Peachy the Magazine Fall 2019 | Page 74

O Unraveling the Root Causes of Anxiety and Depression Over 44 million Americans currently suffer from mental disease, and half of all adults will struggle with mental illness during their lifetimes. Depression and anxiety are the most common diagnoses. Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed. One in seven women are medicated for depression and anxiety, and one in four are on medication by the time they reach their forties. Conventional approaches to mental disease focus on imbalances of neurotrans- mitters with treatment involving medications to regulate the abnormalities. For decades, this chemical imbalance was believed to be the cause of psychiatric WRITTEN BY Nancy Palermo Lietz, MD, Thrive Personalized Healthcare and Wellness 72 PEACHYTHEMAGAZINE.COM