Margot Kidder Best known for her role as Lois Lane in the Superman movies, Margot Kidder has appeared in over 100 television shows and 55 feature films like The Amityville Horror, The Great Waldo Pepper, and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. She maintains an active acting career. Kidder is being honored in Los Angeles at the Bonaventure Hotel on Sept. 20, 2001, at 7:30 PM when the annual Margot Kidder Award will be created to recognize those who advance the field of non-drug treatments in mental health. Ticket information for the event is available at www.AlternativeMentalHealth.com.

Physical Causes of Mental Illness

People often ask me how I am doing these days.  Many know from the newspapers five years ago that I had an episode of nervous exhaustion or whatever you want to call it.  These days I am doing great.  I feel so normal.  My career is moving along.  I have a film with James Earl Jones coming out soon called The Annihilation of Fish. 

I discovered after “The Incident” that I, in fact, had underlying physical problems that had been labeled as an emotional problem.  In fact, I found out that MOST “mental illness” really is caused by fixable medical problems, food allergies, nutritional imbalances, or toxic conditions.

Taking psychiatric drugs only masks the symptoms.  The symptoms are simply signs that something is wrong with your system.  Your nervous system runs on vitamins, minerals, oils, amino acids and other nutrients.  It turned out I needed certain amino acids more than other people.  I discovered I was not absorbing B vitamins, so have to inject them to get my B’s.  All these things make a difference in your health!  So many people have asked me how I healed myself, that I have now posted my vitamin regimen at http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/aminobipolar.htm.

What amazed me most was to find out that this information on the physical causes of mental illness is very available but few psychiatrists use it.  As a result, people are treated with synthetic chemicals that only cover up the problem and create side effects, because, after all, they are not natural to the body.  The sensible approach if you’re told you have a “chemical imbalance” is to provide the body with whatever natural chemicals – nutrients – are out of balance.  That way, the body gets what it needs and no side effects occur.

One of the things I feel very strongly about is the way this nation is drugging its schoolchildren with medications like Ritalin.  I am now the grandmother of two beautiful kids, and I cringe when I hear about little ones around this country being controlled with chemicals.  This is not the way to go about raising the next generation.  Lots of non-drug options are available.

When I first found out that there are actually doctors who know all about nutritional treatment of mental disorders, I was pretty upset that no doctor had told me about this.  So I decided I would make sure others had access to this information.  I became the national spokesperson for www.AlternativeMentalHealth.com, which is run by a nonprofit organization, Safe Harbor.  The site gives loads of information on this subject and has a directory of doctors who use non-drug treatments for mental health problems.

I also became spokesperson for the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine.  Orthomolecular means “correct molecules” or, basically, correct nutrition.  They are at www.orthomed.org.

If people want to take psychiatric medication for their ills, that is certainly their choice, but if they don’t, there’s plenty of help out there.

Click here for more information about depression or other mental health issues.

Created: 9/13/2001  -  Margot Kidder