I am angry!!

I am not mildly annoyed. I am not politically irritated. I am not doing the theatrical outrage dance for clicks, shares, and a few extra comments from people who think cruelty is a personality. I am angry in the way a person gets angry when fear has nowhere else to go.

I am angry because I know what severe depression can do.

I am angry because I know what happens when mental health treatment gets interrupted.

I am angry because I know what it feels like to need medication and wonder whether the system will let me keep getting it.

And I am angry because Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man with no medical degree, now sits at the top of the Department of Health and Human Services with enough federal authority to turn personal ignorance into national damage.

Let me say this plainly: when the Secretary of Health and Human Services starts building federal action around “curbing psychiatric overprescribing,” and that message lands in a country already drowning in mental health stigma, people like me do not hear a harmless policy discussion. We hear a warning siren.

HHS announced a May 2026 plan to promote “appropriate psychiatric prescribing” and “deprescribing when clinically indicated,” with RFK Jr. framing the effort around psychiatric overprescribing.   The Guardian reported that Kennedy announced federal initiatives meant to curb antidepressant prescribing, especially around SSRIs, and that the American Psychiatric Association cautioned against framing the mental health crisis mainly as an overprescribing problem when access, workforce shortages, and uneven care remain massive barriers.  

That is the gaping hole.

America does not have too much mental healthcare.

America has too many people unable to get decent mental healthcare at all.

And now this man wants to waltz into the room with a political flamethrower and act as though the danger is the medication, not the untreated suffering that medication may be helping people survive.

This Is Not a Wellness Podcast Anymore

RFK Jr. is not some guy muttering into a microphone from a wellness retreat.

He is not a Facebook uncle posting suspicious memes between supplement ads.

He is not a contrarian guest trying to sell a book.

He is the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

That means his words carry institutional force. His priorities can shape guidance, funding, insurance behavior, provider pressure, public trust, and the willingness of frightened people to seek help. That changes everything.

A private citizen can be wrong.

A federal health secretary can be dangerously wrong.

The Mary Sue covered this story under the headline “RFK Jr. just launched a crusade to pull antidepressants from millions, ignoring the doctors screaming about a gaping hole in his plan.” Readers can review that piece here: The Mary Sue report on RFK Jr. and antidepressants.

I do not need anyone to explain to me that antidepressants are imperfect.

I know that.

Many people who take psychiatric medication know that better than the loudest critics ever will. We know the side effects. We know the trial-and-error process. We know the exhaustion of changing doses. We know the fear of withdrawal. We know the frustration of medications that help one person and flatten another. We know that medication is not magic.

But imperfect treatment is not the same as disposable treatment.

That distinction seems to be missing from the entire circus.

Depression Is Not a Character Flaw

One of the ugliest lies in American culture is that mental illness is weakness with better branding.

People still talk about depression as though it is sadness wearing dramatic makeup. They talk about anxiety as though it is nervousness with a marketing budget. They talk about psychiatric medication as though people take it because they are lazy, fragile, or unwilling to “do the work.”

Enough.

Depression is not laziness.

Panic disorder is not attention-seeking.

PTSD is not a failure of gratitude.

Bipolar disorder is not bad discipline.

Suicidal ideation is not a mood swing.

And antidepressants are not moral failure in pill form.

For many people, antidepressants are one tool that keeps them alive long enough to do therapy, rebuild relationships, return to work, parent their children, manage trauma, and survive another week.

I have lived the part of this conversation that pundits love to flatten.

I have lived severe depression.

I have lived the terror of losing access to care.

I have lived the consequences of medication disruption.

When I lost insurance and could not get what I needed, I did not become some inspirational bootstrap poster child. I ended up in a mental health institution for nearly 90 days. I underwent ECT. I know what it means when treatment falls apart.

That is why this is personal.

That is why my anger has teeth.

Nobody should have to wonder whether a politician’s ideology could interfere with the medication helping them stay alive.

