There is a huge proportion of Australians on SSRIs which increased a lot in 2020-2021. Physicians were doling them out like candy during lockdowns while we were getting beaten in the street, shot, and arrested for resisting.
I cannot help but think that the widespread 'emotional blunting' due to SSRIs may have contributed to the selfish, zombie-like behaviour of the people who turned their backs to the immense suffering that was occurring. The government was medicating people so that they would not join the resistance.
As an aside, I was speaking to someone who has a child in high school. She said that all the kids want to be on SSRIs to 1. 'fit in with their peers' and 2. get extra accommodations for exams. She said that if a child is on medication for a 'mental illness,' they get a lot more accommodation in school.
Thanks again for the article. Makes me sad that doctors will not read it.
Good article. I’m not sure about causality of SSRI use and transgender identification, though. For sure there is a correlation, but I tend to think they are both results of a common cause, and that the common cause is cultural. My daughter has been transgender identified for five years now. Only after that had been going on for several years did she get on SSRIs. She desperately wanted to be officially diagnosed with something (she tried to convince us she had autism, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and dissociative identity disorder. Eventually she found a psychiatrist who diagnosed her with ADHD, depression, and PTSD). I think this and the transgender identity are both attempts to get validation and understanding for feelings of distress (no distressed teenager wants to be told that their problems aren’t unique or aren’t that bad) and to have a reason to stop trying when things get tough. This is the culture of a significant part of Gen Z - everyone’s on medications, everyone has diagnoses, see how unique and real my pain is, see how you can’t expect anything of me because I can’t do things and it’s not my fault, I have a disability. To add some nuance, some of them really do, but leaning into their problems in this way isn’t helping them learn to use their strengths and work on their weaknesses and be the best they can be. In my opinion it’s these cultural attitudes that have led both to the increase in SSRI use and transgender identification.
Completely agree with you that SSRIs are overused, though! My daughter strongly believes that they help her greatly. I wonder how much of that is a placebo effect.
Prozac is fantastic at stopping my cat peeing on the couch. So in cats at least it's not just a placebo. I suspect it does have psychoactive effects in humans too, but that for most people it's mostly a placebo mediated antidepressant effect. The effect on desire is more likely to explain a rise in asexuality rather than trans identity I would think - though it could facilitate a trans identity if sexuality is blunted.
I agree that kids want validation of their distress - who doesn't - and that seeking it in psychiatric diagnoses is destructive. Psychiatry has created a monster - awareness raising has a lot to answer for. Complicated by the fact that genuine mental illness does exist - but I've yet to meet a teen angling for the schizophrenia label.
Before I even read the article (I am a Moderator Emeritus at Surviving Antidepressants): THANK YOU for bringing this up! (recommended by ExcessDeathsAu)
Additionally, I wonder about the gender dysphoria in children whose mothers were on psych drugs as well. There is a clear correlation with SSRI's in mothers & autism in children, for example, and a strong correlation with autism & gender dysphoria.
A story: I am a psych diag-nonsense survivor, and it has made me completely asexual. It's like I'm from another planet or something. Okay, I can live with that, there are more things in life than sex.
So about 10 years ago, I found an Ace forum (Ace = asexual). These kids had names for all kinds of orientations, labelling everything all the way down to whether or not you like to pleasure yourself in the shower, or just like cuddles and which gender etc. etc. It was about 10 years ago, and was my first exposure to a lot of the new queer ideology & terminology.
I asked them: any of you on ADD drugs? SSRIs? What about your Mums?
I was scolded and asked not to speak of the "origins of Ace" because it is an IDENTITY. Sheee-it.
So thank you Doc, I'm looking forward to getting to know you & your writing.
I think SSRIs need to be re-evaluated, but SSRIs did not cause my gender dysphoria. I felt it at a young age. I didn't have words for it at the time, but I never felt like a girl and I don't feel like a boy. I do not feel a gender and I did not take an SSRI until my first year of college. I was only on it for one year and frankly, I am unconvinced they help a thing. I will say that they can worsen things for autistic people. I get high anxiety on them so they do not help me. But no, gender dysphoria is likely not caused by SSRIs . You say a growing number of de-transitioners but how many people are we talking about? What are the numbers? I suspect many of them are plants. Not all, buta portion of them. It is their right to de-transition. It should be anyone's right to do what they want with their bodies if it hurts no one. My changing my identification has not hurt anyone. Why does it matter? Systems of power. It disrupts them and destabilizes white supremacy, eugenics, but most of all patriarchy. Ableism is in there as well because autistic people are 3-6 more times likely to be trans. People don't like trans people because of misogyny as well. People do not know how to treat nonbinary or trans binary folks because they don't know if they should treat those assigned female at birth as lesser than and degrade and oppress them or pursue a nonbinary person sexually. If they are queerphobic being attracted to a nonbinary or transgender person might make them queer--either a real fact or an imagined concern because the men who hate trans binary people do not perceive them as women-- and they can't have that. They can't admit that. It is all about bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy--systems of power.
Thanks Doc.
