Overuse of Antidepressants Today and How Aldous Huxley...

Antidepressants are a prescription drug now used by people of all ages. They have become a part of society, therefore, taking antidepressants is not frowned upon. Antidepressants are used to make people feel â€Å"happier† and not to feel sadness. This is shown in the dystopian society in the book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley in 1932. In that society the people use soma, a well-known drug, to make them feel no pain and are conditioned to think soma fixes everything. Helmholtz and Bernard two main characters, do not take it because they want to be able to see the world for what it is. They also do not want soma to change how they feel; they want to appreciate nature. In addition Lenina and Henry love taking soma because then they†¦show more content†¦Not everything has to be cured by modern-day technology, such as better antidepressants, sometimes the â€Å"old-fashion† way is a lot better and more effective. Since the prescriptions have increased, t he use of antidepressants has also optimized in children and adolescents. Part of the high growth in the usage of antidepressants was because doctors were prescribing the drug to children younger than 6. The number of â€Å"antidepressant prescriptions written for teens increases every year† (Mitchell). That statistic should be going down because teenagers do not know if they are really depressed or if they just had a bad day. By the doctor just giving them medicine teenagers will never learn how to deal with their problems and how to fix certain situation. By prescribing the medication children and teens are learning how to take the easy way out, by resorting to taking drugs. Antidepressant use is not only in teenagers, but antidepressant prescriptions for â€Å"kids ages 6 and under rose to a surprising 580 percent† (Mitchell) as well. Starting kids young on antidepressants should not be allowed because then the children could not develop correctly. The child†™s brain is still developing and the use of antidepressants make it that the brain can not fully developed or get so use to the antidepressant doing all the work, that the child would not know how to cope with a bad day or stress. The child would just go straight to the medicine drawer and take