My name is Gail. I am the mother of three beautiful children. I couldn’t have asked for more perfect children who have brought so much joy to myself and others. My son Liam is my second child and eldest son. He had his life stolen after being prescribed an SSRI . Here is his story.

Liam was a kind, strong, energetic person with many natural talents and abilities. He was somewhat of a prankster and comical when he wanted to be. He had a bright future ahead of him as a young man discovering the world beyond high school. Liam was trying to figure out his life’s path like most of the people his age. Having always dealt with distractibility, he began to worry about episodes of “zoning out”. This was new. He described these episodes not as lack of concentration but as moments of complete loss of awareness. He was concerned about this and also its effect on school.

I wondered if it could be a form of epilepsy or similar and an appointment to see his doctor was made. He had to wait 3 months to see her. His appointment was at the end of March, 2020, which meant during full COVID lockdown. The appointment took place over the phone.

He was prescribed an antidepressant; citalopram ( brand name Celexa) The reasoning for this was to rule out depression as a cause for “zoning out”. He was not given a physical exam nor asked to see the doctor in person. His behaviour changed immediately. He said things that were uncharacteristic, was talking fast and emotional. The most noticeable thing was that he wasn’t sleeping and was irritable. I suspected the medication as the cause and wanted him off the meds. He said he didn’t want to take the meds either, but he would “power through” until his next appointment, because his doctor wouldn’t do anything further until the depression was ruled out. The doctor had also told him not sleeping was “a normal side effect”. The next appointment with the doctor was at the end of April, again by telephone. Liam told me that the appointment went well, but he had to stay on the medication for one more month until his next telephone appointment. That appointment never came.

Liam took his life May 3rd, 2020, after being awake all night, unable to sleep. His computer showed him looking up sleep videos. He was 19 years old with no prior history of mental illness or depression. He was taking the SSRI as prescribed. The doctor had noted that his depression evaluation did not indicate severe depression and that maybe he wasn’t suffering from depression. He will be forever loved and admired and greatly missed by all who knew him and loved him. His leaving us has left a growing wound that can never be healed.

One of Liam's goals in life was to find a career which would help or benefit others. This was a criteria in choosing his career path. To honour Liam’s wishes, we hope to raise awareness about side effects of SSRIs. We will be holding a walk on May 3rd, 2025