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A review by sde
Coming of Age on Zoloft: How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are by Katherine Sharpe
3.0
I heard about this book through a starred review in a professional library journal. Although I found the book interesting, it was not quite what I expected. I thought it was going to delve more deeply into what it means for a child's development and personality to be on drugs like Zoloft during the important and formative years of adolescence, and in turn, what it means for society that so many children are on these drugs during these years. Although the book did touch on all of these issues, it was more of a study of individuals - how and why they were on these drugs and whether they felt good or bad about it.
I appreciated the fact that the book wasn't just a tirade against drug companies. The author acknowledges the fact that these drugs are a big help to many people that might otherwise not be able to fully function in society. She touches on the question of when is a drug needed and when will time take care of a problem, but she doesn't explore it enough. I felt like she mingled people with serious problems like debilitating depression and OCD and those with less serious depression or anxiety over specific situations too much. Her questions and concerns would have been clearer if she addressed those groups of people in separate chapters.
I very much like the last chapter or two in the book where she starts to fully ask questions such as "Are we pathologizing normal feelings?" and "Why are so many more Americans on anti-depressants than Europeans?" and "Could the nature of our society be as much of a cause of depression as chemical imbalances." I wish she had started talking about these sorts of questions sooner and the book had explored those sorts of questions more.
I appreciated the fact that the book wasn't just a tirade against drug companies. The author acknowledges the fact that these drugs are a big help to many people that might otherwise not be able to fully function in society. She touches on the question of when is a drug needed and when will time take care of a problem, but she doesn't explore it enough. I felt like she mingled people with serious problems like debilitating depression and OCD and those with less serious depression or anxiety over specific situations too much. Her questions and concerns would have been clearer if she addressed those groups of people in separate chapters.
I very much like the last chapter or two in the book where she starts to fully ask questions such as "Are we pathologizing normal feelings?" and "Why are so many more Americans on anti-depressants than Europeans?" and "Could the nature of our society be as much of a cause of depression as chemical imbalances." I wish she had started talking about these sorts of questions sooner and the book had explored those sorts of questions more.