Big Pharma is Watching You

By Daisy Klink

Imagine this (though many of you likely won’t have to). You have anxiety preventing you from focusing on anything during the day and keeping you up at night. You decide to see a doctor for some expert advice on potential treatments. Your prescription: not therapy, behavioral changes, support groups, or meditation; nothing but a feel-good pill. You, like many others around you, are now part of an increasing statistic in America’s drugged-up generation. Kids who seemingly have every advantage in life are developing debilitating mental illnesses in increasing numbers. Overpathologizing the American youth has led to hypermedication and a new age of hedonism. Moreover, we are allowing big businesses to profit from this overindulgence with little regard for our welfare. 

The origins of potentially harmful neo-parenting techniques can be traced back to the psychodynamic perspective in psychology. This theory suggests early childhood experiences are deeply ingrained into our personalities and behaviors as adults, providing a potential basis for psychological damage. As we continue to find evidence supporting this philosophy and against authoritative parenting, parents turn to softer methods to best prepare their kids for a harsh world. But anything in excess is harmful; initially beneficial gentle parenting approaches were morphed into the unprecedented notion that every challenge inevitably leads to grippy socks and white-painted asylums. Hence, exorbitant efforts to insulate and indulge children emerged seen through participation awards, iPhones in the pockets of pre-teens, and the abolition of the time-out. Giving in to your child’s every desire coupled with a lack of real-world consequences has created a generation of adults deathly afraid of adversity and blind to their own character defects. 

While it is important to recognize the rising rates of mental illness in recent years, what many individuals and doctors consider health conditions can often be traced back to a lack of self-care. People attribute fatigue and inattentiveness to insomnia and ADHD, rather than sleep deprivation and overstimulation from doom-scrolling on TikTok all night. Instead of simply stopping the problematic behavior, we look for a ‘solution’ that enables us to continue it. This is the backward logic used to justify prescription drugs; self-neglect confused with diagnoses distorts vitamins into poisons.

Self-sabotage is supplemented with sensualism. As Philip Rieff says, the “psychological man is born to be pleased.” The notion “if it feels good, do it” was previously looked down upon (see the hippies of the 60s), but is once again the road more traveled. While this ideal can be beneficial when leaving a toxic relationship or indulging in a little post-dinner treat, this modern maxim also encourages harmful pleasures, such as ChatGPTing your final project or chain-smoking a pack of cigarettes. Nearly everything has become a vehicle for our own well-being. This pursuit of pleasure is further capitalized on by corporations looking to sell market-indulgent commodities such as addictive social media algorithms and Passionfruit Guava Mango Bubblegum-flavored cancer air.

Our push toward instant gratification has led to our striving to escape suffering. We’ve simulated a fashionable version of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” where pain is considered dangerous as it leaves unhealed neurological wounds. Doctors are expected to eliminate any and all discomfort to succeed in their role as healers, satisfying a medical model of disability that suggests a ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ state; any aspect straying from the former is a flaw that must be cured. Through this rigid lens, neurodiversity is a major threat.

To meet the demands of this new paradigm, doctors in both the physical and psychological realm turn to the easy fix: medication. Each year, enough opioids are prescribed that the odds of dying from an opioid overdose are higher than those of dying in a car crash. Similarly, about 25% of adult Americans take a psychiatric drug daily, with more than 1 in 10 on SSRIs—the most widely used class of antidepressants. Unfortunately, the lasting effects of these prescriptions are often overlooked. Long-term effects of antidepressants range from emotional numbness, low libido, and the persistence of withdrawal symptoms up to nine months after use.   

So why is it that doctors are pushing this medicated agenda so hard given the availability of less harmful alternatives? Pharmaceutical companies reap unimaginable profits off patients’ pain. Also known as Big Pharma, the industry historically has a culture of corruption, which has gone so far that Americans’ spending on these drugs increased 50% in just 8 years. Lucky for you, payments from drug companies to physicians to promote their products are quite common, making your ‘best interest’ the question of a dollar sign. Beware of these commodified ‘cures’ when making a treatment decision; weigh the risks and benefits while considering your personal values and reasonable cost. 

While prescription medications are certainly abused by contemporary society, this is not to say that they can’t be properly utilized. As a psychology major, I’ve spent much of my time researching and learning about effective mental health interventions. I’ve been on antidepressants myself, and my journey coming off them is what sparked my skepticism toward them. The question is not whether we should use them, but when, for how long, and if they’re the right option for you. SSRIs aren’t meant to be a long-term solution, and when they produce more problems than they solve, consider a different method instead of piling on another prescription. Furthermore, we must meticulously examine the motives behind those advocating for these types of treatments and how they are advertised. Neurodivergence is not something that needs to be “fixed.” How you approach your personal issues should be your personal preference, not the preference of a profit-seeking pharmaceutical company or an obtruding neurotypical observer. Psychiatric drugs should not be regarded as some sort of panacea. Maybe the reason we’re all so miserable is because we’re trying so hard to avoid it. Stop running from yourself and be; pain in moderation might just be self-actualizing.