this was the first book i read when i was given the diagnosis of "depression" and i immediately thought, "i am so not depressed!" the book is full of self-loathing and self-indulgence. elizabeth wurtzel is full of herself and attention getting. (and she blames the fact that everyone is depressed on broken homes. what about those of us with happily married parents?)

i wanted to shake her and ask, "but why don't you feel guilty? why are you blaming everyone else? why are you making everyone watch you fall apart?" truthfully, she seems more bi-polar or BPD (at least, major depressive with manic episodes) than strict depression. she's whiny and argumentative. however, those diagnoses are even more "novel" than depression, so.

(ETA: I meant all the statement above as separate - not that the fact I found her whiny and argumentative as evidence for a different diagnosis. I would like to point out though that she WAS later diagnosed with BPD. I was also commenting on the context of the situation I was given the book - depressed? Here's a girl just like you! - which wasn't the case. There is also the point to remember that when this came out, and when I read it, mental health was even poorer and much more highly stigmatized than it is in 2016. We now acknowledge the idea of the functional depressive, and depression has become so common place the word is replacing sadness in our vernacular. This was not the case 10 years ago. So for this book to be the voice of depression, and her willingness (even eagerness) to capitalize on that really made it difficult for me to digest.)

the truth is, too, that the pills helped her. she seems to gloss over that fact, but she was a better, more balanced person on prozac. i can understand not wanting to take your meds, but don't make it sound like it's the fault of the medication.

what can i say? she just pisses me off. (And I don't know, but I just don't see her writing this as a character of depression that we should all be repulsed by - because she isn't. She is largely okay with her behavior, except when it gets in the way of what she wants, usually in relationship terms. Maybe she is a much more talented writer than I am giving her credit for, but as a memoir, I am going with my gut reaction here. I read it, I read her later books. I would be interested to read what she thinks of this book today. But I still can't recommend it.)

(4.75) the introspective and reflective work was absolutely admirable.
more often than not, memoirs fall into the category of "relating the events of my life without adding even the littlest bit of reflection to it and hoping for the best (i.e that people will just find the story of my life interesting)" and i truly am grateful this book strayed from that path, it felt vulnerable of course but also very enlightening and enriching.

My favorite quotes from this are:

"...if you ask anyone in the throes of depression how he got there, to pin down the turning point, he'll never know. There is a classic moment in The Sun Also Rises when someone asks Mike Campbell how he went bankrupt, and all he can say in response is, 'Gradually and then suddenly.' When someone asks how I lost my mind, that is all I can say too." -Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation

"...then one day you realize that your entire life is just awful, not worth living, a horror and a black blot on the white terrain of human existence. One morning you wake up afraid you are going to live." -Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation



--- Coming from someone struggling every day against depression, I really could relate to a lot of what she said, feel her pain, and find hope/strength in the knowledge that I was not alone in my battle, others out there knew what it felt like. Ultimately I hoped to find the "cure" for my depression in that book, that did not happen, but I love the book none the less.

No sé exactamente qué decir de este libro.

¿Está bien escrito? Definitivamente. Creo que es muy interesante la forma en la que describe sus experiencias. Es muy directo y honesto. No esconde absolutamente nada de las cosas que hizo en el pasado y eso hace que sea también muy valiente. Además, me parece muy acertada la forma en la que cuenta los hechos, ya que, el texto está dividido en diferentes partes. Tenemos el texto con letra normal pero tiene algunos apartes en los que principalmente profundiza un poco más en sus sentimientos del momento.

Entonces, ¿qué me pasa con este libro? La verdad es que cuando empecé a leerlo me sentí muy identificada con su experiencia (después ya no). Todo lo que cuenta sobre tener depresión durante mucho tiempo y que esa depresión esté mal diagnosticada es muy real para mí. Esa identificación ha hecho que me cueste mucho más leerlo porque está claro que ella está en un lugar mejor cuando lo está escribiendo. La depresión es como una adicción, a veces es difícil ver que hay gente que ya no batalla con ella la mayoría de días porque tú no sabes qué sería de tu personalidad sin depresión. El momento en el que ella cuenta su experiencia al tomar antidepresivos también me parece muy cercana a mi experiencia porque también tardó bastante tiempo en hacerme algún tipo de efecto.

