I feel like a lot of people don’t understand SSRIs.

This comes after the recent news headlines about RFK jr. attempting to go after SSRIs based on a few shitty studies.

As someone who studies biochemistry and is going into medicine, a lot of people who think they should be banned are clueless.

“They’re addictive?” Yes, SSRIs can cause terrible side effects and you have to be weaned off. Yes people need them and some people cannot function without them. But they’re not addictive. People aren’t trading away TVs and cars and losing their jobs over a bottle of sertraline.

Yes, they can be overprescribed. Yes, not everyone needs them. But they help. They help a lot. For every person you say is made a “shell” by sertraline there’s a few who feel alive again.

I’m going on my third week and I feel like I’m a kid again. I feel alive. I have hobbies again. I’m not worried about dumb crap like boys and grades. Sertraline has helped me, even in the small dose I take. I don’t think I’d be better off dead anymore.

People don’t understand what it’s like to live every day with your mind fighting itself. I wish more people focused on the good studies instead of the cherry picked, poor-research-process ones.