Coming of Age on Zoloft: How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are

Drawing on 40 interviews with individuals aged 18–40 and an extensive reading of professional and popular articles, former Seed magazine editor Sharpe takes a close look at members of her generation who came of age with new antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft. Sharpe herself used such drugs after a mini-breakdown in college and says they made her feel “dull and flattened in one way... revoltingly attuned in another.” Sharpe is excellent at detailing the positives and negatives of these drugs: they can relieve depression, and patients can learn to turn the drug from a crutch into a “tool,” controlling it rather than letting it control them. But the drugs can also promote “a kind of emotional illiteracy, “prevent[ing] me from asking or noticing the reasons I felt bad....” She is also good on the importance of exercise, sleep, and diet on alleviating depression. But she is best at probing broader societal issues. In an age so focused on mental health, psychologist David Ramirez tells Sharpe, “there’s almost not a language of normal distress.” This is a fine book that nicely weaves together personal, sociological, and philosophical perspectives for a thoughtful view of how antidepressants are shaping many people’s lives. Agent: Eva Talmadge, Emma Sweeney Agency. (June)