Medication, a cure or a blanket?

In the U.S, 7.5 percent of children between ages 6 and 17 were taking medication for “emotional or behavioral difficulties” in 2011-2012. (Howie, Pastor 2014). However, a fraction for those children are solely on medication and not therapy. Is the end goal to get better? Is it not to “get better”?

Is medication, a cure or just a blanket? Medication is used for stabilizing and limiting symptoms. However, when the medication stops, the symptoms return. There are many different types of therapy, that fit individual’s wants and needs.

Therapy sessions don’t just “blanket’ your symptoms, it teaches you to face them while thinking and working through them. This is what I believe is the cure for mental illness. In severe, and dangerous diagnoses, where medication is unquestionably needed. I believe the lowest dose should be given, along with talk therapy. However, there are far too many over-medicated people who are just creating a dependency instead of a cure.

For example, Bandura’s (1986) observational learning study proved therapy can be used to cure phobias. Bandura cured the fear of snakes in a matter of hours, through exposure. Facing these different types of  mental illnesses, while addressing them and working through them is the only cure.

Since 2012, the number of children on medication to treat mental illnesses has six-folded. (Olfson 2012) Is this due to mental illnesses becoming more of a occurrence or a dependency growing?

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Howie LD, Pastor PN, Lukacs SL. Use of medication prescribed for emotional or behavioral difficulties among children aged 6-17 years in the United States, 2011-2012. NCHS Data Brief. 2014 Apr;(148):1-8.

Olfson M, et al. National trends in the office-based treatment of children, adolescents, and adults with antipsychotics.2012 Dec;69(12):1247-56.

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