Shalini Ramachandran

On social media, especially TikTok, there's a growing community of young people talking about their antidepressants.

For over a year now, Betsy and Shalini have been on an investigative journey into some of the most commonly prescribed medications out there, psychiatric drugs.

As they dug into psychiatric drugs, they found that corner of the internet where thousands of people are sharing their positive experiences.

On TikTok alone, the hashtag antidepressants has more than 1.3 billion views.

But over the course of their reporting, Betsy and Shalini found that there's also a dark side to these drugs, especially for some people who've been on them for a long time.

As they kept looking into psychiatric medications, not just antidepressants, but also anti-anxiety drugs and others, one big question popped up.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza.

It's Wednesday, December 3rd.

Coming up on the show, the overprescription of psychiatric drugs in America.

Betsy and Shalini's investigation didn't actually start with antidepressants.

It began with another kind of psych medication entirely, when Shalini heard something that caught her attention.

Ativan is the brand name for lorazepam, a popular anxiety medication.

It's one of several in a class of drugs called benzodiazepines, and it's commonly prescribed to help people with sleep issues.

The executive told Shalini that after being on benzos for his insomnia, he actually started feeling extremely anxious.

And when he tried to get off the drugs, he experienced intense withdrawal symptoms.

The executive spent more than $100,000 on treatment for benzo withdrawal.

Eventually, he found help at another treatment center.

By the time he was telling all of this to Shalini, the executive said his recovery was complete.

But his story was about to send Shalini on a new reporting track and straight to Betsy's desk.