Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America

Elizabeth Wurtzel

Nov 2014 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Elizabeth Wurtzel's New York Times best-selling memoir, with a new afterword

"Sparkling, luminescent prose . . . A powerful portrait of one girl's journey through the purgatory of depression and back." —New York Times

"A book that became a cultural touchstone." —New Yorker

Elizabeth Wurtzel writes with her finger on the faint pulse of an overdiagnosed generation whose ruling icons are Kurt Cobain, Xanax, and pierced tongues. Her famous memoir of her bouts with depression and skirmishes with drugs, Prozac Nation is a witty and sharp account of the psychopharmacology of an era for readers of Girl, Interrupted and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.

Ratings and reviews

A book about being "cool," not about being sick. If you know what bipolar disorder, OCD, grief, PTSD, and Major Depressive Disorder really do to sufferers, you won't even consider wasting precious time on this hardcore Tiger Beat spoiled-princess Dear Diary Letter to Oneself. It was and is just a mass media money grab.

I will be honest here: it took me a bit longer than I expected to finish this book but I must say I liked it. As someone else mentioned in their review , the author tends to use big words quite a bit. With that said, I really identified with her experience with depression. At a time when I felt very low and alone where I felt like I couldn't express what it was that I was going through this book right here was the answer. As I read her struggles with depression I immediately saw myself having felt the same. She basically put into words my thoughts and how I felt. It took me a bit to finish it , maybe it was that I could really identify that kept me away (not really maybe partially) or it felt like someone complaining and being annoying by talking about her problems. In the middle some parts were a bit of a drag to read but I really enjoyed when it got to the parts where she would describe her experience and feelings . Some even me might say it's just her whining about her life but that's a bit how depression is. At some points you found yourself just laying down feeling hopeless and thinking so much about your feelings and problems. Your mind is swarmed with rapidly flowing thoughts at random rates that it's exhausting. The epilogue was my favorite and what got me hooked . The first few sentences. She talks about her family issues , relationships , and drug use as well as her suicide attempts. She's very candid about them especially at a time when mental illness wasn't really considered a real medical problem. It's not for everyone - there are parts that take a downward spiral but if you manage to get through them and finish the darn thing you'll get a good insight into who she is and how depression can wreck havoc in someone's life. I suggest try the sample and going from there. Enjoy and good luck :)

This book/memoir helped save my life by letting me know I wasn't alone. I suppose everyone gets something different from it but the point is to take something from it. To learn something about yourself or someone you know. Even the movie adaptation was good. I highly recommend it. One other thing I'd like to add: May Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel finally rest painlessly & peacefully now. No, I never met her but, Its heartbreaking to lose someone so talented and relatable to so many of us. She still had a lot of living to do and cancer stole that from her! I usually use 4 letter words to describe how I feel about this, but just in case kids are reading, I'll just say "SCREW CANCER!! It seems to always take the best people from us. You were one of the best, Elizabeth. We love you.

About the author

ELIZABETH WURTZEL (1967-2020) was the author of best-selling books including Prozac Nation,Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women, and More, Now, Again. A Harvard and Yale Law School graduate, her work appeared in such publications as The New Yorker,New York, the Guardian, and the Oxford American.