A front-page headline in the Oct. 20 edition of the Wall Street Journal — and the lengthy article that followed it — evoked the troubling question of whether many people in this country who don’t really need to be taking antidepressants are becoming hooked on them.

“Out-in-the-open” dialogue dealing with the issue should be welcomed here. It might open many people’s eyes to a problem festering below the surface of widespread awareness.

If that situation exists, it might be paving the way for a bigger problem down the proverbial road.

Here is how the Journal’s article began:

“Antidepressants are recast as hot lifestyle accessory.” Below that main headline was the following message: “Influencers tout them, but side effects dismay many followers.”

According to the Journal, millennial and GenZ influencers, some paid by telehealth companies, evangelize antidepressants on TikTok and Instagram … recasting the medications as pop-culture touchstones.”

The Journal article went on to say:

“Influencers show off prescription bottles, dance and take pills on-camera. One winked to the camera and swallowed a handful as a voice-over sang, ‘Girl, take your crazy pills, you know you’re mentally ill,” to the tune of the pop song, ‘Girl Put Your Records On.’ A TikTok influencer this summer launched a line of T-shirts that say, ‘Don’t Talk to Me Until I’ve Had My Lexapro-Laced Iced-Coffee.'”

That paragraph alone is fodder for alarm, but another eye-opening Journal paragraph does nothing to quell the concern. It is as follows:

“Telehealth companies, including Hims & Hers Health, have tapped into the burst of online enthusiasm and made it easier than ever for patients to try antidepressants.”

The obvious question is how much the “burst” exceeds the actual need.

It’s important to acknowledge that prescribed antidepressant usage is not new, although the size of the current surge in use might be. As the Journal noted, the most common of the antidepressants have been on the market so long that grandparents, parents and children in some families now take them, needed or not.

But if you are taking an antidepressant and experiencing adverse side effects, you are not alone, as the Journal article confirmed. The Journal reported on the experience of a Texas woman who the newspaper said belonged to a social-media movement that has given antidepressants a make-over — from a stigmatized medicine to a healthy lifestyle accessory for enlightened and empowered young women.

The woman “touted benefits of the medicine but later felt emotionally numb, had brain fog and a loss of libido,” while a former Food and Drug Administration official has said that the potential benefit of antidepressants has to be weighed against risks such as sexual dysfunction and withdrawal effects, including anxiety and restlessness.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old woman in the United Kingdom told the Journal that she had given up on antidepressants after trying them twice and feeling nothing but numbness and sexual dysfunction.

The Journal said a recent study found that nearly two-thirds of patients on antidepressants for more than two years had moderate or severe withdrawal symptoms.

The purpose of this editorial is not to question the value of antidepressants for those who truly need them. Rather, it is to raise awareness here about the possible misuse of them now occurring — wherever.

They should not be just a lifestyle accessory tied to some fad here or anywhere else.