Coming of Age on Zoloft

Katherine Sharpe's book, Coming of Age on Zoloft:  How Antidepressants Cheered us up, Let us down, and Changed Who We Are artfully combines memoir, research and interview to explore the impact of depression and its treatment on young adults.  Her focus is on the generation growing up during the 1990s and after, as SSRIs and other psychiatric medications have become readily available.
Sharpe begins with her own story of diagnosis with depression as a student, as well as her realization that many of her peers were also being treated with SSRIs.  She explores the history of medical views of depression, and the development of anti-depressant medications in the latter part of the 20th century.
     Much of the book focuses on the experiences of young adults who have been depressed, and who have taken anti-depressant medications at some point in their lives.  The book includes portions of her interviews, as young adults recount their experiences with depression and medical treatment.  She also explores role of counselling in depression treatment.
     Sharpe focuses on the ways that depression treatments affect the identity and self-perception of young adults.  She notes the struggle that many young adults who have been treated with SSRIs have with forming their identity, and determining how their personalities and life trajectories have been shaped by their use of anti-depressants.  Her viewpoint is balanced, and includes the stories of those who positively view their treatment with anti-depressants, as well as those who have had difficult experiences.  She neither promotes nor judges the use of medication, but allows individual stories to be told.
     Though her attitude towards those who struggle with depression and who use medications is clearly non-judgemental, Sharpe critically analyzes the ways in which the availability with SSRIs have shaped views of mental health in North America.  The final chapters of the book examine the ways in which biomedical models of depression have shaped our understanding of normal emotional patterns and struggle.  She cautions that overdiagnosis and treatment for depression may cause young adults to see their problems as internally caused, rather than critically examining the life challenges in modern North American culture that are stressful and difficult for young adults.
    Sharpe skillfully balances narrative and analysis in her book.  The reader is left challenged to examine their definition of mental health, and how the bio-medical view of depression shapes our view of self.

Purchase Coming of Age on Zoloft: How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are