CHILDHOOD DEPRESSION???
Since the early 1990’s parents have reported to me that a place called the Children’s Center in Salt Lake City has been pressuring them to put toddlers as young as two on antidepressants. I had a chiropractor in Kansas report in the early 90’s that he had to help a family withdraw their month old baby from Zoloft given for the symptoms of colic! Shocking? Certainly and it should be! But was that only back then? NO!
This article below came out yesterday on KSL in Salt Lake City, UT peddling antidepressants for depressed children as young as three!!! It is from the University of Utah, ironically at the Neuropsych Unit where I was first invited to speak about the negative effects of SSRIs.
In the comments to this article I found the following very wise statement by a young man who was started on antidepressants at a very young age and medicated until he was 23:
NBF J60: “I was diagnosed with clinical depression when I was in the fourth grade.
“What did they do to solve the problem? I was put on medications. I can tell you right now that treating depression with medications is hands down the stupidest thing you can do.
“Since my diagnosis, I was on medication for all those years until just after my 23rd birthday when I decided to quit. It was really hard for a month or two but since then my life has been more stable than it ever has before. And for the entire time I was on medication I still had depressive episodes on a regular basis, plus they kind of messed me up.
“The medical industry loves medication because it is a cheap and easy “fix.” Psychiatrists can make a lot more money handing out pills after a fifteen minute visit rather than genuinely taking the time to help someone get their life in order. If you choose to not take the medication they suggest and take up more of their time, plan on spending a fortune.
“Also, clinical depression is NOT a disorder! It is very real, and extremely difficult, but it is a natural thing about life that helps us become stronger. From personal experience, I believe that the real solution to depression, is simply to let it play its course, and through love and help from family and friends, learn how to cope, become stronger, and move forward in life.”
My response: “What was done to you should be done to no child!!! Hopefully your body and brain will be able to recover from the damaging effects of the antidepressants.
“These drugs produce a doubling of cortisol with only one dose which can produce widespread damage throughout the body and the brain…especially in an developing brain and body.
“And for someone to even suggest these these drugs may be safe for a child as young as three…..it appears it is time for that person to read through the FDA Advisory Committee hearings on Antidepressants and Children held a full decade ago last month. Those meetings resulted in the strongest warnings against children using these drugs – a Black Box Warning for double the rate of Suicidal Ideation (compulsive and ruminating thoughts of killing oneself along with the same compulsive thoughts of how to go about doing that). The Black Box Warning is the step just previous to issuing a complete ban on the use of antidepressants in children. This article would indicate to me that perhaps it is time for that next step to be taken.”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=32174102&nid=
Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org & http://ssristories.drugawareness.org
Author: ”Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare – The Complete Truth of the Full Impact of Antidepressants Upon Us & Our World” & Withdrawal CD “Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!”
WITHDRAWAL HELP: You can find the hour and a half long CD on safe and effective withdrawal helps here: http://store.drugawareness.org/ And if you need additional consultations with Ann Blake-Tracy, you can book one at www.drugawareness.org or sign up for one of the memberships for the International Coalition for Drug Awareness which includes free consultations as one of the benefits of that particular membership plan.
WITHDRAWAL WARNING: In sharing this information about adverse reactions to antidepressants I always recommend that you also give reference to my CD on safe withdrawal, Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!, so that we do not have more people dropping off these drugs too quickly – a move which I have warned from the beginning can be even more dangerous than staying on the drugs!
