Anti-depressant Link to Suicide Questioned
When kids go on anti-depressants their risk of suicide increases. This linked research (poorly designed and worthless in my opinion) says that's hooey. But what if the link isn't causative? What if the two are just correlated?
That has always been my theory anyway. The drugs themselves definitely change the body chemistry and no one knows what monkeying around with the brain ultimately does. But I think the problem is simpler: When children are put on medication, the cause of their desperation and depression, now can be dismissed as a "brain problem". It's the child's fault that something is wrong. I have yet to see ever where a child's problem was not symptomatic of the dysfunctional system the child comes from. The "cry for help" alerts everyone. The child is then the identified patient. The child might be blamed but isn't the problem. This leads to more desperation and hopelessness. Wouldn't you feel helpless and hopeless if you got all crazy and no one listened to your concerns? Might you up the ante to finally be heard?
Upping the ante often means a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Labels:
Health,
Psychology
4 comments:
Anonymous,
I think you meant for your comment to be put here:
When I was a kid my mother was always seeing therapists, and said I should see one except my father wouldn't pay for/didn't believe in it. I resented the remarks because they both undercut my confidence in my own sanity, and seemed like it would be coercive. The family was broken and she was making a mess of our lives, but somehow I had to be straightened out.
To me it was every bit as oppressive as if a priest told me I was going to hell if I didn't shape up. In fact, it was the same thing, only more moderne.
So I can imagine how kids feel today, with the pressure to put them on drugs, being told something's always *wrong* with them when it's really their parents' screwed up lifestyles.
12:22 PM
Anti-depressants are are mystery to me. Some say they do really well on them and others report that they can't hardly feel being human any longer. I know of one family where one of the sons was on anit-depressants but decided one day to call his mother out to the garage and then shot himself in the head once she was there. It does not sound reassuring to be on Anti-depressants.
The number of people on anti-depressants is staggering. Like all medical trends, people who take them are walking medical experiments. Will we find out they are like hormone therapy for women? Or knee surgery? Or back surgery? Or frontal labotomies? Or stents? Or fill-in-the-blank treatments....
And children as young as three are on these things. Terrifying.
Terrifying indeed! And oh, so sad!
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