SSRI antidepressants are some of the most harmful and overused medications on the market.
Common side effects of SSRIs (and SNRIs) include emotional numbness, severe agitation, bipolar disorder, cognitive decline, sexual dysfunction, and birth defects
Psychiatry’s denial of SSRI-related issues often leads to misinterpretation of side effects as signs of pre-existing mental illness, resulting in more medication and catastrophic consequences
SSRIs, like stimulant drugs (e.g., cocaine), are highly addictive, leading to severe illness during withdrawal, which affects approximately half of users
Withdrawal from SSRIs is often extremely difficult, with very few resources available for those trying to stop
Whenever I ask a holistic physician which commonly used medication classes they believe cause the most harm to society, SSRIs always are one of the top five.
Note: Statins (discussed here), NSAIDS like ibuprofen (discussed here), and PPI acid reflux medications (discussed here) frequently make the top five as well.
This is because SSRIs rarely benefit patients (only a minority of depressed patients have a metabolic type that responds to SSRIs) and the drugs have a large number of severe and often life-changing side effects. For example, in a survey of 1,829 patients1 on antidepressants in New Zealand:
62% reported sexual difficulties
52% felt not like themselves
47% had experienced agitation
60% felt emotionally numb
39% cared less about others
39% had experienced suicidal ideation
Many of these can be immensely impactful for individuals (e.g., SSRI sexual dysfunction is often permanent and frequently causes severe depression, while emotional anesthesia takes away the joy of life and can cause people to spend years, if not decades, in emotionally toxic situations).
Worse still, the SSRIs are somewhat unique in that they can also harm those not taking the drugs as they can trigger psychotic violence, which results in either suicide, homicide, and tragically, in numerous cases, mass shootings (discussed further here). Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry was aware of this from the start, but chose to conceal all that evidence to sell the drugs (and only revealed it after lawsuits forced them to).
Everyone should be aware of the dangers of antidepressants. Map of antidepressant consumption worldwide.
Antidepressant Use by Country 2025
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/antidepressant-use-by-country
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/antidepressants-per-capita
SSRI antidepressants are some of the most harmful and overused medications on the market.
Common side effects of SSRIs (and SNRIs) include emotional numbness, severe agitation, bipolar disorder, cognitive decline, sexual dysfunction, and birth defects
Psychiatry’s denial of SSRI-related issues often leads to misinterpretation of side effects as signs of pre-existing mental illness, resulting in more medication and catastrophic consequences
SSRIs, like stimulant drugs (e.g., cocaine), are highly addictive, leading to severe illness during withdrawal, which affects approximately half of users
Withdrawal from SSRIs is often extremely difficult, with very few resources available for those trying to stop
Whenever I ask a holistic physician which commonly used medication classes they believe cause the most harm to society, SSRIs always are one of the top five.
Note: Statins (discussed here), NSAIDS like ibuprofen (discussed here), and PPI acid reflux medications (discussed here) frequently make the top five as well.
This is because SSRIs rarely benefit patients (only a minority of depressed patients have a metabolic type that responds to SSRIs) and the drugs have a large number of severe and often life-changing side effects. For example, in a survey of 1,829 patients1 on antidepressants in New Zealand:
62% reported sexual difficulties
52% felt not like themselves
47% had experienced agitation
60% felt emotionally numb
39% cared less about others
39% had experienced suicidal ideation
Many of these can be immensely impactful for individuals (e.g., SSRI sexual dysfunction is often permanent and frequently causes severe depression, while emotional anesthesia takes away the joy of life and can cause people to spend years, if not decades, in emotionally toxic situations).
Worse still, the SSRIs are somewhat unique in that they can also harm those not taking the drugs as they can trigger psychotic violence, which results in either suicide, homicide, and tragically, in numerous cases, mass shootings (discussed further here). Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry was aware of this from the start, but chose to conceal all that evidence to sell the drugs (and only revealed it after lawsuits forced them to).
https://www.globalresearch.ca/hidden-dangers-antidepressants-hard-stop-taking/5879420 (2025).--