A Mind of Your Own Quotes

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Instead, when you have a symptom—when you feel cloudy, sad, sore, gassy, weepy, tired, or unnecessarily anxious—bring some wonder to it. Ask why and try to make the connections. Your body’s symptoms are telling you something about equilibrium. Your body is trying to tell you that it has lost balance. Stand back and appreciate the infinite complexity of your organism. Know that fear will only drive you to treat your body like a robotic machine that needs oil and gear changes. We are so much more than buttons and levers.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“For starters, consider Study 329, which cost GlaxoSmithKlein $3 billion for their efforts to promote antidepressants to youngsters.10 This drug company manipulated data that hid signs of increased risk of suicide. The company also falsely represented Paxil as outperforming a placebo.11”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“So if depression isn’t a disease, then what is it? As I briefly mentioned in the introduction, depression is a symptom, a vague surface sign at best that doesn’t tell you anything about its root cause. Consider, for a moment, that your toe hurts. Any number of things can cause a toe to hurt, from physically injuring it to a bunion, blister, or tumor growing inside. The hurting is a sign that something is wrong with the toe, simple as that. Likewise, depression is the hurting; it’s an adaptive response, intelligently communicated by the body, to something not being right within, often because things are also off in our environment.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“depression should be categorized with other inflammatory disorders including heart disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. And”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“First, the brain sends a message to the adrenal glands that results in the release of adrenaline, also called epinephrine. This triggers your heart rate to increase as blood is directed to your muscles in the event you need to flee. When the threat is gone, your body normalizes again. But if the threat doesn’t go away and your stress response intensifies, then a series of events take place along what’s called the HPA axis, short for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and which involves multiple stress hormones.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“The medicalization of distress obliterates meaning and creates profit.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“simply, depression is a sign for us to stop and figure out what’s causing our imbalance. Another way to appreciate this perspective is to say depression is an opportunity.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Light boxes produce artificial light that mimics the sun’s intensity without emitting ultraviolet radiation.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“often present my patients with alternative options for more immediate symptom relief. I have been prescribing the Fisher Wallace Cranial Electrical Stimulator (CES), a device that generates a low-intensity alternating current that is transmitted across the skull, for many years now (I have”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“ADRENAL AND HYPOTHALAMUS GLANDULARS Glandular supplements, also commonly called glandulars, are made from various organs and tissues of mammals. They were used successfully to treat multiple conditions throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They have recently been making a comeback, thanks to new science showing their positive effects on damaged tissues and organs by exposing the tissues to growth factors that influence the body’s capacity for self-repair and regeneration. Because glandulars contain a complex array of enzymes, vitamins, fatty acids, amino acids, minerals, and neurotransmitters and a host of nutrients in addition to the tissues within the gland, they are difficult to study in a standardized way. On the other hand, this also makes them a food, and one that we are increasingly finding to be far more beneficial to our physiology than the sum of its parts can convey. Adrenal cortex is most helpful for depressive symptoms in addition to a general adrenal glandular. Adrenals must come from pastured animals. Begin with one twice daily of each. Hypothalamus is a calming glandular that begins to repair the communication between the brain and glands. Take one to four for agitation and acute anxiety along with one twice daily. Over time, you will need less.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“This test measures serum levels of this important hormone-vitamin. I test all of my patients for not just vitamin D (expressed clinically as 25OH), but also its receptor-activating metabolite (1,25). Ideally 25OH should be between 50 and 80 ng/mL; 1,25 should be within normal range.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“The purpose of these tests is to check blood sugar control. The HgA1C test is the most accurate because it can give an average of your blood sugar levels over the past ninety days (the average life cycle of a red blood cell). You want your values to be between 4.8 and 5.2 percent (note anemia and dehydration can lead to falsely depressed or elevated levels). Fasting glucose is a onetime snapshot in the fasting state, of course, but should ideally be 70 to 85 mg/dl with a fasting insulin below 6 μIU/ml.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“It can be measured with an hs-CRP test. You want to be between 0.00 and 1.0 mg/L.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Optimal levels of homocysteine are between 7 and 10 micromoles per liter of blood; normal levels of methylmalonic acid are between 0.08 and 0.56 mmol/L (in my experience, this is a less sensitive measure).”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Deficiency is traditionally defined as being below 150 to 200 pg/mL (picogram/milliliter), but you want to be above 600 pg/mL.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Vitamin B12”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“This will gauge your thyroid health (optimal values included): TSH: optimal value: less than 2 μU/ML FREE T4: optimal value: more than 1.1 NG/DL FREE T3: optimal value: more than 3.0 PG/ML REVERSE T3: optimal value: less than a 10:1 ratio RT3:FT3 THYROID PEROXIDASE ANTIBODIES (TPOAB): optimal value: less than 4 IU/ML or negative THYROGLOBULIN ANTIBODIES (TGAB): optimal value: less than 4 IU/ML or negative Already”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Is all this depression simply a sign of an evolutionary mismatch?”