I want to start off with a question. Particularly If you’re a teen in the US; the question is what’s an anti-depressant? For most teens, asking that question is easy, but answering it is much much harder.

For many of us, life is hard. It can become so hard in fact that it becomes hard to distinguish whether we’re just sad or we’re depressed. Pscyhiatrists have a way of figuring out if you are depressed or not; it’s known as the DSM-5. The DSM-5 is a book that is equivalent to the Bible when it comes to diagnosing a mental disorder and psychiatrists use this manual as diagnostic material for everyday client visits. But what if I told you that the DSM-5 makes very questionable markers to what is distiniguished as a mental illness and what is not. For instance, before the DSM-5 was published in 2013, there was the DSM-IV. The DSM-IV had a rule when it came to classifying someone with major depression after a loss of life and that was known as bereavement exclusion. It carefully laid out a guideline that said major depression could not be diagnosed unless loss of a loved one was ruled out as a cause. This meant doctors couldn’t just diagnose depression to someone who’s best friend died three days ago, because to most of us; that’s known as mourning.

But all of that has changed. The updated DSM-5 removed bereavement exclusion and allows depression to be diagnosed despite bereavement. Yes, psychiatrists are now that good at diagnosing depression that they can tell the difference between mourning and depression. This shows the gross mishandling of how psychiatrists diagnose major depressive disorders and the list goes on and on for many other disorders. One major standpoint of the DSM-5 is that all mental disorders are voted on by a group of practicing psychiatrists often with ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

“There are no objective tests in psychiatry, no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.”

—Allen Frances, Former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman

Something needs to change. We cannot allow a manual to define whether we are mentally ill or not.

My second point is to cover the gross misjustice of prescribing anti-depressants to teenagers and children in the United States. For years, increasing evidence has shown that that anti-depressants can increase suicidal thoughts in teens and children. A black box warning is now on all anti-depressants due to the overwhelming outcry against not labeling these medications. But that is not all. Increasing evidence has shown that anti-depressants may only work as well as placebo. What does that mean? That means for everyone who thinks they are getting better on anti-depressants, it is now understood that they aren’t really getting better because of the medication prescribed, but by the belief that they are getting better. In fact, the evidence is so overwhelming the UK no longer supports prescribing anti-depressants to the mildly and moderately depressed. Watch this 60 minutes video for more information: https://youtu.be/Zihdr36WVi4

Something needs to change! Both with how mental disorders are diagnosed and the medications prescribed. Sign this petition to urge congress to change the current practices.

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Email me at sashabrownfrank123@gmail.com for any questions and how you can help me spread this movement!

Thank you