Antidepressants do work – but children need someone to talk to

Young people in mental distress need - and deserve - faster access to support services, as well as pills

Nearly a decade ago I found myself perched on the edge of a hard chair in a dark doctor's office. I was 13 and struggling a lot with self harm, body image, and the simple task of keeping myself alive. Shuffling my feet and wondering how I ended up here, I remember not fully understanding what was happening when I was handed a little green prescription for Fluoxetine - an antidepressant drug often better known as Prozac.

Back then, my frame of reference for mental illness was pretty minimal. All I knew was that I felt numb and I wanted everyone to leave me alone. The thought of something being able to help felt so far away it was almost laughable. Antidepressants had never crossed my mind. Everything I knew about them was framed around the words of American emo bands or soap operas. As the doctor handed me the prescription, I remember it was talked about as the most natural thing in the world. "We'll give you a course of pills and go from there." What? Go where? Am I really hopeless enough that only drugs can fix this?