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“. . . there is no direct evidence of serotonin or norepinephrine deficiency despite thousands of studies that have attempted to validate this notion.”22 And in a scathing review on major depression published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008, the researchers write: “. . . numerous studies of norepinephrine and serotonin metabolites in plasma, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid as well as postmortem studies of the brains of patients with depression, have yet to identify the purported deficiency reliably.”23”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“can’t measure serotonin in a living human brain yet, so it’s impossible to know exactly how the brain is releasing and using serotonin. What scientists must do instead is rely on evidence about levels of serotonin that the brain has already metabolized, and by studying seratonin in animal models. To date, the best available evidence indicates that more serotonin—not less—is released and used during depressive episodes. This natural surge of serotonin helps the brain adapt to depression; it forces the body to spend more energy on conscious thought than to areas such as growth, development, reproduction, immune function, and the stress response.21”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“This hypothesis, referred to as the monoamine hypothesis, grew primarily out of two main observations made in the 1950s and ’60s.14 One was seen in patients being treated for tuberculosis who experienced mood-related side effects from the antitubercular drug iproniazid, which can change the levels of serotonin in the brain. Another was the claim that reserpine, a medication introduced for seizures and high blood pressure, depleted these chemicals and caused depression—that is, until there was a fifty-four person study that demonstrated that it resolved depression.15 From these preliminary and largely inconsistent observations a theory was born, crystallized by the work and writings of the late Dr. Joseph Schildkraut, who threw fairy dust into the field in 1965 with his speculative manifesto “The Catecholamine Hypothesis of Affective Disorders.”16 Dr. Schildkraut was a prominent psychiatrist at Harvard who studied catecholamines, a class of naturally occurring compounds that act as chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters, within the brain. He looked at one neurochemical in particular, norepinephrine, in people before and during treatment with antidepressants and found that depression suppressed its effectiveness as a chemical messenger. Based on his findings, he theorized broadly about the biochemical underpinnings of mental illnesses. In a field struggling to establish legitimacy (beyond the therapeutic lobotomy!), psychiatry was desperate for a rebranding, and the pharmaceutical industry was all too happy to partner in the effort. This idea that these medications correct an imbalance that has something to do with a brain chemical has been so universally accepted that no one bothers to question it or even research it using modern rigors of science. According to Dr. Joanna Moncrieff, we have been led to believe that these medications have disease-based effects—that they’re actually fixing, curing, correcting a real disease in human physiology. Six decades of study, however, have revealed conflicting, confusing, and inconclusive data.17 That’s right: there has never been a human study that successfully links low serotonin levels and depression. Imaging studies, blood and urine tests, postmortem suicide assessments, and even animal research have never validated the link between neurotransmitter levels and depression.18 In other words, the serotonin theory of depression is a total myth that has been unjustly supported by the manipulation of data. Much to the contrary, high serotonin levels have been linked to a range of problems, including schizophrenia and autism.19 Paul Andrews, an assistant professor”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“ZUCCHINI WITH GROUND BEEF AND CUMIN Serves 2 to 3 2 tablespoons grass-fed ghee ½ yellow onion, diced 2 large or 4 small zucchinis, sliced Dash of unprocessed sea salt Pinch of ground cumin Splash of apple cider vinegar ½ pound organic grass-fed ground beef Heat the ghee in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and zucchini and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, until softened. Stir in the salt, cumin, and vinegar. Add the ground beef and cook, stirring to break it up, for 3 to 5 minutes until browned.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“MEAT SAUCE Serves 4 to 6 1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves torn Leaves from 1 bunch fresh cilantro 1 onion, chopped 3 beets, scrubbed and chopped 4 carrots, chopped 4 celery sticks, chopped 2 tablespoons grass-fed ghee 1 pound organic grass-fed ground bison or beef One 24-ounce glass bottle organic crushed tomatoes 1 tablespoon ground turmeric Unprocessed sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Combine the kale, cilantro, onion, beets, carrots, and celery in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped but not pureed. Melt the ghee in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the vegetables and sauté until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the bison and cook, stirring and breaking it apart with the spoon, until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and turmeric and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes to allow flavors to combine. Serve over squash, quinoa, or broccoli.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Let’s say you’re somebody who experiences a lot of social anxiety. You have a couple glasses of wine at a party as a preemptive strike. A sense of calmness washes over you and your symptoms evaporate. Through deductive reasoning, you could say, “Well, I must have an alcohol deficiency, so I should continue to consume alcohol every time I have this symptom, and I might want to drink regularly to prevent it altogether.” This analogy is emblematic of the practice of dishing out antidepressants without any consideration of their long-term consequences.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Our analysis indicates that there are no specific antidepressant drugs, that most of the short-term effects of antidepressants are shared by many other drugs, and that long-term drug treatment with antidepressants or any other drugs has not been shown to lead to long-term elevation of mood. We suggest that the term ‘antidepressant’ should be abandoned.”12”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Kate had never been on an antidepressant and never suffered from depression, but she felt overwhelmed and frazzled after the birth of her first baby. At her six-week postpartum follow-up appointment, her obstetrician prescribed Zoloft. Within one week of starting it, she had written a suicide note and was planning to jump off of her fifteenth-floor Manhattan balcony. She said to me, “It just made sense at the time. And I felt really detached about it, like it was nothing.” Kate’s experience is not an outlier.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“In one particularly alarming paper published in 2015 in no less an authority than the British Medical Journal, researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre, an independent drug safety analysis group based in Denmark, found that more than half a million people aged sixty-five and older in the West die every year from psych meds.34”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“Antidepressants have also been associated with an increased acute risk of suicide in younger patients while they may decrease the risk of suicide in older patients or with longer-term use. Also, all major classes of antidepressants have been associated with unpleasant (and sometimes dangerous) symptoms when they are discontinued abruptly. Discontinuation of antidepressants is associated with relapse and recurrence of MDD (Major Depressive Disorder). In a meta-analysis, this risk was shown to be higher for antidepressants that cause greater disruption to neurotransmitter systems . . . [And] there is a growing body of research suggesting that when they are used in the long term as a maintenance treatment, antidepressants can lose efficacy, and may even result in chronic and treatment-resistant depression. Such reactions may be due to the brain’s attempt to maintain homeostasis and a functioning adaptation in spite of the medication.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

“The term stress as it is used today was coined by one of the founding fathers of stress research, Hans Selye, who in 1936 defined it as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.”
― Kelly Brogan, A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives