Prozac Diary

Rating:
Summary: Eye-opening and disturbing!
Review: After suffering from severe depression for over a decade, Lauren Slater begins to take Prozac. In this disturbing and dark memoir, Lauren chronicles her life as it begins to take some unexpected turns. Without the feelings of worthlessness to shelter and protect her, Lauren is exposed to the harsh realities surrounding her as she embarks on a journey to self-discovery.

This is one of the most poignant memoirs I have read in a long time. I loved Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel, but I think Slater's views on depression are more insightful and realistic. It illustrates the complex factors of this illness in an eye-opening way. This book should be read from cover to cover. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Caveat
Review: As a fellow depressive, I agree with a lot of things Lauren Slater writes about depression, and especially with her feelings of loss of creativity whilst taking medication. I experienced the same thing. I've given the book three stars because I found her writing oddly flat; and even with Prozac as a reason for this, I still found it an uninspiring read- unlike Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation, which was so well written I could hardly read more than 10 pages at a time without having to go and do something to cheer myself up. Still, some good points are made in this book, and I wouldn't _not_ recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Much Better than Prozac Nation
Review: I am not surprised that someone would compare PROZAC NATION to PROZAC DIARY. They are both autobiographical books about women dealing with severe mental problems, problems that were helped by Prozac. When Prozac was prescribed for me, I decided to read every book with the word 'Prozac' in the title, starting with LISTENING TO PROZAC and PROZAC NATION.

I'm amazed that a previous reviewer praised PROZAC NATION over this book. I'd probably give NATION a 2 or 3 stars at best, I found the author of NATION, irritating, repetitive, boring and presumptious.
I think Slater (the author of PROZAC DIARY) is a much, much better writer. True, she uses a lot of metaphors and poetic language but, for me, that language worked. I have no symptoms of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) which plagued Slater, yet I could really empathize with her. The author of NATION lost my sympathy at about the fifth or sixth whining diatribe on what her parents did to her. Or maybe it was when she slept with her friend's boyfriend (that's a sore spot with me!).
Slater's language is so moving, that I wondered what this book would have been if she hadn't lost some of her creativity to Prozac. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: an interesting book carried by her strong writing
Review: I have read reviews that call this a great book and I think that's a bit of an overstatement but it is worthwhile as an honest and very well-written account of everything they don't tell you about Prozac in those magazine ads. Slater did write a great book, her first one, "Welcome to My Country," and this follow-up seems a calculated attempt to capitalize on the first bit of acclaim she won with something sexy like Prozac. Still, she can pull it off because she has so much insight and writes so well.

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad
Review: Interesting account of woman's transcendence from self-loathing to success. Not as good as Prozac Nation though.

Rating:
Summary: A different view, but not for everyone...
Review: Last night, I finished the book Prozac Diary by Lauren Slater. Since I started taking fluoxetine (generic form of Prozac) a few months ago for dysthymia, I figured it would be interesting to read of some experiences of others who have used the drug.

Slater was one of the first to start using Prozac in 1988 and talks about her 10 year "relationship" with the drug. She had some serious mental disturbances, and taking Prozac was yet another attempt to deal with them. She chronicles the changes in her personality, the highs and lows of those changes, and how she dealt with the effect called "Prozac poop-out" when the drug ceases to work after an extended period of time. On the positive side, she went on to become an accomplished psychologist after being a drifter for the first part of her life. On the down side, she still struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCP) and feels that in some ways the Prozac has suppressed a number of internal parts of her personality.

For me, I couldn't relate to much of what the author wrote. For one, there's a vast difference between low-level depression (dysthymia) and OCP/self-mutilation. I could go back to my "old" self and function ok. I just don't want to... :-) She can't. Also, her style of writing is very "artistic" for lack of a better term. Readers who are in touch with emotional writing will relate, but those looking for a clinical examination and discussion won't find it here. If you look deep enough, you can see some themes that might make sense (Prozac as a personality/intellectual "steroid"), but for me the writing gets in the way of that.

If you struggle with Prozac, this might be a good read for you in order to get a different viewpoint. Just don't judge all Prozac users by this book.

Rating:
Summary: effective, honest, scary
Review: Lauren Slater's 1999 memoir Prozac Diary is a worthy addition to the "women and madness" genre or for the millions currently taking antidepressants. What makes Slater's book a standout, though, is that it's the experience of one of the first people to use Prozac for depression. Slater writes her diary ten years after she first started taking the drug regularly in 1988, so we get to read of the long-term affects of daily dosing and how the drug changed her life over time. What was most interesting about Slater's story is how she had to learn to live life as a no-longer-depressed person. Her entire life, depression and its consequences dominated her life, gave her life meaning and routine, and defined who she was. When the "Zac" started working, she struggled to develop a new sense of herself, separate and apart from the depressed Lauren.

