Meg Jay

A study published in Pediatrics says people between the ages of 12 and 25 received antidepressants at a 64% higher rate than before the pandemic.

But it was already growing before that.

But it's also true that reported rates from young people of feelings of sadness and hopelessness have gone up, especially for certain demographics like teen girls and teens who are part of the LGBTQ community.

And internal research from Facebook acknowledges its Instagram app is toxic for teen girls.

making body issues worse for one in three teen girls.

Court filings say Meta's algorithms, photo filters, push alerts, and the endless ability to scroll through platform feeds all contribute to the harmful effects on young users.

So it seems like it's true that antidepressant prescription rates have gone up.

It's also true that the rates of the symptoms that antidepressants are meant to treat have gone up as well.

So I think the big takeaway to me is that mental health for young people is a very real issue in the U.S.

and something that we should be doing a lot about.

As someone who covers health, you're aware that the Maha movement asks a lot of questions about many different things.

Fluoride, Tylenol, vaccines, seed oils.

When you talk about the risks of Tylenol, that naturally opens the conversation to vaccines.

And the cycle that they create.

We've covered some of these things on the show before, and we always ask our experts, what happens when you start asking questions like, do antidepressants cause mass shootings?

Are antidepressants linked to problems for babies?

What's the knock-on effect of all this?

Yeah, it's such a great point.

And I think the effects of just asking questions will depend on what the questions are.

For something like SSRIs and mass shootings, where there's no evidence to suggest that that is a reality in any way, I think asking questions about that could wind up perpetuating stigma against taking antidepressants, which could be really harmful for the people who could otherwise benefit from them.