Gen Z is finally waking up and realizing that they were mass-prescribed antidepressants without much consideration for the long-term side effects.<\/p>\n
Among them is Ella Emhoff, the 26-year-old stepdaughter of Kamala Harris, who recently took to TikTok to express concern that she\u2019s having difficulty coming off of SSRIs herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been on SSRIs for over a decade, almost 15 years probably, and [now researchers are] calling out the lack of research on long-term use of these things,\u201d she said to her 60,000-plus followers.<\/p>\n
That means Emhoff was around 11 years old when she started taking the drugs, which are prescribed to treat depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n
Emma Emhoff, the uber-progressive stepdaughter of Kamala Harris, revealed in a recent TikTok video that she was beginning to have questions about SSRI use. BFA.com \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n
A full 16.5% of Americans aged 18 to 24 \u2014 more than 5 million young people \u2014 are taking antidepressants, according to a 2025 survey<\/a> published in the BMJ Mental Health journal.<\/p>\n Another study, from the American Academy of Pediatrics, found the rate of prescriptions dispensed for 12- to 25-year-olds surged by two-thirds<\/a> from 2016 to 2022.<\/p>\n The fact that Emhoff, a far-left Mamdani supporter and pro-Palestine activist, is sounding a lot like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when it comes to drug overprescription says a lot.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sign that young people of all political persuasions are beginning to question whether being on psychiatric drugs for more than half of their lives was actually a good choice \u2014 or a way of treating the symptom, and not the cause, of youth malaise.<\/p>\n On TikTok, Emhoff said that she had been on antidepressants for about 15 years \u2014 meaning she would\u2019ve started taking an SSRi around age 11. Ella Emhoff\/ TikTok<\/p>\n In the December TikTok video, which took off like wildfire on X<\/a> just this week, Emhoff films herself while listening to a Wall Street Journal podcast, presumably from December 3<\/a>, which asks the question: \u201cIs America overmedicated?\u201d<\/p>\n It reports that \u201clong-term use was never studied\u201d and that patients are staying on psychiatric drugs much longer than they were intended, while the effects of this prolonged usage have not been studied.<\/p>\n Emhoff said on TikTok the podcast\u2019s conversation about how difficult it is to get off the drugs \u201cgot me thinking how little I\u2019ve thought about that, naively, obviously,\u201d adding that it isn\u2019t being talked about.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I\u2019ve gone off of it for a week or missed it for whatever reason, like, it has been really hard for me, and I\u2019ve had a really hard time,\u201d Emhoff explained.<\/p>\n Emhoff is the 26-year-old stepdaughter of former Vice President Kamala Harris. X @VP<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sad revelation for someone who, while in just fifth or sixth grade, has doctors and parents who signed off on a prescription that may turn out to be a mistake.<\/p>\n