I am in the first year of high school. Many people I know struggle mentally. There is a lack of coping, there is a loss of social gatherings and relationships. But worst of all, more people are not motivated to live. After the pandemic came the epidemic of mental health problems. Or are there actually problems? Those of us who have experienced challenges ourselves and know others who experience it even more, still see a way through life, with or without medication. Everyone who learns “the hard way” comes out stronger on the other side. The fact that everyone goes around psychologicalizing my generation doesn’t make it any better. We have many battles to fight, more battles than many of you from other generations have had. But many of us need a little help. There are waiting lists in psychiatry, especially for young people. Many people need someone to talk to, and most people think that it should be anyone other than parents. My experience is that grandparents work better, for those who are lucky enough to have them. But coming back from the municipality’s health services and walking around munching antidepressant and anxiety-relieving drugs is no solution. Young people go around chewing Zoloft and Sertraline as if they have to save their lives. What’s up? Young people who seek help usually get it through medication. It is easiest for the doctor or psychologist, but perhaps also something they are encouraged to do through marketing? Just before Christmas, news revealed the marketing of opioids aimed at Norwegian doctors. In the US, things went really wrong. Doctors prescribed stronger and stronger drugs to patients, and in 2017 former President Donald Trump called it a national “drug” crisis. In Norway, the Norwegian Medicines Agency reported a shortage of anti-anxiety medicine last year. I don’t know what’s going on, but according to FHI, every fourth young person with first-time depression is treated with antidepressants. Yes, these “happy pills” can be the salvation for some, but think what it is like to be a youth. It’s wonderful in many ways: parties, meeting new people, shaping life. But with ups come downs. Heartbreak is normal, feeling depressed is normal, and feeling stressed is normal. Basically, you need someone who understands and listens, while the pills become a shortcut to happiness. And for many, there will soon be no more artificial happiness to induce. The meager allocations for mental health, and thus facile solutions from practitioners, lead to young people choosing to obtain “medicine” themselves. And those “medicines” cannot be found in the Common Catalogue. “Green”, “brown” and “cola” can be found at the over-the-counter pharmacy on the street, where they only take cash. There is no shortcut to happiness. Neither through drugs nor “medicines”. But the road to the good and safe conversations that struggling young people need has become longer. Norway has a shortage of psychologists, and the threshold for prescribing medication to help young people who struggle mentally is getting lower. The psychologists see an easier way out by recommending that the patient get medication from the GP than by actually talking and listening. Pills are the last thing we young people need. We need a properly funded psychiatric healthcare system with time for each individual. Also read:
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Generation medicine – Speech