The Lie Hidden Inside “Deprescribing”

Let us talk about the word “deprescribing.”

In a proper clinical setting, deprescribing can be valid. Sometimes a medication no longer helps. Sometimes side effects become too much. Sometimes a person and their clinician decide to taper slowly, safely, and carefully.

That is medicine.

But when deprescribing becomes a political slogan, it becomes something else.

It becomes pressure.

It becomes suspicion.

It becomes patients feeling judged before they even open their mouths.

It becomes families asking, “Do you really need those pills?”

It becomes pastors, influencers, legislators, and unqualified loudmouths deciding that psychiatric medication is the enemy.

It becomes people quitting medication abruptly, which can be dangerous.

Medical providers routinely warn that antidepressants should not be stopped suddenly without professional guidance, since withdrawal symptoms and symptom relapse can occur. The Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy’s plan includes incentives and guidance around tapering, and that critics say withdrawal symptoms can be severe and poorly addressed.  

That is precisely why political blunt force is so dangerous here.

If the concern is safe prescribing, fund mental healthcare.

If the concern is informed consent, expand access to psychiatrists and therapists.

If the concern is medication review, make it easier for patients to see qualified providers.

If the concern is children being overmedicated, strengthen school mental health systems, family supports, trauma care, and community-based services.

But do not point at antidepressants as though they are the villain in a country where people wait months for appointments and then pay outrageous prices for the privilege of being told their insurance will not cover the care they need.

The Real Crisis Is Access, Not “Too Much Help”

Let us be brutally honest.

The United States does not have an abundance of mental health care.

People cannot find psychiatrists.

Therapists are booked out for months.

Rural communities are abandoned.

Crisis systems are overloaded.

Insurance companies deny care with the cold efficiency of a vending machine that eats your money.

People ration medication.

People skip appointments.

People sit in emergency rooms for hours or days during psychiatric crises.

People get released without meaningful follow-up.

People die after everyone around them says, “We had no idea.”

So when RFK Jr. frames the crisis around overprescribing, I want to know: where has he been?

In what version of America are people drowning in too much psychiatric support?

Where is this magical mental health paradise where every person gets careful evaluation, affordable therapy, medication monitoring, trauma-informed care, crisis planning, family support, and long-term follow-up?

It is not the America I know.

It is not the America where people cry in parking lots before their first appointment.

It is not the America where people have to choose between medication and groceries.

It is not the America where a person can finally admit they need help and then be told the next available appointment is four months away.

The American Psychiatric Association’s caution matters here: access problems, workforce shortages, and unequal care distribution are core issues that cannot be waved away by pretending antidepressants are the central villain.  

Stigma Already Keeps People From Seeking Treatment

I have spent nearly two decades working to reduce stigma surrounding mental health.

That work teaches you something fast: people do not avoid treatment because they are carefree.

They avoid treatment because they are scared.

They are scared they will be judged.

They are scared they will be labeled.

They are scared they will lose work.

They are scared their families will treat them differently.

They are scared medication will change who they are.

They are scared therapy means they are broken.

They are scared the first step through the door will confirm every cruel thing they already believe about themselves.

Now drop RFK Jr.’s rhetoric on top of that fear.

What do people think happens?

Some people will hesitate.

Some will cancel appointments.

Some will decide they can handle it alone.

Some will flush pills.

Some will taper without medical supervision.

Some will relapse.

Some will become suicidal.

Some will not make it.

That is not hysteria. That is the predictable fallout of attacking trust in mental healthcare from the highest levels of federal health leadership.

This Is Finger-Pointing, So Let Us Point Fingers

RFK Jr. owns his words.

HHS owns the policy frame it chooses.

The administration owns the decision to place a non-physician with a long history of medical controversy in charge of national health policy.

Every senator who treated his confirmation like just another political trade owns part of this.

Every media outlet that sanitizes dangerous rhetoric into “wellness skepticism” owns part of this.

Every influencer who turns psychiatric medication into conspiracy content owns part of this.

