Is Medication Always The Answer?

Students are more commonly depressed these days than people even imagine. Some will say society is to blame, that students lives are much more complex and challenging than they used to be, while others will turn the blame onto doctors saying they just give medication away.

The argument that children's lives are more complex and challenging these days holds up better than accusing the doctors. In certain situations it very well may be a doctor is looking to promote a certain drug, or may just be careless in who and why they give medication out to. But more often than not these days doctors do not want to prescribe medication, especially to children. Depending on the severity of the child's problem, maybe medication is not the answer. There are many ways a student can channel their anger or sadness, such as joining a team or club, or finding other healthy interests to occupy their time with. Some things can be more effective than a drug, because what do most drugs do to a child anyway? Mask the problem. Parents, along with the help from other outside resources, need to find what the root of their child's problem is in order to help them instead of just sweeping it under the rug.

Sometimes parents are the ones partially to blame for their child's depression, because they don't want to deal with it. As a parent it is easier to pretend the problem isn't there, or to have someone else deal with it because it is easier, or the parent is too stressed or busy. But often times it could be something so simple. If we just take the time to talk to our students or children to find out exactly how they feel and what is bothering them we can find a way to deal with it together, and not have to mask them with medications to put them at ease. Some other alternatives could be signing them up for a sports team so they can be apart of something, helping them find a club at school that catches their interest, taking them to talk to a therapist without prescription medications. It could be something as simple as the child just needs to talk. Getting them involved with other kids their own age could be a positive spin to their lives. If they have someone they can relate and talk to that may ease some of their own stress and pressure.

There are just so many different outlets available for kids these days, I think it is a bad decision to automatically jump to medications to fix their problems. Whether we want to face the facts or not, children's lives are more difficult these days, coming out of divorced homes, only having one parent in their lives, parents that work too much which forces the oldest child to raise their siblings, drugs, alcohol; so many stressors around their lives daily that they don't have any control over. But, we need to teach them, they do have control over themselves, and there are ways to be positive that don't involve medications. They just need the proper help and guidance from loved ones surrounding them to show the healthy way.