Peter D. Kramer: Prozac Nation?

I've read all of Kramer and Barber's books. Last week I saw a repeat of Barber's talk on Book TV. He is extremely fair-minded and took questions challenging his view points very respectfully and acknowledging their merits. He has many valid concerns and does not repudiate medication but contrasts severe mental illness with going through inevitable hard times and bad feelings we should experience as humans. He makes positive suggestions about motivational interviewing and other non-pharmaceutical interventions. I suffer from severe depression and take medication (over 20 different combos over the years) and try many other things. I never felt that Barber was doing depressives a disservice by pointing out that they've found trace elements of Prozac in water streams in the West. He does distinugish mental illness from life's ups and downs and says, like Kramer, medication should be used when appropriate. There is danger in numbing folks who do not have a mental illness. Sometimes legitmate (non-brain-diseased) bad emotions motivate us to make positive changes, champion others, etc. I am surprised by how much Barber is maligned here.

Anonymous (3/14, 9:46 p.m.):

Did you read Barber's chat on washingtonpost.com after his original op-ed about his book? He was VERY dismissive of people with depression ...

i found that in trying to deal with the realities of life day to day it became so "close" i could no longer see the trees and the forest was overwhelming me..i was deaf and disappeared from the society that perceives itself so valuable as to always have to have a phone in their ear..i admit i was jealous i wanted to be able to do that and there's no way stuck and no way to call for help a taxi, police etc even AAA and all thhis builds up over time and no one really ever understood and then i had a medication reaction thatcreated noise music and voices in my head and deprived me of sleep in the end stages and reduced it to 15 minute catnaps for several years and there was no rhyme or reason to the noise and no way to shut it down..it took eight years for a doctor to look at me and really listen to what i was telling him and at that point i was ready to die from the forest encroaching on me he listened and picked it up popped me into the hospital and took the meds away and the noise diaappeared..how many other labeled "crazy" people out therre are having these reactions especially the elderly??? the prozac has "distanced" me from all this and beig deaf hs always been a fact of life but then it is my life and it has been well lived when i get far enough from it and the daily problems to appreciate what i have done in 61 years of living prozac was a blessing and continues to be and that is how i see it mary

I know that anger is not my best quality, but every once in a while I get pretty darned righteously indignant. There is/are a wide range of treatment options for depression or bi-polar disorder but to dismiss medication out of hand is suicide and I mean that literally. My fury at this well-meaning group who think we just need to get over it abates when I think of their ignorance. What they don't know can hurt me, however. So when I read/hear a new theory, I want to shout, 'Enough!' Basta!

My brother's successful suicide came as a direct result of his having gone off his meds. I can't bring him back and I can't find it in my heart to be kind and loving toward those who would suggest that he could've done it if he'd just had enough faith.

I'm not sad at the moment I'm p'ssed. I want to believe that I can take herbs and supplements and meditate and exercise and pray and it will all go away - but fortunately God gave me a brain and I know there's more to it than that. So, I'll stay the course and applaud those who recognize that God gave us medication as well as miracles. We can all use some great self-help advice from time to time. It will polish some of the rough spots but it won't turn a nightmare into sweet dreams.
Frank,