Book Review: Prozac Nation

I recently finished reading Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel. I wanted to read this book initially because I saw the movie and that some drama was added (like most movie adaptations), and I wanted to get the real story. What I found was that a lot of the drama was left out. I thought because of the book’s subtitle it would shed some light not only on Wurtzel’s personal experience but in the young depressed in America; stats, history, etc. It did not shed any light on depression in general.

I had a seriously hard time reading this book. I myself having struggled with (I wouldn’t say depression, because I have never been diagnosed or seen a therapist so don’t want to give an insincere impression) bouts of sadness or whatever you want to call it. For one I kept thinking; divorce – check, single-parent – check, low-income – check, absent parent (father) – check. Wurtzel leads readers to believe that her depression had everything to do with her circumstance, and I am reading and thinking that’s me and a huge portion of the rest of the country. How many poor people do you know grow up in Manhattan, attend after school programs, summer camp, go to Harvard…? I just don’t buy it.

For the most part I just thought of her as a spoiled brat. Her fits were constant and unbelievable. She went to London for a summer and spent it in a basement crying, gave an accidental blow job, only to brag about the incident later. Her friends would visit her and bring her gifts but it never seemed to be enough. She described her actions but her actions but just really didn’t describe depression well. I never really got a sense of why she was behaving so badly. Many times she repeats feeling a black wave, or not wanting to get out of bed, and I ask, who does? I just couldn’t feel empathy, and because of my personal experience this was very strange. I just couldn’t get over what an egocentric brat she was.

Initially in the book her therapist is adamant about her feelings are psychological and not biological. That with enough therapy, etc. she could be cured for a lack of a better word. In the end she ends up with a prescription drug remedy, which I just didn’t get. She never went into how the doctors changed their mind about her depression and the cause.

There was a prologue and an epilogue. In the epilogue (written after the publication of the book) she mentions that she received many letters about why she read this book. That in her words; why would twenty-something that hasn’t really accomplished anything. I never did get a clear answer on that one.