Young and old alike are devastated by these drugs.
Phillip, who was six years old when he was given a stimulant for his teacher-diagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), finally went off the drug six years later. When he suffered depression as a side effect of withdrawal, he was put on Prozac. Now, Phillip experiences nothing at all, even after being off the antidepressant for two years.
“All the positive emotions are almost completely gone. I don’t feel the highs any more, but I felt all of them before the pills,” he says.
That feeling—muted emotions, lack of color in life and sexual numbness—is such a common consequence of taking antidepressants that the psychiatric industry has honored it by designating it a malady in its own right: “post-SSRI sexual dysfunction,” or PSSD.
Those taking the drugs suffered unequivocally faster cognitive decline and higher risk of severe dementia.
“No one can really comprehend what it’s like,” says Elliott, a dishwasher from Atlanta. “You lose all spark in life, all enjoyment of things—everything just becomes bland and gray. It almost feels like I’m dead inside.”
Elliott went off Zoloft after six months. That’s when the numbness set in. Now six years later, he still lives a shadow existence devoid of purpose or joy. The only change has been the initials on his psychiatric file, which now read “PSSD” instead of “ADHD.”
With antidepressants, you can pick your tragic outcome. For young people, it’s a shadow existence—but at least they’re aware of what’s happened to them. For older people, as recent research reveals, many are cheated even of that.
A study published on February 25 establishes a direct connection between antidepressant use and faster cognitive decline in patients suffering from dementia. In other words, antidepressants facilitate dementia.
The study reviewed the outcomes of 18,740 elderly patients, of which 4,271 were on at least one antidepressant. The results were stark and somber: Those taking the drugs suffered unequivocally faster cognitive decline and higher risk of severe dementia and fractures.
Given the results of a similar trial six years prior, the findings should come as no surprise.
A 2019 study sought “to assess the efficacy and acceptability of antidepressants for the treatment of major depressive disorder (depression) in older people.” It found that “older people are more vulnerable to the side effects of antidepressants,” citing a raft of grim outcomes—among them bleeding; dizziness leading to falls and fractures; restless legs; and hyponatremia, a condition of low sodium in the blood that causes confusion, coma and death.
But three years prior to even that, the warning bell had already been rung. A 2016 study stated in no uncertain terms: “We found that SSRIs users in this elderly primary care [category] followed over 18 years were at significantly higher risk for incident dementia.”
All three studies—in 2016, 2019 and 2025—noted how frequently antidepressants were being prescribed to our elderly. Each warned of the consequences.
The number of teens and young adults on antidepressants has likewise skyrocketed by about two-thirds.
Psychologist Meg Jay is dismayed at the eagerness of her psychiatric colleagues to whip out their prescription pads, calling them “too quick to medicalize normal young adult struggle.”
“In 15 minutes [with a person], they don’t get to hear much about the context,” she says.
It’s tough being a teenager. We’ve all been through it. Life can seem overwhelming. It’s often a challenge just to get through the day without going half mad.
It’s also tough being elderly. The world isn’t as easy to navigate as it was when you were young, and it’s often a challenge to perform even the simplest tasks.
Why should these two age groups—one at the dawn of adulthood, the other nearing twilight—be made to suffer numbness for one and oblivion for the other?
Commenting on the catastrophic side effects of antidepressants, a former psychiatry professor said, “People feel pretty awful … and there isn’t anyone trying to find an answer to the problem.”
How about this for an answer: Stop poisoning innocent people with psychotropic drugs and pretending that’s the answer.
