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A review by neenor
Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel
3.0
I have a lot to say about this book, and I'm not entirely sure where to start. The beginning, I suppose. I've wanted to read Prozac Nation for a long time - as a kid who was diagnosed with OCD at 10 and put on Zoloft, then diagnosed with depression at 14 and changed to Prozac at 16, I've grown up in the generation where the answer to everything is drugs. We are a drug-dependent nation - God forbid I leave the house without a full packet of Ibruprofen, just in case I get a headache! I was intrigued to read about Wurtzel's battle with depression and her experience of drugs. This was only heightened by the fact that I've spent most of this academic year studying the mental health system in the 20th century which, of course, included the discovery of SSRIs and other drugs such as Imipramine, Thorazine and Chlorpromazine.
However, I've got to admit that going into this, I was kind of nervous. Having finished therapy just under a year ago, my moods can still fluctuate and I was worried that reading this would be a trigger of sorts. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't trigger me at all - in fact, I was able to identify with a lot of Wurtzel's inner demons, but in retrospect. So for me, the book was a real eye-opener about myself and my own situation.
Anyway, as of the book itself, I think it's a really good literary piece. You can tell that Wurtzel has a talent for words - the sentences just flowed on the page which made it a relatively easy read despite its difficult content. I do understand what other people mean about the author sounding incredibly whiny and self-pitying, but having been in that situation, I can't hold that against her. She made a lot of valid points about this postmodern generation and the stigmas that are attached to people with mental illnesses. I'd recommend this book to every clinical psychologist, every psychiatrist, because it is a poignant and truthful insight into the minds of the patients they are trying to treat.
However, I've got to admit that going into this, I was kind of nervous. Having finished therapy just under a year ago, my moods can still fluctuate and I was worried that reading this would be a trigger of sorts. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't trigger me at all - in fact, I was able to identify with a lot of Wurtzel's inner demons, but in retrospect. So for me, the book was a real eye-opener about myself and my own situation.
Anyway, as of the book itself, I think it's a really good literary piece. You can tell that Wurtzel has a talent for words - the sentences just flowed on the page which made it a relatively easy read despite its difficult content. I do understand what other people mean about the author sounding incredibly whiny and self-pitying, but having been in that situation, I can't hold that against her. She made a lot of valid points about this postmodern generation and the stigmas that are attached to people with mental illnesses. I'd recommend this book to every clinical psychologist, every psychiatrist, because it is a poignant and truthful insight into the minds of the patients they are trying to treat.