(NaturalNews) High doses of brain-altering chemicals marketed as "anti-depressants" increase the likelihood of self-harm, rather than decreasing the risk, say Harvard health scientists in a study that analyzed data on 162,625 people.

Drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in children and young adults, according to the analysis. SSRI's are the chemical substances which make up the antidepressants Prozac and Zoloft.

"Our findings offer clinicians an additional incentive to avoid initiating pharmacotherapy at high-therapeutic doses," Harvard School of Public Health researchers said.

Looking for a cure in the right and wrong place

1 out of every 13 U.S. children is prescribed psychiatric pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceuticals artificially boost brain levels of serotonin, a boost that is bound to crash eventually.

However, if the brain's nutritional needs and imbalances are caught and understood before being worsened by medication, natural therapies nutrition can help restore the brain's proper neurological secretions.

Even CBS reported, "The [Harvard] findings are likely to inform an ongoing debate in psychiatry -- whether or not it's safe to prescribe antidepressants to children and young adults." For a more healthful reframing of the issue, CBS might have provided a link to the philosophy of Nature Deficit Disorder, and its advocates from the Children and Nature Network.

Does a "safer" world await us, or a pax pharmaceutica?

A separate paper, currently published in JAMA Pediatrics, states "Children's overall real life violent encounters have decreased." Despite Harvard's warning, or perhaps ignorant of it, a CNN report on the reduction in violence conjectured (unbelievably) that the rise in antidepressants may be the reason for the decline in violence.

The CNN website reported:

"One theory is that more people are on psychiatric medicine that reduces aggressive behavior. The study showed 5.6 percent of children were taking psychiatric medication in 2008; by 2011, that had increased to 7.8 percent. More adults are also taking medication for depression and anxiety, which may also reduce family violence."

To perhaps coin a term, a safer childhood through increased childhood drugging sounds like a "Pax Pharmaceutica."

Next, the paper also "thanks" pervasive media screen time for the reduced violence experienced by children:

"With so many kids preoccupied with social media," CNN summarizes, "the risk-taking behavior that comes along with adolescence may now be more in the virtual realm than in reality."

This means that with "risky play" happening in the "safer confines of being online", less playing is taking place where it is most needed -- the natural outdoors and with real other kids.

Marketing a confining model of childhood

Using fear as a selling point, media overload and drugs are being sold to families as the safer model.

For parents and young people themselves, personal, social and economic power lie in pausing, walking away from the PR campaign, and gaining perspective on what is true about a healthy and safe upbringing.

On one hand, ages of wisdom, common sense and now Harvard researchers, support the truth that most minds cannot be "drugged into health", with "antidepressants" proven to cause more suicide, whereas many nutritional and holistic approaches do work.

On the other side, the JAMA Pediatrics article suggests crediting drugs for keeping kids "safer."

People are swimming in propaganda as pharmaceutical giants spend billions of dollars on their own funded studies, press releases and influencing government programs in order to keep promoting drugs. It is expected that big pharma will keep repeating the banner of "reducing childhood violence!"

This fear tactic used to confine families in incessant screen immersion and drugs will only cease, compost, and decay when people re-embrace real food nutrition and harmony with nature.

Sources for this article include:

1. http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/01/health/kid-violence-declines/
   
2. http://www.universityherald.com
3. http://www.childrenandnature.org/
4. https://www.naturalnews.com/038179_diet_depression_mental_health.html
5. https://www.naturalnews.com/015187_Dr_Cousens_Gabriel.html
   

About the author:
Michael Bedar MA, BS, is the co-founder of YoelMedia.com. He is a writer of both nonfiction and allegories. As a researcher, writer, holistic wellness counselor, certified Live-Food Nutrition Counselor, and filmmaker, he is the associate producer with a founding role in the documentary, "Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days" and is the writer-director of "EcoParque." Bedar, who studied Cognitive Science and Environmental Chemistry, teaches meditation weekly in the San Francisco Bay Area, and supports people to benefit in their wellness through nutrition support, juice cleanses, and counseling. He has a master's in Live-Food Nutrition from the Cousens School of Holistic Wellness, is a minister, and is co-director of Tree of Life - Bay Area.