We've Had 30 Years Of Prozac. Why Are We Still Depressed? [Rebroadcast]
Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet Productions
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2018
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Modern anti-depressants have saved a lot of minds. And lives. But our 30-year experiment with modern anti-depressants is taking a toll. What have they done to our bodies? And how do we navigate that trade-off between body and mind? Is it clear that they even work?
There are a lot of us who struggle with mood disorders or mental illness of one sort or another. If you do, we here at TTBOOK want you to know that you’re not alone. If you're looking for more in-depth knowledge on what you might be going through, the National Alliance on Mental Illness is an incredible resource.
And if you just need something to elevate your spirit, check out the playlist that Charles made at the bottom of this page. It's packed with the music he listens to when he’s down and needs a lift. Not a fake happy song kind of lift – something honest but also hopeful.
**WARNING: The conversation with Lauren Slater in this show features frank discussion of depression and self-harm. The audio doesn't contain a trigger warning, but for listeners who may be sensitive to discussion of suicide, please consider listening to other interviews on the show separately, or skipping this episode.
Guests:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's to the best of our knowledge. |
| 0:03.3 | I'm Anne Strange Champs. |
| 0:04.7 | We've had 30 years of Prozac. |
| 0:07.4 | So why are we still depressed? |
| 0:09.8 | I was in my early 20s, I think it was 1988, |
| 0:14.0 | and I was having a complete breakdown. |
| 0:27.6 | Yeah. a complete breakdown. My psychiatrist was about to hospitalize me because I was so suicidal. |
| 0:36.0 | I didn't want to be hospitalized because I had already been hospitalized like four or five times prior to this. |
| 0:42.2 | I didn't want another hospitalization. I would have rather killed myself. |
| 0:50.9 | My psychiatrist said, well, there's a new drug that's just come on board, and it's called Prozac, and maybe we could try that. |
| 1:03.0 | And she did. |
| 1:05.6 | This is Lauren Slater. |
| 1:07.8 | She wrote the famous memoir, Prozac Diary, And now she's back with a new one, Blue Dreams, |
| 1:14.4 | the story of 30 years on SSRIs, which for her has been a really mixed bag. I can relate, |
| 1:21.9 | and maybe you can too. Like a lot of people, I started taking Prozac around the same time Lauren did. |
| 1:29.1 | It was 1988 or so, and the drug was brand new. |
| 1:34.9 | I have this almost physical memory of the first time I opened the bottle and shook this tiny green and cream-colored capsule out into my hand. |
| 1:45.6 | I remember being scared because at the time I thought it was going to make me somebody else. |
| 1:51.4 | And what did you think? |
| 1:53.7 | I vividly remember, you know, the first time I took it. |
| 1:57.5 | But I remember better the third and fourth time I took it because I was stunned. |
| 2:04.0 | I was absolutely stunned. |
... |
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