Why are so many people on anti-depressants in this day and time, why are so many children add, taking meds?

Question

Has anyone seen the movie Prozac Nation? Why are we so depressed this day and age that so many people including teens on anti-depressants. Also, all you hear about in kids now is ADD, and taking meds for this. I'm in my early 40's and it seems like things go in waves, when my kids were babies, which they were lucky not to have this, they were putting in tubes in ears...is this all just a money making thing, or is the world's environment changing so fast, that we are getting chemically induced somewhere that makes us/people have to take this medicine. Any views on this

Answer 1

I know what you mean. I am the same age as you and I have seen the "fads" in medicine too.

Speaking only for myself, I have had some pretty severe illnesses that 100 years ago, I would have died. One of my meds is an antidepressant. It helps counteract some of the side effects of the other meds I have to take to live.
Those meds are a great tool-- and I am grateful for them, but I also think they are overused.

Answer 2

I am on the view of thank goodness for modern science and technologies. I think there is a vast change in people using antidepressants etc, is that it accepted now There are many studies that show, many people have brain imbalances that can be greatly improved on by being on certain medicines etc. And why shouldn't they want to improve on their lives if they can. There was a time, when a depressed person was put inside a psychiatric ward..and treated like an animal, for something they could not control. People were also very ignorant back then too..and feared a differences in people..instead of trying to understand IT.
I shudder to think of all the people who would have to suffer needlessly because of ignorant views of taking antidepressants etc.

Answer 3

The sickness industry in America works tirelessly to promote its expensive products. More money is spent on advertising and promoting the use of all kinds of drugs then ever gets spent on research. Depression is a goldmine for the sickness industry; hence the large numbers of unhappy folks diagnosed and aggressively treated with these poweful drugs. It is more a question of economics than health.

Answer 4

In my opinion it is a money-making, extremely profitable scheme by the pharmaceutical companies and doctors.

I do think there are those who truly need these drugs, but doctors are too quick in prescribling them.

I also think it's bad parenting.
With both parents working nowadays and stressed out, they do not have the time to properly discipline their children, and putting them on drugs makes their kids more controllable.

Doctors and parents use these drugs as a quick fix in far too many cases, in my opinion.

Answer 5

You sound like an extremely brilliant teen. i'm inspired on the intensity of your concept about those concerns. I learn psychology and artwork with children which have a form of "diabilities" and that i accept as true with a lot of your factors. i recognize that ADHD medicine would properly be strong to help human beings concentration and get their artwork executed, contained in the faculty surroundings... yet I actually trust that if children were no longer uncovered to the inflexible college surroundings of widely used public colleges, then they might no longer want the drugs to help them in good structure into that diverse container. i'm no longer effective if the ethics question would properly be raised right here - mothers and fathers settle on issues for his or her children each and every of the time, depending on the tips they are given. Now, is it moral for psychiatrists to prescribe those drugs to children? that is a somewhat diverse question, and significant to respond to. Is it moral to withold a drug that would help, at the same time as a baby is pissed off and depressed at school, because of no longer having the flexibility to in good structure into the progression that they ought to, to be able to finish properly? i imagine it honestly relies upon on the guy case. If the youngster in user-friendly words has get entry to to an familiar public college and can't have the funds for tutors or a Montessori college or some thing of that nature, then perchance drugs are a strong short time period answer. on the different hand, I firmly trust that the familiar public college gadget is poor and should be abolished and adjusted with some thing that facilitates children learn obviously and draw on their own particular strengths... because I too trust that what we call ADHD is only a "diverse way" of doing issues. In a perfect international, all children might want to be free to benefit of their own way and we does no longer want drugs. they are merely a "patch" that fix the youngster sufficient to be able to in good structure into the "gadget". It honestly sounds terrible when I placed it that way, yet regrettably that's the way our society is presently set up. keep asking questions and wondering about issues, the international needs extra human beings like you : )

Answer 6

I'm 55 and I take Zoloft -- have been taking it for about 10 years. I needed it long, long, long before that, but in the "old days" we were supposed to just pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and keep on going. It was very difficult for me and for my family.