“A physician recently said, “Treating mental disease with drugs today is comparable to treating a tonsillectomy with an axe!” (Phillip 2006)

While I know very little about the medical world, this quote resonated with me on a personal level. Thinking of the story of Josh and his path to finding medications that worked to help him function in school, it all seemed relatively easy. And while later effects on his brain from this medication are yet to be seen, some adolescents don’t have such an easy path to control their mental illnesses. One of the factors in this is finding medication or a combination of medication that works for each case. My sister was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder around the start of High School. Her doctors, like Josh’s, also prescribed her medications to alleviate symptoms of her mental illness, but it’ was almost like they were experimenting with her to find the right dosage. Too much of one thing and her depression and anxiety would peak. Too much of something else could lead to yet another trip to a psychiatric hospital, which could mean weeks on end of missing school until finally she would have to receive home instruction.

At this point, eight years later, she still struggles to function like her typically developing peers which makes me wonder if she should have even been given drugs as a first step to recovery to begin with…

Overall, I feel that we need to put more focus in health classes on addiction, mental illness, and drug abuse. Doctors often go right to the prescription pad when there is any sort of problem which I think puts the idea into adolescents minds that drugs can be a solution. And while we can’t exactly change the whole field of medicine, we can get our kids better informed.