The Asian Economist

In the twentieth century, a disease known as depression became widespread. It was in households all across the nation. This epidemic lead researchers to come up with drugs they called “anti-depressants.” They not only made people “anti” depressed, they also altered personalities. Is society better off or worse off with these mood-altering drugs? What differentiates it from other street drugs? How would it affect art and creativity?

Anti-depressants really have no place in this world. More and more people are diagnosed “depressed” and placed on medications such as Prozac, Zoloft, etc., and all those on them believe that it is what they need. They sincerely believe that without their daily dose they cannot function as themselves. In the Makeover article by Peter Kramer, he wrote that one of his patients, Tess, came to him after being off Prozac for about eight months, she said to him that she felt “not myself “ (19). He immediately prescribed her more anti-depressants so she could be “herself” again. But who exactly is Tess if not the person who is on drugs? Who was she the twenty or so years before she was even prescribed the medication? Questions like these arise, and the ethnics of anti-depressants are gravely inquired upon.

The fear of drugs taking over this nation is an all too common fear. What separates anti-depressants from drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, or heroine? Is it the legality? Anti-depressants are made in government-approved labs regulated by the FDA whereas these street drugs are not regulated. Drug addicts claim that they are not themselves without their drug of choice, what difference is that to someone who is “not himself or herself” without Prozac? This almost pleasure seeking is well on the road of addiction (Veenhoven, 439). One little pill “could do in a matter of days what psychiatrists hope, and often fail, to accomplish by other means over a course of years (Makeover 21).” Why would anyone take the long road of self-discovery and finding happiness when it can be done in one pill once a day?

The goal of anti-depressants is to enhance creativity and make people more productive. Depressed people tend to mope around and do nothing. Happy people, on the other hand, really have no complaints. Things are going well, there is nothing to worry about. If people were all happy then Marxism would never have come about. Karl Marx, if placed on Prozac, would have waited for capitalism to “work out its kinks” and sat back and waited and waited and waited and waited and nothing would have happened (cartoon). Happy people are more productive but when there is no complaint then there is nothing worth to be done.

Drug users lose their personality and take on another, no matter if you are on cocaine or Prozac. Anti-depressants are not something to toy with. Doctors, too often, prescribe medication without a second thought. They ask the patient certain symptoms related to depression (absence of hope, loss/gain of sleep and appetite, guilt, poor memory and concentration (Makeover, 3)) and if the patient shows any of these common symptoms then a prescription is immediately written out for some form of anti-depressant, or a free sample is dispensed. What needs to be done is not more pill popping, but rather a deeper understanding of human needs.