Everybody's on Prozac

I never really noticed the commercials, or saw the ads in magazines until I was prescribed an anti-depressant myself. Now I see them everywhere. Every time a commercial is on TV advertising the pill I either took or have heard at the doctor, it catches my attention and I am pulled into it.

A few years ago I probably didn't even know they existed and now they're all around me. I probably never even knew that any "normal" people were taking it. I had no idea that my grandfather was on the very medication that I would one day be given. They were right in front of me, but I couldn't see them.

It seems a little crazy to me, the number of people in the world who are unhappy enough to be prescribed medication. Of course, at times I wonder are they just over prescribed? I can't imagine that so many people could share the feelings of utter despair and hopelessness that I used to drown in.

Not long after I began to have these feelings, I bought the book Prozac Nation. I remember ordering it online on Barnes and Noble with a gift card so my mom wouldn't find out. Everyday after that I quickly ran home to check the mail to see if the package had come. This was one of three books on depression that I bought that day. It was before I went to the doctor and was diagnosed, when I was too scared to tell my mom how I was feeling and I was dying for some sort of companionship. These were the only books I could read at the time. That's what depression does to you it takes away your ability to care about anything but your own sadness so much so that you can't even read a regular book.

Well on the day the package arrived at my house and my mom asked what was in it. I quickly rushed to my room threw the books under my bed and grabbed a few old ones out of my bookshelf to show her. Looking back I wonder what would have happened if she saw them. Truthfully, I'm still a bit embarrassed of them and I don't keep them on my bookshelf.  

Anyway, Prozac Nation talks about that, how there's so many people who are depressed and taking medication and you would never guess it. And a funny story to go along with that? Well yesterday when I was on the phone with my mom she told me my dog is now on prozac...

We adopted him last spring, and he was rescued from the streets of Tennessee where he had been hit by a truck as a puppy so he certainly has his baggage, but does he need prozac?

I have yet to decide what to think about that, at this point all I can do is laugh and wonder how much prozac does this world need?