Vanessa finally passed out, as she lay helpless on the bathroom floor with the door locked. She had been diagnosed with depression. Everyone just saw Vanessa as another drop in the bucket of the millions of Americans diagnosed with depression. No one worried because she was receiving therapy. No one ever imagined she would take her life. If only her doctor had prescribed Prozac. Prozac is an antidepressant drug along with Paxil and Zoloft. These drugs could have saved the life of Vanessa, but instead her doctor did not prescribe it because she was simply a depressed teenager. Cosmetic psychopharmacology is a good method of control for people who have behavior problems. These medications can keep the unstable people from harming other or themselves and they can also allow recovery and mental help for the unstable. Also, the medications hold many small truths that make them more appealing.
In a world of "either get ahead or get left behind" it is not acceptable to be dragged down by problems. It does not matter how big or small. Those people with problems need a way to become happy and successful once again. Prozac helps bring out one's true self, their "authentic biological state" (36 Rothman). Psychiatrist Peter Kramer agrees that if someone is on Prozac and they have wonderful characteristics and then they go off the drug and lose those attributes and then complain they do not feel themselves this is evidence that those attributes were representation of that persons" authentic biological state (36 Rothman). Prozac and other antidepressant drugs like it can make a colorless, unforgiving world one that is bright and worth living for. As stated in, Making the Prozac Decision: a Guide to Antidepressants, "The SSRIs are particularly helpful in heading off depression in the early stages, before it comes deeply rooted. Recent studies suggest that SSRIs are ideal for those people with minor depression SSRIs are certainly effective for major depression, too.
