Ella Emhoff said she is pro-SSRIs and rejected efforts to eradicate them, while clarifying that her earlier message focused on how difficult it can be to stop and the need for a healthy process.
Ella Emhoff stepped in to clarify her stance on SSRIs after her earlier comments about the drugs were lifted into a wider political fight.
In an Instagram video posted Saturday. Emhoff said. “I am very pro-SSRIs. ” adding. “I do not support the eradication of them at all.. They have saved my life 100%.. All I was trying to say in the video is that I didn’t know how hard it was to get off of them or the actual process of getting off them. which there is a very healthy way to do it.”
Her earlier video, originally posted in December and since deleted, took aim at how often SSRIs are prescribed.. In that clip. Emhoff said she listened to a podcast about the “over-prescription” of SSRIs and argued she didn’t feel getting off them is “talked about enough.” She added. “I feel like so many of us are on these meds and …. people get off of them and they kind of break down, and it can be really bad.”
Those remarks quickly left her own social media feed. The message was picked up by conservative outlets, including a headline claiming Emhoff and other Gen Zers were beginning to agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized SSRIs.
The federal debate has already been moving toward scrutiny of how widely the drugs are used. Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would try to curb the over-prescription of SSRIs.
At a MAHA Institute summit on mental health and over-medicalization, Secretary of Health and Human Services RFK Jr.. said America has a dependency issue rooted in “over-medicalization,” arguing that “too many” people begin SSRIs without understanding the risks.. He also repeated his claim that SSRIs are more addictive than heroine, a comparison doctors have debunked.. Both doctors and patients have also been critical of Kennedy’s skepticism toward SSRIs.
Emhoff’s personal story adds another layer to the dispute.. She said she has been on SSRIs for 10 years and has no plan to get off them.. In the past. after Kamala Harris lost the presidency to Donald Trump in 2014. Emhoff addressed a rumor that she had a mental breakdown. saying it wasn’t true. while adding. “I’ve struggled with my mental health my whole life and I’m not ashamed of it.”
The sequence of events keeps colliding: federal officials announced an effort to curb over-prescription. Kennedy argued that too many people start SSRIs without knowing risks. and Emhoff says the point of her own message was about how hard stopping can be—without supporting eradication—after her December video was taken up by political channels.
Ella Emhoff SSRIs Kamala Harris Doug Emhoff Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. MAHA Institute mental health drug policy over-prescription