One thing that really grabbed my attention about Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel is how the author puts you in the characters shoes. She made me realize how a depressed person feels. I am very interested in psychology and have read a lot about it but I never really knew how a person felt. A quote that really grabbs my attention is “I have spent so much time trying to convince people that I really am depressed, that I really can't cope--but now that it's finally true, I don't want to admit it. I'm petrified by what is happening to me, so frightened of what the bottom of the well will look like once I sink down there, so frightened that in fact this is it”(p131). This was strong to me because it shows how the author was in desperate need of attention and love by trying to convince people she was sick. Her efforts only led to actually getting depressed. When people are depressed they feel helpless and see the world through a negative perspective, I could really feel how the main character of the story was feeling. If she would have been really sick people around her would have noticed it, she just convinced herself, trying to convince everyone else.
The author also gives us a good sense of the severity of her situation by describing the people around her, and her relationship to them Dr. Sterling is her psychiatrist and the only person trying to help her. The following grabbed me because it shows Dr. Sterling hard work as a good psychiatrist, “Dr. Sterling is the only psychiatrist about whom I can truly say, she saved my life. I think she knew that she probably wasn't going to be paid for all her efforts, but she did what she felt was necessary anyway”(p.135). I one day hope to become a psychiatrist and would love to have the same affect on a patient to know that I care for them and am willing to do whatever it takes to help them. Dr. Sterling relationship to the patient shows how her family doesn’t care about her since her psychiatrist is the closest person she has.
The next quote that grabbed my attention was “And quite amazingly, only a few minutes after I swallow the Mellaril, my tears and all my feelings completely subside. Just like that. Just like magic I am calm, carefree, careless....... After the initial euphoria I experienced with my first dose, a standard regimen Mellarin just dulls everything. Instead of being depressed girl, I'm blank girl”(p.139). As a reader I was surprised at the outcome of the medicine. She seemed to be stuck in a dull world. She just couldn’t smile and enjoy life. I would think that drugs would release serotonin a chemical that produces euphoric feelings. A similar effect is caused by the drug ecstasy. I was actually scared to be a blank girl after reading this story. I think one of the best things about life is being in love, and being able to feel butterflies in your stomach just by hearing a love song or finding gratitude in the small things in life. It would suck to just be stuck in a blank world. The story made me appreciate happiness because I never thought being blank was an option; i though you were either happy or sad, or something in between.
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