Me ha parecido todo tan real y cercano que no sé qué sentir.

I can't remember when I've last read a book with a main character that pretentious and annoying. She starts out as this eleven year old prodigy who has already written numerous children's books, thinks she has the world figured out and only listens to music none of her peers would even know about (ha ha). And then she gets depressed. And she stays depressed throughout the whole book. Which is fine, I mean depression is real and hard and whatnot, but man.. The way she tells her story can't be any more obnoxious. She cries like 200 times a day, calls random people in the middle of the night, yells at them that they don't understand what she's going through (nobody could ever be as miserable as she is) and cries some more when her behavior pushes them away. Also, what's up with all the humblebragging ("I'm going to Harvard and despite being so f***ing miserable, I somehow managed to win this prestigious award for my writing, oh boy, I have no idea how that could have happened" is just one example) and the constant literary namedropping? She reads Darwin and Faulkner and whatnot for fun, yeah right. The worst things about this book are the paragraphs she uses to break up the storyline, in which she constantly rambles about depression and death and her thoughts in a pseudo-philosophical way and in an excessively flowery writing style that had me gagging. Eventually I stopped reading those cause I couldn't bear her self-absorption anymore. Good riddance.

This is the first book I ever read. Never read a book in elementary, middle, or high school, but I did read alot of cliffs notes and I saw 'Lord of the Flies' on vhs. VHS! God, I'm getting old.

Anyway... I remember buying this book without anyones recomemdation or reading reviews. I became enthralled with Elizabeth Wurtzel. I felt like she was writing about me. She understood my problems, she understood my pain, and she made the same choices, and really, the same mistakes as me. This book made me understand that it was ok to have a bad day, hell, a bad decade and that no matter how bad you think you have it, there is somebody else out there who has it worse.

This book was the voice of a generation. She conveyed an entire countries fears and shames better than Kurt Cobain or 'She's All That' ever could. She is a brilliant writer, insightful and honest while being witty and kind of a snotty snob.

If you're ever having a bad day, and think it can't get any worse, read this book and it will make your problems seem like nothing at all. Bottom line, this book gave me hope.

I can't believe I never read this classic memoir! So much more than just a brilliant book about depression -- it's also funny, irreverent, satirical and penetrating. Elizabeth Wurtzel reveals as much about spiritual ills as she does about mental illness, poking fun at herself and her generation while also exposing the crass materialism, snobbery, and affectation of her elders and betters as well. I loved this book. It surprised me countless times and even made me laugh out loud!

The thing to keep in mind about this book is that it's a book that punctures myths that certain portions of our society hold very dear. Aging baby boomer feminists like Anna Quindlen must have loathed it, even if they couldn't say so out loud.

I mean, here's this "smart" girl, at a "good" school, carrying on like a trailer park slut -- and offering absolutely no apologies to anyone! And she makes the point, over and over, that wealth, intellect, class, and good taste, mean absolutely nothing when one is in the grip of depression.

Another point is that Harvard is the sacred cow of the American education system, yet in this book you see just how little reason there is for that. I mean, the undergraduate life Wurtzel describes here is like something out of LORD OF THE FLIES. Gang sex, gang drugs, gang alcoholism, and a faculty and administration that really can't give a rolling doughnut.

So much truth!

I came across this novel while searching for quotes for a paper I was writing exploring depression. I found the quote shown below and was floored by it's powerful imagery. With little thought, Amazon was shipping me a copy of this book the next day.

Warning: This is a fairly crude book. There is sex, drugs, a mother-load of F-bombs, and writing that many of the reviews I have read describe as "self-absorbed" and "whiny", but ya know what? It was real. It was so real, so honest, and SO BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN. All things aside, memoirs are not typically my thing, and though I'm sure all cases of depression are different, you really begin to understand the cases like hers. Frankly, feel like you have depression because it is written from a first person point of view and is so emotionally ensnaring, but I thought it was so good. I had to read it with breaks because there is a lot to take in, but I felt that it was an educational review of some of the things those with depression, or from broken families may face.

