On February 7, drug data from the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) told us that the use of antidepressants among children under 14 had jumped 28% over the past two last years.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
When we look a little closer, the under 4s saw an 85% increase, the 5-9 year olds increased by 14%, and the 10-14 year olds increased by 31%. Of course, this trend towards the medicalization of childhood was already very present before the pandemic. This is also one of the main reasons why I am so involved in the field and why I have undertaken the movement of neurodiversity in the Francophonie. However, this meteoric rise remains particularly worrying. The tangent that the pandemic is taking does not bode anything constructive or creative to improve the psychological and physical health of our children. On the contrary, we seem to find a certain normalcy and comfort in medicalizing the emotions of our children.
Are we even aware of what we are doing with our children?
What do we want to pass on to our children? That solidarity and altruism are to be oneself in suffering? That the community is more important than their basic basic needs? That they should ignore their emotions and their needs? That they must silence their distress? That they have to take medicine when they are in pain?
Although medication can have a positive effect in the short term in certain urgent situations, it has consequences on the physical and psychological health of young people. These are powerful drugs that we offer to very young children. This medication has an impact on the development of their brain and hinders its normal development. Cerebral maturation slows down and, in some cases, maturation is completely extinguished in certain regions. This is the reality of psychiatric medication in young people who have a developing brain. Imagine the disastrous consequences on children barely 3 years old.
In addition to the medication that prevents the growth of their brains, the environment in which they have been growing up for two years goes against their emotional and social development. The environment also influences brain growth.
Our children have been living under chronic stress for months. Chronic stress is toxic to their developing brains. Their basic needs are not being met and, worse, the health measures imposed on them are hampering their momentum in life. Our children are dying. They die from within.
Our children are not sick. Our children do not suffer from mental illnesses. Our children evolve in an environment that does not meet their basic needs and which is therefore incompatible with their development. Their current environment hinders and represses their natural and spontaneous development. Their brain and whole body react to this unsuitable environment. Our children can no longer adapt to their environment and their brains are ringing the alarm bells. The message is clear: it’s not okay, my basic needs aren’t being met, help me.
For lack of social resources and lack of being able to modify their environment, we medicalize their emotions and their needs. We numb them and drug them hoping that they will no longer feel their great pain and that they will recover. However, how could this be possible if their feelings are numb and the environment in which they continue to evolve is violent to them on a daily basis?
These children need physical contact and bonding. They need to feel respected, safe, free. They need to express their spontaneity and their creativity. They need to move without restriction. These are not whims or selfishness. It is the deep nature of children.
Our youth is a major public health issue, and it is now that we must act.