Okay, this is fine *except* that some kids come from families with hereditary major mental illnesses and some kids get those illnesses while young and *need* appropriate psychiatric medication to control those illnesses.
I agree that antidepressants shouldn't be passed out like candy, *but*.....
Yes, you develop some tolerance to SSRI's---not much. But usually if you've had them prescribed to you, you're depressed to start with. If you stop them suddenly, sure as hell you're going to get really depressed and likely suicidal---and that would be true of *anything* that would successfully help your problem. No duh. It has the same effect if you stop them suddenly as an adult.
*Because* your brain, if you need them, is out of whack to begin with, and *because* they are successfully rebalancing your brain chemistry to what everybody else has, if you stop them suddenly you *are* going to temporarily swing back *lower* than you were before you started taking them, before restabilizing at where you were before---stopping them makes you suicidal because the people prescribed them are depressed and they *work* to stop the depression---but only while you take them.
The problem is, if you have certain major mental illnesses and you *don't* take the medications, the illness is not merely an unpleasant symptom---it also causes brain damage that worsens the underlying mental illness.
I have bipolar II disorder (and a degree in psych), and I'm on SSRI's and my daughter, at seven is also on SSRI's. Because she needs to be, just like I do. Hereditary. Just about everybody in my family has something. But the medications work.
Taking the medication is likely to *prevent* further damage---because the bipolar disorders are (we now know) progressive---you don't treat the symptoms, the disorder gets worse---because the symptoms mean the imbalance is doing more and more actual brain damage.
So for people without very specific mental illnesses, SSRI's are hazardous.
For people with those specific mental illnesses, NOT taking the medications is *certain* to do more and more and more damage.
Risk of side effects is the lesser of risks.
Okay, I know, the programs tell everyone "If you don't do this you'll be dea--ea---ea---ead!"---and it's a lie.
Well, for those of us with a major mental illness, "If you don't take the medication, you're going to be crazy, and it's going to have bad effects on your life, and it's going to get worse and worse, and you *may* die young of it." And in our case, it's pure statistical truth.
So SSRI's are not EEEEEEeeeee-Viiiilllllll. (I know, you didn't say they were).
I just don't want someone who *needs* them to go off them thinking they're going to die of them----and end up crazy instead, and yeah, for real maybe dead down the road.
They're not candy, they're not harmless as an aspirin, they're powerful drugs with potentially serious side effects that should *not* be taken unless you really need them----but if you really do need them, you sure as hell need to follow the instructions of your competent, licensed psychiatrist and stay on them.