressions and schizophrenia. Psychoanalysis was becoming much more popular because it promised something-it promised that patients might be helped if they were analyzed long enough. In1952 I became an orthomolecular therapist. I began to treat schizophrenic patients with large doses of vitamin B-3 and with Vitamin C. Since then I consider myself a good psychiatrist because I no longer am either a psychotherapist or an orthomolecular therapist; I treat each patient as a unique person who is sick and needs help. This help includes four basic elements-shelter, food, civility, and therapy-with treatment ranging from psychotherapy to pure drug therapy. Every part of a person’s life is important. Neglecting one prevents the best response possible even when other issues are addressed.

Books about depression followed the same trend I saw in the psychiatric world. They focused on either one or the other-a form of psychotherapy or a form of drug therapy. The psychotherapist behaved as though the brain was a complex of psychological difficulties that were not related to the body’s biochemistry, and the pure organicists behaved as if the patients simply had to be filled with medication with no attention paid to all the other factors. Too many modern psychiatrists belong to this latter group. Their patients are fast in and fast out, with just enough time to ask how you are doing and to write a prescription. I demand of myself that every patient must be treated with dignity, with respect and understanding, and with proper attention to the diet and to orthomolecular therapy. That means using the right nutrients, vitamins and or minerals, and medication when needed (in as low doses as are effective and for as short a time as possible).

With this brief background you will understand why I like this book so much and why I endorse it for anyone who is depressed, for his or her family, and for doctors and other therapists. It contains an excellent description of the way Dr Jantz interacts with his patients. He is sensitive to their needs, provides structure in the treatment, and treats them with dignity, respect, and for as long as is necessary to achieve recovery. He knows that physical diseases can be at the root of depression and these must be identified and treated. He knows that food allergies and sensitivities can and very often will cause chronic depression. (I have seen a patient suffering from twenty years of depression recover in a few days when the food to which she was reacting was eliminated.) He knows that nutrients, vitamins and minerals, and essential fatty acids will be very important for many. And he understands that for many patients, correcting the most modifiable cause of depression is important and it may well be that biochemical pathology is that cause. If psychological problems are the most important cause then more attention will be given to them.

It is this combination of therapies that considers the entire person that makes this book so unique and valuable. Dr. Jantz calls his approach integrating the “whole person.” If only this were accepted by all our medical schools and universities! I hope that every therapist, no matter their basic training, will employ the theory and methods described in this book. I heartily agree with Dr. Jantz’s approach and believe this book will help many people recover from depression.