Letters to the Editor

On taking depression seriously

After reading two instances in the 'Prince' where people have referred to Prozac as a "happy pill" and depression as another case of the blues or of boredom with your life, of not thinking enough, of thinking too much, I felt that I had to try and at least clear up some of these misconceptions.

It's a source of endless frustration to me to see people treat clinical depression lightly: "Oh, just take some Prozac and you'll be fine." Clinical depression (a terrible label, actually, as it just sounds like an extended period of the blues) is not just an extended period of the blues. It is a serious mental illness that can affect every part of a person's life. It's more than not being able to get up to eat or shower because you don't have the energy for it. You have no motivation to do anything, because your life feels like this black void, where nothing can go right, and even the little things, like getting dressed in the morning, are a big hurdle.

When you are in this black void, all you can do is try to get help and then wait out the storm and believe those people who say it will get better because this is not what life is supposed to be like. And some depressed people can't wait that out; sometimes trying not to listen to the dark black thoughts raging in your head becomes too hard. Fifteen percent of depressed people commit suicide because they can't bear the darkness anymore.

So depression should not be treated lightly. Neither should antidepressants. Prozac is not a "happy pill," as some people would like to claim. Prozac is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which basically means that it affects the levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter, in the brain. People without clinical depression have normal levels of serotonin, so Prozac cannot physically have any "happy" effect on them. For depressed people, Prozac does not translate to happiness right away, either. What it can mean is regaining some of the lost energy, losing some of the hopeless listlessness, so that you can begin to work towards happiness again.

Why people persist in making fun of depression still confuses me. I mean, I believe a sense of humor is as important as all the other senses, but the last time I checked, the brain was a part of the body. And depression is an illness that affects the brain. I never hear of people mocking diabetics for taking insulin. So what's the difference with people with clinical depression taking antidepressants?

I do not mean to lecture people, but hopefully to educate a bit. I didn't understand what depression was until this year, until I saw a close friend going through it. I didn't begin to understand until I was visiting her in McCosh, where another friend had brought her so she couldn't kill herself. I didn't really understand until I was in McCosh a few months later, for the same reason.

I know it's hard for people who haven't seen this themselves to understand, but they can at least try to educate themselves about this potentially fatal illness. Name withheld upon request