There is a huge proportion of Australians on SSRIs which increased a lot in 2020-2021. Physicians were doling them out like candy during lockdowns while we were getting beaten in the street, shot, and arrested for resisting.
I cannot help but think that the widespread 'emotional blunting' due to SSRIs may have contributed to the selfish, zombie-like behaviour of the people who turned their backs to the immense suffering that was occurring. The government was medicating people so that they would not join the resistance.
As an aside, I was speaking to someone who has a child in high school. She said that all the kids want to be on SSRIs to 1. 'fit in with their peers' and 2. get extra accommodations for exams. She said that if a child is on medication for a 'mental illness,' they get a lot more accommodation in school.
Thanks again for the article. Makes me sad that doctors will not read it.
Good article. I’m not sure about causality of SSRI use and transgender identification, though. For sure there is a correlation, but I tend to think they are both results of a common cause, and that the common cause is cultural. My daughter has been transgender identified for five years now. Only after that had been going on for several years did she get on SSRIs. She desperately wanted to be officially diagnosed with something (she tried to convince us she had autism, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and dissociative identity disorder. Eventually she found a psychiatrist who diagnosed her with ADHD, depression, and PTSD). I think this and the transgender identity are both attempts to get validation and understanding for feelings of distress (no distressed teenager wants to be told that their problems aren’t unique or aren’t that bad) and to have a reason to stop trying when things get tough. This is the culture of a significant part of Gen Z - everyone’s on medications, everyone has diagnoses, see how unique and real my pain is, see how you can’t expect anything of me because I can’t do things and it’s not my fault, I have a disability. To add some nuance, some of them really do, but leaning into their problems in this way isn’t helping them learn to use their strengths and work on their weaknesses and be the best they can be. In my opinion it’s these cultural attitudes that have led both to the increase in SSRI use and transgender identification.
Completely agree with you that SSRIs are overused, though! My daughter strongly believes that they help her greatly. I wonder how much of that is a placebo effect.
Prozac is fantastic at stopping my cat peeing on the couch. So in cats at least it's not just a placebo. I suspect it does have psychoactive effects in humans too, but that for most people it's mostly a placebo mediated antidepressant effect. The effect on desire is more likely to explain a rise in asexuality rather than trans identity I would think - though it could facilitate a trans identity if sexuality is blunted.
I agree that kids want validation of their distress - who doesn't - and that seeking it in psychiatric diagnoses is destructive. Psychiatry has created a monster - awareness raising has a lot to answer for. Complicated by the fact that genuine mental illness does exist - but I've yet to meet a teen angling for the schizophrenia label.
In studies SSRIs consistently fail to outperform placebos.
Before I even read the article (I am a Moderator Emeritus at Surviving Antidepressants): THANK YOU for bringing this up! (recommended by ExcessDeathsAu)
Additionally, I wonder about the gender dysphoria in children whose mothers were on psych drugs as well. There is a clear correlation with SSRI's in mothers & autism in children, for example, and a strong correlation with autism & gender dysphoria.
A story: I am a psych diag-nonsense survivor, and it has made me completely asexual. It's like I'm from another planet or something. Okay, I can live with that, there are more things in life than sex.
So about 10 years ago, I found an Ace forum (Ace = asexual). These kids had names for all kinds of orientations, labelling everything all the way down to whether or not you like to pleasure yourself in the shower, or just like cuddles and which gender etc. etc. It was about 10 years ago, and was my first exposure to a lot of the new queer ideology & terminology.
I asked them: any of you on ADD drugs? SSRIs? What about your Mums?
I was scolded and asked not to speak of the "origins of Ace" because it is an IDENTITY. Sheee-it.
So thank you Doc, I'm looking forward to getting to know you & your writing.
I think SSRIs need to be re-evaluated, but SSRIs did not cause my gender dysphoria. I felt it at a young age. I didn't have words for it at the time, but I never felt like a girl and I don't feel like a boy. I do not feel a gender and I did not take an SSRI until my first year of college. I was only on it for one year and frankly, I am unconvinced they help a thing. I will say that they can worsen things for autistic people. I get high anxiety on them so they do not help me. But no, gender dysphoria is likely not caused by SSRIs . You say a growing number of de-transitioners but how many people are we talking about? What are the numbers? I suspect many of them are plants. Not all, buta portion of them. It is their right to de-transition. It should be anyone's right to do what they want with their bodies if it hurts no one. My changing my identification has not hurt anyone. Why does it matter? Systems of power. It disrupts them and destabilizes white supremacy, eugenics, but most of all patriarchy. Ableism is in there as well because autistic people are 3-6 more times likely to be trans. People don't like trans people because of misogyny as well. People do not know how to treat nonbinary or trans binary folks because they don't know if they should treat those assigned female at birth as lesser than and degrade and oppress them or pursue a nonbinary person sexually. If they are queerphobic being attracted to a nonbinary or transgender person might make them queer--either a real fact or an imagined concern because the men who hate trans binary people do not perceive them as women-- and they can't have that. They can't admit that. It is all about bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy--systems of power.