by Sabrina Ginesi

Created on: May 19, 2010

Absolutely no way should children receive anti depressants. Firstly depression is not a clinical condition, it is an emotional one. Furthermore, depression is anger turned in on the self. For a child to have to experience such chaos internally at such a young age, should be brought straight back to the parents. Lack of emotional expression or validation is what causes children to internalise their emotional world, which has the potential to cause havoc in later years. Another point about depression, studies say a lack of serotonin is the primary cause of depression yet there is not one test in the world which measures serotonin in the brain, needless to say it is guess work about the condition. I may also add pharmaceutical companies support this as they provide a substitute for serotonin, which in turn makes them billions, while society ignores the fact that this is adding the mental health problems, instead of eradicating them. Therefore, keeping doctors and multi billion pharmaceutical companies in business.

Giving a child anti depressants has many detrimental effects. As we are aware, children don't stop developing until the ages of 18 to 21 so to feed a child chemicals can only impede developing neurons which carry important messages to our brain. As with Ritalin, for ADHD, the consequences of this is life long. Another point about giving a child anti depressants is the numbness is causes on their emotional development, which raises the question is my head, how on earth will a child ever learn to identify and live with an emotional world they carry throughout their lives? Teaching a child to reach for a chemical when they have difficulties is setting them up for a co dependant lifestyle, instead of teaching them about their autonomy. I may also add that our bodies are all equipped to make any chemical which is artificially taken. So finding the real source of depression is a better solution to a child's needs, rather than contaminate their development and risk them carrying it through for the rest of their lives.

Obviously to see a child suffering in silence, as depression usually is, is hard for any parent or loved one to see. Getting a quick fix, in terms of anti depressants really is a form of neglect if you ask me, ignoring what they really want, which is a parent who will contain their developing emotional world. Sit and hear your child, they will tell you what is going on, if you take the time to talk and listen to them. Allow their anger to surface and let them know it is healthy to be angry, providing it is not destructive anger (which may require more therapeutic work). Provide your child with a safe environment to express their developing emotions. Of course this is not always possible, as situations and circumstances vary greatly, however to give your child a chance in life, maybe it is time to look at the parenting style and work with that, instead of letting a child take the brunt of the adults problems. It makes me sad to think a child's chance is life is taken from them, when they don't have the power to answer for themselves or make choices.

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