This
spoof advertisement exaggerates the extent to which our culture views Prozac
and other antidepressants as cures for any illness,
yet it has a strong sense of the truth embedded in it. Clearly antidepressants
were created to treat depression, but now that they have taken on the role
of treating many other illnesses, as well as typical problems such as indigestion,
we view them as a necessary given.
Even for mild forms of the initially targeted depression, which may really just be normal periods of sadness, doctors jump to prescribe drugs. The experience in the psychologist's office can make people feel as if the doctor is more concerned with prescribing this all-inclusive cure than in determining what their problem actually is. One woman accused her psychologist of "urging the antidepressant drug too forcefully on patients without adequate evaluation", claiming that it "took him only fifteen minutes to suggest [she] try Prozac to relieve a 'mild form of depression'" (Breggin, 1994). Having doctors prescribe Prozac to anyone and everyone who comes in with a problem greatly trivializes clinical depression, the serious illness for which the drug was intended.
The frequency with which people are taking antidepressants for every problem they can think of has larger implications than simply making America happy. As the New York Times puts it, "With Millions Taking Prozac, a Legal Drug Culture Arises." Prozac has become America's drug (Rimer, 1993).
