My 25 years of experience as a therapist have given me an inside view of how psychotropic medications can be both effective and harmful. Honestly, I have more questions than answers about them, but still, I have seen them do a lot of good and an equal amount of harm in people’s lives.
I am very happy RFK Jr. has decided to examine the effectiveness of SSRIs and other medications. The public deserves to know the truth without Big Pharma and lobbyists muddying the waters on this issue. All we can do is bring in honest science and data so people can make the most informed decisions about their health as possible.
Things Are Not Getting Better
Most of my clinical experience with populations who benefited from psych meds was from 2005 to 2015, and it was a very different time. I wish I could say the mental health profession has improved, but unfortunately, things have gotten significantly worse. If I didn’t have my past experience, I likely would be fully against psychotropic medications. However, because I worked at clinics that treated those with severe mental illness and didn’t rush patients in and out, I was able to see how certain people benefited from psychotropic meds.
The doctors in my clinics met with patients at least twice a week and made gradual changes to their care. They listened closely to their patients and worked collaboratively with me and other therapists on the team, enabling them to make more informed decisions. Dosage and medication changes weren’t made if we knew the patient wouldn’t be seen again in the near future, because doctors knew it was essential to closely monitor how those changes affected their day-to-day lives.
Also, patients were only put on medications due to significant impairment, and other variables like nutrition, sleep, environmental influences, and substance use/abuse were considered first. Screentime wasn’t like it is today. Our culture was different because mental illness wasn’t something to be proud of. Today, it is. So we’re told.
There was no incentive to stay sick, so people worked to get better, and they did.
Finally, people were less isolated.
COVID lockdowns hadn’t happened yet, and masks weren’t a thing, and Zoom wasn’t a major factor in how people communicated. As a result, people left their homes to do things and received in-person treatment. The act of getting dressed, leaving their homes, and interfacing with their therapists and other patients in person was a big component of their healing trajectory.
The Incentive Is To Stay Sick
Fast forward to today, when mental illness is “destigmatized,” and people are self-diagnosing and wearing their mental illness labels like crowns.
Patients are now commonly asked to complete a routine PHQ-9—a nine-question survey about depression that was invented by a marketing person at Pfizer—before they even present with genuine mental health symptoms.
Mental health assessments are commonly given at schools, often without parental consent, which results in dramatic over-diagnoses. No, not as many people are mentally ill as the media often suggests. Also, too many people are now addicted to their phones, which we know brings about a cascade of mental health issues, especially in youth. We have increased access to marijuana, a substance that increases the risk of psychosis.
The Deck Is Being Stacked
Today, psych drugs are handed out like candy to adults and children alike, with little oversight. Antidepressants and other psych meds are prescribed without proper assessments or follow-up. Additionally, people are now much more isolated. What a cocktail of bad conditions for assessing a country’s mental health.
Telehealth is overused, and people who need in-person care don’t have access, or choose the easier but less effective path of Zoom therapy. Families are more divided than before the lockdowns, and people are attending church less. Birth control pills (hormones) are given to many more young girls, even when they aren’t sexually active, which can have a large impact on mood. Plus, therapists are less skilled overall, they affirm every feeling, and are trained to reinforce anti-therapeutic social justice ideas like the victim/oppressor dichotomy.
In other words, since I served patients during a very different time, I’ve seen people benefit from psychological medications. Despite my disdain for Big Pharma and the way things are done today, I do believe there is a use for psych meds for certain people, administered in a certain way. I believe in real mental illness because I’ve seen it firsthand.
I’ve seen people who have experienced severe manic episodes, psychosis, or such major depression that day-to-day functioning is near impossible.
I’ve seen people who truly felt suicidal, and not just because someone “misgendered” them.
I also worked in a locked facility with youth who had such severe behaviors that they sometimes needed to be physically restrained for safety.
Take a Balanced Approach
While I believe most children should not be put on medications, and while not ideal, I do think there are cases where it is appropriate for consideration. When I came up the ranks, there were no TikTok-induced illnesses, people were better at recognizing attention-seeking behavior, and they weren’t afraid to say it. The fallout of “mental health awareness” is that now everyone believes they should have a diagnosis and that diagnosis should be affirmed, while the struggles of someone who truly suffers get minimized. I think we are over-saturated with therapy speak, labels, and behaviors that could be curbed with other interventions.
However, when other variables such as health issues, nutrition, environmental factors, screen time, substance use, etc., are ruled out, there are instances when medications can help.
I hope RFK Jr. gets us more data about antidepressants and other medications. There are a lot of unanswered questions. I believe way too many people are taking these drugs unnecessarily, and they have done tremendous harm, especially to young people.
However, I’ve seen certain instances when they positively helped. If the medical system slowed down and stopped overprescribing, doctors would have more time to see the patients who are likely to benefit from their care and monitor them appropriately.
Could we just do that instead?
is a licensed clinical social worker. She completed her MSW in 1999 from New York University. She has a variety of experience in schools, group homes, hospitals, and community-based organizations. Since getting fired for not getting the COVID vaccine, she has dedicated herself to educating parents and emboldening other mental health professionals to challenge the ideological capture of her profession. Pamela is the author of A Practical Response to Gender Distress, a tool book for parents who do not want to affirm a false gender identity, and Froggy Girl, a cute rhyming children’s book about self-acceptance.
 | A guest post by
|
I appreciate you writing this post, as recently I have been in discussions with inexperienced and unqualified clinicians who outright routinely dismiss the need for psychotropic medications at face, without appreciating the benefits that even a short term period of use can affect. Take for example meds for ADHD. I happened to do a Fellowship with a Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic is a large military medical center. We required diary recording from the Connor's Continuous Performance Appraisal to be recorded by the classroom teacher & parent, then the child was administered the computer assisted test. We analyzed all these elements, and if the child qualified, the child spent two afternoons on our unit with us, was administered a immediate release medication, then observed doing schoolwork, artwork, recreation, etc. If their behaviour was reasonably managed and adjusted in each domain following administration of medication, they were then given a small supply of take home medication, and the Connor's Diary was re-recorded by the classroom teacher & parents, the child re-tested, and everything reanalyzed. If the effects were not significant at any point in the trial, medication was discontinued and an alternate form of therapy was initiated. I personally carried this protocol on into adult practice - in basic framework - as the Clinical Director of a Mental Health/Substance Use Disorders treatment program for moderate to severely affected adult parolees discharged from prisons & custody in state hospitals, and it was effective as well. My point is that, it is generally no longer essential to necessarily think in terms of "lifelong" use of medications except in terms of severe mental illness, and even in those cases, with improving medications, lesser doses or combing anti-psychotic medications with other medications can lessen the burden of debilitating side-effects. This ability has brought "moderation," in many cases, even to what were once were the most difficult cases to manage. Thank you for your perspective.