Nobody Is Talking About The Record-High Number Of Americans On Psychiatric Drugs, Including Infants
It has almost become trendy for women to talk about their battle with mental illness online. You immediately score sympathy points from people if you express how much you've been struggling with depression or anxiety. Because the rates of mental illness have been growing, along with the influence from Big Pharma, there are nearly 80 million Americans who are currently on psychiatric drugs.
Various celebrities are praised for speaking up about their mental health struggles, from Selena Gomez to Lena Dunham to Zayn Malik. Many of these celebrities have also been open about their use of psychiatric drugs in order to improve their lives. The goal for a long time has been to erase the so-called stigma when it comes to discussing mental health, and simultaneously it's become much more common to see people be honest about the medication they're taking. In fact, you probably know someone in your life who either is currently on medication or has been in the past. Data shows that there's a record-high number of Americans who are currently on psychiatric drugs, and it's astonishing to see the number of infants and children who are on them as well.
Nobody Is Talking about the Record-High Number of Americans on Psychiatric Drugs, Including Infants
According to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, as of January 2021, there are 76,940,157 people on psychiatric drugs. These medications include antidepressants, antipsychotics, sleeping pills, minor tranquilizers, lithium, and more. You've probably heard the brand names such as Xanax, Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, etc. The graph shared by this organization breaks down the age groups of people who are on psychiatric drugs and it's shocking to see how many minors are taking them.
There are more than 85,000 infants under the age of 1 who are taking psychiatric drugs. That means there are some babies as young as 6 months old who are taking something like Prozac or Xanax. There are 138,822 kids between ages 2 and 3 on these medications, as well as 2,652,554 children between 6 and 12 years of age who are taking these drugs. The numbers only get more and more disturbing. 3,188,966 teenagers between 13 and 17 years of age are taking psychiatric drugs. The age bracket 18-24 boasts 5,535,171 people on medication.
The demographic with the highest number of people who are taking psychiatric medication are people between 25 and 44 years old. This number has reached 20,455,212 and it's only a few hundred thousand more than the amount of people between 45 and 64 years of age taking these medications. There are 19,114,040 seniors above the age of 65 who are taking these drugs as well.
Doctors are all too quick to write a prescription for psychiatric medication, often without really educating people on how they affect the mind and body. Side effects include feeling shaky and anxious, blurred vision, dizziness, gut disruption, loss of appetite, dry mouth, nausea, issues with sexual performance, headache, insomnia, and more. We've been led to believe that medications like SSRIs are a wonder drug for people who are struggling with something like depression, but in many cases they actually do more harm than good.
These numbers should make us nervous about the future of the United States. If there are this many people taking psychiatric drugs as of 2021, imagine what that number is today—and what it might be five years from now. Rather than throwing medication at patients who are struggling with their mental health (which is pushed by Big Pharma), medical providers should be helping people change their lifestyle and diet in order to naturally treat issues like depression and anxiety.