What happens to a person of faith in 2009 when they turn to clergy for psychological help? Most commonly they are referred to a mental health practitioner whose prescription does not include religion, even though the Psychiatric Times issued findings in 2001 that showed “religion has a tremendous positive effect on people’s mental health.”

Furthermore, do the psychiatric drugs then prescribed drive people even further away from religion? Yes, based on over 10 million website visitors and hundreds of thousands of emails and phone calls to the Road Back Program, which specializes in helping people safely taper off psychiatric medications.

According to James Harper, founder of The Road Back Program and author of the new book, How to Safely Get Off Psychoactive Medication, Faithful Recovery for the Spiritually Inclined, “People who take psychoactive medication are more likely to stop going to their place of worship. Conversely, once they begin to taper off the medication they tend to return to their place of worship.

Yet, what do religious people seek? Happiness? Inner peace? Better relationships? A better attitude about life? Fundamentals that we are almost all searching for. And which the drugs promise, but don’t deliver, according to Harper:

“When we began asking why people stopped their religious involvement when taking psychiatric drugs, the reasons were either, ‘I could no longer feel anything.’ or ‘The side effects from the medication were so severe; I did not want anyone to see me like that.’

“Even more troubling are clergy themselves on psychoactive medications. They contact us for help because they feel they have lost their connection with God, can no longer feel while trying to write sermons and do not want their parishioners to see them in such a state. Again, once they begin to taper off the medication with our program this persistent problem vanishes.”

How big is the problem?

The Road Back has observed a spiraling trend that mirrors recent survey results released by Trinity College showing a doubling of people who claim no religion since 1990. From 1999 to 2007 there has been an increase of over a 100 % in the population taking antidepressants, let alone the increases in antipsychotic medication or anti-anxiety medication prescriptions. In 2007, 220 million people were taking antidepressants.

While the research shows people are abandoning religion in numbers like never before, and it seems the psychiatric industry is not helping. In fact, they could be contributing to the problem, since psychiatry defines a loss or questioning of faith, problems associated to conversion to a new faith, even questions about spiritual values as a psychiatric disorder in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) published by the American Psychiatric Association, page 685, V62.89, “Religious or Spiritual Problem.”

Harper’s new book offers a proven method for tapering off psychiatric medication, using a holistic approach, without drugs, and including vital supplements, vitamins and minerals. And according to him:

“This book provides a Road Back. Once traveling that road, a person can grab back onto their religious convictions and regain their spiritual center. A center which psychiatric drugs seem to destroy. ”

How to Safely Get Off Psychoactive Medication, Faithful Recovery for the Spiritually Inclined, published by CreateSpace an Amazon.com company, now available on Amazon.

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