Symptoms: Akathisia, Emotional blunting, Cognitive impairment, Insomnia, Depersonalization/Derealization, Suicidal ideation, Severe anxiety/panic
This story is shared by a mother.
London’s SSRI experience was not just a medication experience. It was part of a larger chain of failures involving rushed labeling, inadequate informed consent, lack of root-cause investigation, poor monitoring, and inpatient discharge decisions that did not fully protect her.
London was only 12 years old. She was bright, loving, creative, athletic, and deeply sensitive. She needed adults and systems to slow down, investigate what was really happening, and protect her. Instead, she was placed into a mental-health system that moved quickly, relied heavily on psychiatric labels, and did not give our family the full information we needed before trusting an SSRI with our child.
London had previously been prescribed Wellbutrin in 2023 but stopped it within about two weeks because she did not want to continue taking it. In October 2023, during an inpatient stay, she was given a short trial of Prozac/fluoxetine at 5 mg for several days, and then it was stopped. Records from that period showed significant anxiety, but did not show the kind of thorough medical, nutritional, hormonal, genetic, gastrointestinal, metabolic, or trauma-informed root-cause investigation that I believe should have happened before placing a child on psychiatric medication.
In July 2024, London was again placed on fluoxetine during an inpatient psychiatric admission. She was only 12 years old. I was told she would be given 10 mg. Within only a few days, her dose was increased to 20 mg. The facility never contacted me to discuss or approve that increase, and I did not give informed consent for the dosage change.
I was not clearly warned that dose increases in children and adolescents can be a particularly high-risk time. I was not given full written and verbal informed consent explaining the FDA black box warning, akathisia, activation, agitation, impulsivity, emotional blunting, behavioral changes, worsening depression, or suicidal thoughts and actions.
I was repeatedly reassured that fluoxetine was “safe” and was told it was one of the safest medications. What I was not given was the full risk picture. I was not properly told what signs to watch for after the medication was started or after the dose was increased. I was not told that a child can appear outwardly calm while internally experiencing severe medication-related distress, agitation, emotional disconnection, or dangerous impulsivity. I was not told that some children may experience sudden changes that can look unlike their normal personality.
London’s symptoms and daily life changed in ways that should have been treated as warning signs, not simply managed as part of a diagnosis. She was a child in distress. She needed careful observation, family involvement, medical investigation, and close monitoring. Instead, the focus appeared to remain on psychiatric labeling and discharge planning.
There was no meaningful investigation into possible root causes such as gut health, chronic constipation, nutrient deficiencies, thyroid issues, inflammation, trauma, sleep, social media exposure, genetic medication vulnerability, or other medical contributors that could have affected her mood, behavior, and nervous system.
I lost London, and I also lost the illusion that something is automatically safe just because it is FDA approved, called standard care, or handed to families under the promise of trust.
The pharmaceutical industry has reclassified and renamed painful but natural human experiences — grief, fear, sadness, trauma, anger, and distress — as psychiatric abnormalities, creating the illusion of a psychiatric epidemic while turning human suffering into a market.
Care is not care anymore when doctors are trained to obey peer-reviewed narratives, not question science, investigate root causes, or protect patients. A child should never be reduced to a diagnosis, rushed through a system, medicated without true informed consent, and discharged without the protections needed to keep her alive.
The inpatient facility failed London in several ways. There was not adequate informed consent before prescribing or increasing fluoxetine. There was not adequate parent education about the FDA black box warning or the specific behavioral side effects to watch for. There was not adequate monitoring after the dose increase. There was not adequate family-centered safety planning. There was not adequate investigation into whether the medication itself could worsen her condition. There was not adequate consideration of root-cause care before relying on medication. There was not adequate discharge protection for a child who needed more support, not less.
I also believe the inpatient facility treated London too much like a diagnosis and not enough like an individual child. She deserved a complete review of her history, her symptoms, her medical issues, her social media exposure, her environment, her stressors, and her biological vulnerabilities. She deserved individualized care. She deserved a system that recognized that psychiatric medication can affect children differently and that adverse reactions can be serious, sudden, and life-threatening.
The failure was not only that London was prescribed an SSRI. The failure was that our family was not given true informed consent, London was not properly monitored, risks were minimized, warning signs were not clearly explained, and deeper causes were not investigated before and during treatment.
As her mother, I believe London’s experience shows why children need stronger protections before psychiatric medication is started or increased. Families deserve full written and verbal warnings. Parents deserve to know about black box risks, akathisia, activation, emotional blunting, impulsivity, behavioral changes, worsening suicidal thoughts, and the heightened risks that can follow a dose change.
Children deserve root-cause investigation, close monitoring, parent notification, individualized care, and a system that slows down before crisis becomes tragedy.
London did not need a system that moved fast. She needed a system that looked deeper, listened harder, informed fully, monitored closely, and protected her life.
Fight for London’s Law. londonslaw.org
Forever London’s Mom.