Every lawmaker who screams about mental health after mass violence, then attacks actual mental healthcare, owns part of this.

Every insurance company that profits from denying care owns part of this.

Every person who tells someone to stop medication because “Big Pharma” is scary, without offering one damn qualified treatment plan, owns part of this.

Yes, the pharmaceutical industry deserves scrutiny. Drug pricing is obscene. Corporate behavior can be predatory. Direct-to-consumer medical marketing deserves serious criticism. Patients deserve informed consent.

But using Big Pharma’s real sins as an excuse to frighten people away from needed psychiatric treatment is not reform.

It is recklessness wearing a fake halo.

My Fear Is Not Abstract

I am scared.

I hate admitting that, but I am.

I am scared for the person who finally stabilized after years of trial and error.

I am scared for the teenager whose parents already distrust psychiatric care.

I am scared for the veteran whose PTSD symptoms are barely contained.

I am scared for people with severe depression who will hear this rhetoric and start questioning the medication keeping them alive.

I am scared for myself, too.

I know how hard it can be to keep taking medication even when I sincerely need it. Depression already whispers poison into your ear. It tells you that you are not worth saving. It tells you treatment is pointless. It tells you to isolate. It tells you that people would be better off without you.

The last thing anyone needs is the federal government giving that voice a microphone.

If you have never had to fight your own brain for your own life, maybe this sounds dramatic.

Good for you.

Some of us have.

Some of us know the stakes.

Some of us are alive because treatment held us when willpower could not.

What Responsible Leadership Would Look Like

Responsible leadership would say:

Do not stop antidepressants abruptly.

Talk with a qualified medical provider before making changes.

Mental healthcare should be affordable and accessible.

Medication decisions belong to patients and clinicians.

Therapy, social support, housing, nutrition, exercise, and community care can support recovery, but they are not universal replacements for medication.

Stigma kills.

Suicide prevention requires access, compassion, and evidence-based care.

That would be leadership.

Instead, we are getting another chapter in America’s exhausting romance with anti-expertise politics.

And I am supposed to be polite about it?

No.

I can be factual without being gentle.

I can be responsible without being quiet.

I can respect community standards without pretending this is acceptable.

RFK Jr. is playing with a population that already lives too close to the edge. People with severe depression are not props in his wellness crusade. People taking SSRIs are not laboratory mice for political branding. Psychiatric patients are not disposable test subjects in some national fantasy about purity, discipline, and natural living.

We are human beings.

We are parents, friends, workers, artists, veterans, students, neighbors, partners, caregivers, and survivors.

And some of us are tired of being alive only when politicians need a talking point about “mental health,” then invisible the second we need medication, coverage, and clinical care.

A Direct Message to Anyone Taking Antidepressants

Do not let a politician shame you out of treatment.

Do not stop medication suddenly because of a headline.

Do not let some social media expert with a ring light and no medical license decide your care.

Call your doctor.

Call your therapist.

Call your pharmacist.

Ask questions.

Get information.

Make choices with qualified support.

Your life is worth more than RFK Jr.’s ideology.

Your survival is worth more than a political slogan.

Your medication is not shameful.

Your treatment is not weakness.

Your need for help does not make you broken.

If you are in immediate crisis in the United States, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If you are in immediate danger, call emergency services.

The Bottom Line

I want people to read this and know exactly where I stand.

I am furious.

I am frightened.

I am not being dramatic.

I am not being partisan for sport.

I am speaking as someone who has lived the consequences of interrupted mental healthcare, someone who has spent years fighting stigma, and someone who knows that careless public health rhetoric can become a body count.

RFK Jr. does not get to casually shake the foundation of psychiatric care and then hide behind soft language about autonomy and transparency.

Autonomy requires access.

Transparency requires truth.

Safety requires evidence.

And leadership requires enough humility to stop pretending personal suspicion is a substitute for medical expertise.

People’s lives are on the line.

Mine has been.

That is why I am angry.

That is why I am scared.

That is why I will not shut up.