Overpill

directed: Petr Timofeev, Aleksey Shabarov RU 2017, 50m

The US has a highly developed pharmaceutical industry offering treatments for all kinds of mental disorders. Millions of Americans are being medicated for ailments as diverse as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and many others. Even young children are being put on psychiatric drugs. If parents decline such treatment, social services may intervene.

Many patients, who’ve been taking these pills for years, insist that they do more harm than good. They have experienced disturbing side effects such as suicidal thoughts, addiction and even neurological damage. A lot of patients were put on their medication as children and by the time they were legally old enough to decide for themselves, they had already become addicted. They testify that breaking their dependency on the drugs is extremely difficult because, like any habit forming narcotic, they cause severe withdrawal symptoms.