RIGHT EDITION – An entire generation of women is lost amidst engineered anxiety, chasing hollow independence while forsaking the proven anchors of marriage, family, and selfless purpose.
I went back to grad school later in life. Thus, I was many years older, decades even, than my intellectual cohorts. I’ll never forget when a young lady in class, no older than 25, made a comment rather cavalierly about taking her SSRI pills.
I was stunned at how natural this disclosure seemed to her. I suppose it was my look of surprise that prompted her to respond: “What? Isn’t everyone on SSRIs?”
“In 2023, the percentage of adults age 18 and older who took prescription medication for depression was 11.4%. Women (15.3%) were more than twice as likely to take medication for depression than men (7.4%).” – National Center for Health Statistics, April 2025
The Girls Are Not Alright
I have since come to find out that, yes indeed, many people, particularly young adult women, are on some sort of anti-depressive medication.
In my day, illicit drugs (such as alcohol and marijuana) were more the norm. Yet they still weren’t considered “normal” because they were — well — illegal. We had to sneak around to do it. We couldn’t walk into class with a joint or crack open a Natty Light in the middle of chemistry.
These days, however, kids do drugs with a doctor’s prescription and often, parental blessing. Maybe that is because adults who take medication for their depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders are in no way bashful about their reliance on medication.
As a recent article in The Wall Street Journal entitled “Girl, Take Your Crazy Pills!” pointed out, SSRIs are the new Birkin bag — a status symbol and source of pride. Or as the Journal described them, a “hot lifestyle accessory.”
“SSRIs are the new Birkin bag — a status symbol and source of pride.”
The Scourge of Social Media
A variety of cultural shifts have led to women’s declining mental status, including a high prevalence of social media use, particularly among younger girls.
As Jonathan Haidt argues in his book The Anxious Generation, the steep increase in depression and anxiety in young girls, (aged 8-22), beginning somewhere between 2008 and 2010 corresponds with the mainstream adoption of the smartphone and social media …
