The Wake

Have you ever been unhappy? Have you ever felt depressed? Have you ever thought about talking to a doctor about it? Chances are you answered yes to the first two questions. The third question, however, is something many people from our generation ponder. When did it become normal to take a pill for mental health? Do these pills actually help your mental health? Are we too quick to take the easy road by popping a pill as opposed to taking a look at the relationships in our lives, or lack there of?

From 1998 to 2002, sales of antidepressants increased by 73 percent to more than $12 million. A definite myth exists in our culture: sadness and depression are not normal feelings and, are in fact, a chemical imbalance in your brain and can be taken care of with medication. In an article published on September 28, 2003 in the New York Daily News, Dr. Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine says, “Following the relaxation of a 30-year drug marketing agreement in 1997, pharmaceutical companies have tripled their annual advertising to consumers, resulting in a 37 percent increase in sales of prescription stimulants for children.” In fact, American consumers, mostly children, account for more than 90 percent of global consumption of such stimulants. “If we have four or five times the learning disability or depression or other neurotic illnesses that the Europeans do,” Caplan says, “then either we got a really bad gene pool through immigration or we’re overmedicating.”

How can you tell me that this is about a natural chemical imbalance in our brains? Consumption everywhere else in the world isn’t nearly as high as America’s. I’m not saying that every case of depression doesn’t require medication. I realize severe cases of depression may require it. When, however, you see a Zoloft commercial with a little white pill looking like it wants to splatter its brains all over the wall every time you turn your television on, you subconsciously start to believe that you’re feelings aren’t normal. That little pill you see advertised is your key to happiness. You start to dwell on your bad feelings and disregard so much of the things you have to be thankful for. You should be looking at the relationships in your life and open up the communication with loved ones.

I had never really thought about the issue until I saw the film Garden State. It’s brilliant. A boy named Andrew Largeman, played by Zach Braff who wrote and directed the movie, is twenty-something years old and feels emotionally detached from the world. He has been on a concoction of antidepressants as far back as he can remember. He meets a girl named Sam, played by Natalie Portman, who is free-spirited and takes Andrew on an emotional ride toward a hopeful future. Through Sam, he finds feeling, which is something he has lacked his entire life.

The overmedication in our society is a problem and sadly appears to be mostly about money. Do drug companies really care about the well-being of our generation? I don’t believe so. This is one hell of a dangerous myth, and is out of control in American culture. The lack of communication in important relationships, especially paternal ones, is one of the main causes of depression. So I ask you to be supportive of the people in your life whom you care about. Pills aren’t always the answer.

Michael G. Myers’s last editorial for The Wake, “A Foreshadow Into The History Books,” appeared in the December 1, 2004 issue. He welcomes comments at office@wakenews.org.