For me, the problem was that there wasn't enough experience there; something felt missing from the story. Perhaps it was the editor's fault. Or maybe my expectations were incorrect from the start. Slater's history is briefly given: lifelong struggles with depression and other forms of mental illness, a history of hospitalizations and attempts at various therapies, none of which were successful until Prozac in 1988. Perhaps I wanted to know more or I wanted the story to be told in a different style. I can't put my finger on it, but for this reader there was just something missing. Slater's writing style is poetic, but it was sometimes a distraction.

I highly recommend the book to those interested in antidepressants for any reason, whether it's history of Prozac's rise to prominence (what some call the aspirin of our age), how it affects people over the short and long-term, or simple voyeurism into the mind and life of someone classified as mentally ill. Lauren Slater truly benefited from this drug, and while many people think Prozac is tossed around too freely these days, she is an excellent example of whom this drug was originally developed for. It's staggering and sad to think how many lives could have been saved if we'd had this drug fifty years ago.

Prozac Diary is a slim read that can be devoured in one day by the voracious reader. Definitely worth the time for those of us living in this Age of Anxiety.

Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Addition To The Genre
Review: Lauren Slater's 1999 memoir Prozac Diary is a worthy addition to the "women and madness" genre or for the millions currently taking antidepressants. What makes Slater's book a standout, though, is that it's the experience of one of the first people to use Prozac for depression. Slater writes her diary ten years after she first started taking the drug regularly in 1988, so we get to read of the long-term affects of daily dosing and how the drug changed her life over time. What was most interesting about Slater's story is how she had to learn to live life as a no-longer-depressed person. Her entire life, depression and its consequences dominated her life, gave her life meaning and routine, and defined who she was. When the "Zac" started working, she struggled to develop a new sense of herself, separate and apart from the depressed Lauren.

For me, the problem was that there wasn't enough experience there; something felt missing from the story. Perhaps it was the editor's fault. Or maybe my expectations were incorrect from the start. Slater's history is briefly given: lifelong struggles with depression and other forms of mental illness, a history of hospitalizations and attempts at various therapies, none of which were successful until Prozac in 1988. Perhaps I wanted to know more or I wanted the story to be told in a different style. I can't put my finger on it, but for this reader there was just something missing. Slater's writing style is poetic, but it was sometimes a distraction.

I highly recommend the book to those interested in antidepressants for any reason, whether it's history of Prozac's rise to prominence (what some call the aspirin of our age), how it affects people over the short and long-term, or simple voyeurism into the mind and life of someone classified as mentally ill. Lauren Slater truly benefited from this drug, and while many people think Prozac is tossed around too freely these days, she is an excellent example of whom this drug was originally developed for. It's staggering and sad to think how many lives could have been saved if we'd had this drug fifty years ago.

Prozac Diary is a slim read that can be devoured in one day by the voracious reader. Definitely worth the time for those of us living in this Age of Anxiety.

Rating:
Summary: A Story of Cure
Review: Lauren Slater's memoir begins with her recounting a drive up to McLean Hospital. She is going there to see a psychiatrist in a last-ditch effort to find a medication which would relieve her of a myriad of symptoms, including depression, suicide attempts, self-mutilation, anorexia, anxiety, disassociative illnesses, and most recently, obsessive-compulsive disorder. She elucidates for us the fear she felt when she returned home and was confronted with a small green-and-white capsule which would supposedly correct whatever sinaptical imbalance existed in her brain.

Miraculously, she is able to tell us a story of how one day she woke up and simply felt happy to be alive, no longer caring about her obsessions and calorie-counting, no longer wanting to live with the mundane routine of illness. She tells us of emerging at the age of twenty-six from a basement apartment, unemployment, and most of all an unfeeling, friendless existence, which she had spent most of her life in.

Slater gives us a few glimpses, but never a full-fledged portrait of what her illness was like. By the end of the story, I was unsure whether she had spent her last years of childhood in foster-care and/or if her parents had divorced. She is a very good writer and is able to draw you into her life as she begins to make friends, go to graduate school, and just have fun for the first time in her life. However, Slater warns us that her life is not "A Rose Garden". She recounts for us a period of time in which her miracle pill stopped working (The Prozac Poop-out), as well as her chronic disinterest in sex and curiously lapsing memory. Ultimately, it is the story of what it means to be cured by something you cannot fully understand (the Prozac), while trying to find the willpower to press on and find an identity outside of one's ailments, and be a part of your own recovery.

I liked this book because it, unlike many mental illness memoirs, did not focus on the illness but on the recovery. At times though, it did seem a bit dull to hear about Slater's various enlightening experiences as she rejoined life. There are also very few developed characters other than Slater herself. I think the book would have been more powerful if Slater had given us a chronicle of her illness so the reader could see what she was recovering from. However, that would have defeated the purpose of its being about cure. Overall, this is an optimistic book and a very important resource for anyone who is struggling with depression or considering taking a psychotropic drug.

Rating:
Summary: Truly one of my favorite books
Review: Prozac Diary is more than another book about antidepressants; it chronicles one woman's journey to accept herself, her past, her illness and its treatment. For those who haven't experienced this, the book will probably be boring. For those who have, it's like finding a friend.