“I'm the girl who is lost in space, the girl who is disappearing always, forever fading away and receding farther and farther into the background. Just like the Cheshire cat, someday I will suddenly leave, but the artificial warmth of my smile, that phony, clownish curve, the kind you see on miserably sad people and villains in Disney movies, will remain behind as an ironic remnant. I am the girl you see in the photograph from some party someplace or some picnic in the park, the one who is in fact soon to be gone. When you look at the picture again, I want to assure you, I will no longer be there. I will be erased from history, like a traitor in the Soviet Union. Because with every day that goes by, I feel myself becoming more and more invisible...”
― Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation

Like I said, the writing... Stunning.

This book is some heavy reading. I want to say I enjoyed it but that just doesn't seem like the right word. Appreciated it, is better I think. The way Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote this book makes it seem like she is just sitting beside you telling you her story. Her voice is an easy one to read. As someone who struggles with depression everyday, I found myself relating a lot to how Wurtzel described herself feeling. I would recommend this book to people, especially young people, if you have depression. It shines light on the fact that you're not alone, that you aren't crazy, and that what you're feeling isn't something to be ashamed of.


Just a side note, before I started this book I read some of the reviews and I'd just like to address something I saw in a lot of those reviews. Many people called Wurtzel "self-indulgent and whiny." If you've read the book and thought that then you have obviously never been seriously depressed. When you are seriously depressed all you are is self-indulgent and whiny. You're consumed with your depression, all your thoughts are about your depression. You become completely self absorbed and I think Wurtzel is just being brutally honest in her description of depression. I thought that was the best part of the book, how freaking honest it is about a disease that many people aren't comfortable being honest about.

Prieš pradėdama skaityti, žinojau, kad ši knyga yra autobiografinis romanas, o pats pavadinimas sako, kad esminė tema – depresija. Bet kažkodėl tikėjausi visiškai kitokio pasakojimo. Kokia kankinanti knyga! Nuolatinis, iki skausmo erzinantis noras numirti, suicidinės mintys, absoliuti neviltis ir apatija. Jau tokia klampi, tamsi emocija skleidžiama, kad vilties kibirkštėlę net su padidinamuoju stiklu vargu, ar įžiūrėtum.
 
Bet dar beviltiškiau yra suprasti, kad jei jau skaityti apie tokį gyvenimą yra kančia, tai jį iš tikrųjų gyventi yra nepalyginamai sunkiau. Autorė kantriai, detaliai pažindina skaitytoją su savo depresijos vystymusi ir simptomais, o tuo pačiu ir apskritai – su žmonėmis, nes depresija sergančiųjų ne tiek jau ir mažai (tik 3,8% pasaulio populiacijos, remiantis PSO duomenimis).
 
Tačiau čia verta pažiūrėti ir kitą medalio pusę – visiems kartais nesiseka, visiems pasitaiko nerimą keliančių situacijų. Bet tai nereiškia, kad šios tamsesnės akimirkos veda į depresiją. Ir mano manymu, būtent tai yra „Prozako kartos“ pagrindinė mintis.
 
Rekomenduoju mėgstantiems (auto)biografijas, tamsias, klampias istorijas, psichikos sveikatos temą, kultūrinį (literatūrinį, muzikinį, kinematografinį) kontekstą. O dar labiau rekomenduoju tiems, kuriems neteko iš arti susidurti su depresija, ir norintiems sužinoti, kokia gi ji yra iš tikrųjų.

A disappointing read. Elizabeth Wurtzel paints depression in a brush that seems inauthentic to me. At times she attempts to pinpoint the root cause of mental illness, blaming social factors such as the decline of the traditional family form and the general rise of instability in the world. Surely if we all came from homes with married parents, mental illness would seize to exist (sarcasm). It also seems as if Wurtzel is attempting to theorize that depression is largely a Generation X problem.

I have to question certain details of her story. This is a lesser overall problem, but if she came from such a downtrodden family, how was she able to go to a private school in NYC, Harvard, and later jet set to England on a whim? I am not in any way trying to minimize her struggles with mental illness, which I am certain are very real. It just seems that she tends to sensationalize certain aspects of her story for dramatic effect. I have many more problems that I could list with this memoir, but I will conclude by saying that Wurtzel is simply not a very compelling writer (at least not in this instance).

relating to this so deeply made me feel both completely validated and totally INSANE but i am really glad i was able to read her story