Drugging America's Youth

By Broadside Opinion Columnist Brandon Cosby

Maybe the world has grown up and gotten far more complicated, but it seems that nearly everyone I know today is taking some delicate cocktail of prescription drugs.

Maybe the world has turned more dark and confusing, or maybe I just have screwed up friends, but the rule seems constant.

As a generation, we seem to be growing up heavily medicated and bred passive.

Are we, as near-adults, really that screwed up? Anti-depressants, sedatives and stimulants have been around for a while, so why now have they seemed to blanket an entire age group?

Perhaps it's over-medication, or it's the fact that the world really has become more daunting. Perhaps it's something in the water; regardless though, it seems troubling that we are being marched to our future with pills in hand, diluted and sedated. We're growing up as Generation Rx—an entire swath of American society hung up and dependent on drugs handed out to us by over-zealous doctors who see every patient's problem as something to be corrected by a pill.

Now I do not doubt that many of us have serious problems that could be helped with the use of prescribed medication. I fear we're being over-medicated. It seems impossible that nearly three-fourths of my friends really suffer from crippling emotional and attention problems that require heavy doses of Adderall and Prozac. I honestly doubt my taste in friends is that questionable.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I am one of the many members of this “Generation Rx.”

I've been prescribed Zoloft in the past and, yes, it did help me. But what I know can help me even more is the strength of friends. Now, some people do not have the luxury of someone to talk to. These people likely could be helped by my medication. I'm not advocating we throw away our pills indiscriminately or jump off our carefully prescribed medication. God knows a lot of us actually deserve the help of the Zolofts and Ritalins of the world and we shouldn't dismiss them out of hand. But I believe it's worth asking your doctor if it's something you truly need.

I suppose what I'm arguing for is a balance. Some of us do deserve the help of medication, but not all. There's an equilibrium to be struck where the truly screwed-up get the help they need and the person going through a bad week gets a trip to the psychologist.

Life can be scary and confusing, but it can also be wonderful. Part of living is dealing with severe disappointments and social awkwardness and failed relationships—the icky things in life. I fear that we're being set up by prescription-happy psychiatrists to continue into life, aloof and hollow-eyed.

Life is glorious, fun and scary, but it's definitely worth the ride. If we are doped up for no apparent reason, then we're going to miss all the good stuff. Life is only worth living if you take the amazing with the oh-so-unbearable. We get depressed over the ending of relationships and the passing of friends and family, yes, but we also get exhilarated over the start of new relationships and the great victories in life. I fear that if we allow ourselves to pass through life in a subdued state for no reason, we'll miss all the good things.

Not only does overmedication lead to the comatosation, if I may, of an entire generation, but it also leads to potential habitual abuse. It grows a black market of teenage drug dealers and can suck away the lives of many who grow dependent on them. Don't think I'm exaggerating; it's happened here at Mason before and it will, undoubtedly, happen again.

So, as a generation all together in this, do we really want to grow up as a society of heavily medicated, blasé, indifferent zombies? Or do we want to allow those who really need the help of medication get it? They can make you feel better, oh yes, but they aren't the only way out of the small problems in life that we all go through. Those with crippling depression, you can have your Prozac, but to those just going through a bad break up whose bitterness will pass in a few days, think twice about your need for medication. Then, if you decide it may be a good choice, go for it.

“Big Pharma” grows rich on our dependence and over-medication while many of us who likely don't need the help of anti-depressants and mood stabilizers when a good psychologist will do just as well grow lucid and mindless. Some of us deserve pills and mood-changers, but not all of us. We don't need to be Generation Rx.