Shalini Ramachandran, Betsy McKay and Tom McGinty:
Danielle Gansky was 7 years old when an administrator at her upscale private girls’ school in suburban Philadelphia flagged problems with her academic performance. She was a bubbly and creative kid, but she was easily distracted in class and her schoolwork was sloppy.
The school told Gansky’s mother that the girl should see a psychiatrist, who diagnosed her with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and prescribed a stimulant. Concerned that Danielle might get kicked out if her focus didn’t improve, her mother broke into tears and agreed. But the pills made Gansky agitated, moody and angry. So another doctor put her on Prozac.
More pills followed. Over the years, Gansky was always on two and sometimes three or more psychiatric drugs at once. By her late 20s, she had taken 14 different kinds of psychiatric pills.
None of it ever felt right. The pills dulled her mind and made her irritable or sleepy. But when Gansky complained about the drugs, her doctors would up her dose or try another medication.
“I was living in a body hijacked by the medication,” said Gansky, 29, who is still struggling to wean herself off an antidepressant. “I didn’t have the words or authority to challenge what I was being told.”