According to the FAQ document on Zoloft’s corporate website: “Zoloft is only approved for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in children between the ages of 6 to 17. Zoloft is not approved or promoted for the treatment of depression in children or adolescents.”

Why are so many doctors prescribing Zoloft for children with anxiety? What is Zoloft, and why is it becoming so popular?

Zoloft is a prescription antidepressant categorized as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or SSRI. Other drugs in the same category include Prozac, Lexapro, Celexa, Paxil, Luvox, etc.

These drugs function by fundamentally altering the neurochemistry of your body. Most people operate under the assumption that SSRI’s work to “balance” the levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain.

This assumption, despite being vigorously marketed by the various drug companies which sell antidepressants, is false.

SSRI’s don’t balance anything. The neurochemistry of the brain is so complicated and so poorly understood, that to “balance” even a single neurochemical is for all practical purposes an impossible task.

What Zoloft and other SSRI’s actually do is create an artificial neurochemical environment in the brain which has the effect of “blunting” the various symptoms of depression and anxiety alike.

For a more complete treatment of SSRI’s and how they really work, click here.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permits licensed physicians to use their judgment to prescribe medication to treat illnesses for which that medication has not been specifically approved.

In other words, since Zoloft and other SSRI’s are approved to treat anxiety in adults, doctors are allowed to use their discretion in prescribing Zoloft for children with anxiety.

I am not a doctor, and nothing on this website intends to represent itself as medical advice. That being said, you don’t have to take my word for it that the use of antidepressant medications like Zoloft for children with anxiety is highly controversial.

These drugs have powerful and poorly understood effects on your body and mind. These effects are even more far-reaching when experienced by rapidly developing body and mind of a child.

As an example, a small percentage of children on antidpressants report an increase in suicidal feelings. Many others complain of the “emotional blunting” which is so often part-and-parcel of the SSRI treatment.

This “emotional blunting” is a direct result of the artificial brain chemistry created by the drugs. An artificial brain chemistry results in an artificial mental state. Understanding this simple reality is the key to understanding the potential negative effects these drugs can have on children.

Very often these drugs are treated as a “quick fix” by parents, much the same way that ADHD medications are used for “problem students” in school. And many parents of children with anxiety are themselves taking some kind of antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication.

The use of Zoloft for children with anxiety should never be something you just “try” … it should be a well-researched and thought out decision. If your child is suffering from anxiety, I urge you to explore each and every alternative before agreeing to medication.

For the most in-depth discussion of drug-free solutions to anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and every other stress-related injury I recommend my best-selling program THE STRESS VACCINE™.

You will not find this kind of POWERFUL, PERTINENT information in print anywhere else ... I guarantee it.

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