{"id":605,"date":"2007-11-21T20:26:50","date_gmt":"2007-11-22T04:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godammit.com\/2007\/11\/21\/the-loss-of-sadness\/"},"modified":"2007-11-21T20:26:50","modified_gmt":"2007-11-22T04:26:50","slug":"the-loss-of-sadness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godammit.com\/the-loss-of-sadness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Loss of Sadness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Loss of Sadness: What a uniquely poignant phrase. A new book<\/a> with that title examines \u2018How psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder.\u2019<\/p>\n

Normal sorrow seems like a hard thing to quantify. Remember how Freud hoped to transform hysterical misery into common unhappiness? Things have changed. Now, our society has little tolerance for common unhappiness. Being unhappy is both a personal shortcoming and a huge source of concern to the World Health Organization, which now projects that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of disability for people in midlife and women of all ages.<\/p>\n

The DMS-IV doesn\u2019t allow for factors such as stress, hardship or socioeconomic class in its checklist for depression. Maybe the DMS-V (due in 2012) will de-pathologize some instances of depression, but that seems doubtful. There was a time when shyness wasn\u2019t considered a treatable illness, but that\u2019s over. Social Anxiety is another pox, defined as such in a brilliant and wide-reaching publicity campaign launched in 2002 by GlaxoSmithKline, makers of Paxil.<\/p>\n

I am a product of Big Pharma\u2019s influence on our culture, specifically, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Effexor has transformed me from an introverted self-loathing misanthrope into an outgoing people-person. Once, I writhed in an agony of self-consciousness in any social gathering. Now, I have to be dragged away from all the new \u2018friends\u2019 I\u2019ve made. Once, I looked around and saw strangers who seemed boring or repellent. Now, I see potential soul-mates. My social confidence is almost sickening.<\/p>\n

What bothers me is that no one knows exactly what happens systemically when you tamper with serotonin. Depressed people and their physicians have been led to think it\u2019s as simple as \u2018the brain needs more serotonin to reduce depression.\u2019 Studies showing conclusively that Proxac causes an increase in both suicidal and violent behavior have been brushed aside until recently. Getting off antidepressants is a well-documented nightmare. So much for the innocent non-addictive medications we thought we were taking. \u201cNo Free Lunch\u201d comes to mind. Also, \u201cShit, what if Wyeth goes out of business?\u201d<\/p>\n

I would like to hear what Freud would say now. Probably something about his mother or his penis. Maybe we need more philosophers who are physicians, or vice versa.<\/p>\n

A society that promotes changing one\u2019s personality to achieve a very limited standard of normal is kind of depressing, but my meds keep me from despairing about it. If the ideal character type is now a cheerful extrovert, fine, but our inability to be reserved or reflective or despondent is bound to have a profound effect on every aspect of our culture. Maybe reality shows are an early warning sign.<\/p>\n

Those of us on antidepressants who have traded our libidos and intestinal functioning for a sunnier disposition would not likely join the argument that depression fuels creativity. But I believe it does involve a certain pessimistic clarity that we forfeit as part of the deal. Studies suggest that optimists are actually less able to perceive things realistically than pessimists. For many of us, though, the clarity is unbearable. One psychiatrist I met compared it to an allergy; reality was the pollen.<\/p>\n

Among my friends and loved ones are people with difficulties they haven\u2019t chosen to medicate\u2026yet. For the most part, I salute them for being able to stand themselves. And for holding out when they could be calmer, perkier, or more even-tempered. Perhaps they just aren\u2019t sad enough to seek relief. The best way I can communicate my own process on Effexor is this: I still feel kind of hopeless, but I just don\u2019t care that I do.<\/p>\n

The pharmaceutical \u00a0 companies are probably working around the clock to perfect a drug that creates a sense of detachment, at the same time producing an insatiable urge for consumer goods. (As I type this, I realize that I\u2019ve just described TV!) Okay, then maybe we need a drug that allows the perfect interface for sadness, allowing us to cry at \u201cForrest Gump\u201d and funerals and stories about abused dogs, but filtering out any deeper sense of existential discomfort.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019d like is to alleviate my worry that I\u2019ve become the person I used to hate at cocktail parties.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"