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

A compelling and troubling exploration of a generation raised on antidepressants, and a book that combines expansive interviews with substantive research-based reporting, Coming of Age on Zoloft is a vitally important and immediately engrossing study of one of America’s most pressing and omnipresent issues: our growing reliance on prescription drugs. Katherine Sharpe, the former editor of Seed magazine’s ScienceBlogs.com, addresses the questions that millions of young men and women are struggling with. “Where does my personality end and my prescription begin?” “Do I have a disease?” “Can I get better on my own?” Combining stout scientific acumen with first-person experience gained through her own struggle with antidepressants, Sharpe leads the reader through a complex subject, a guide towards a clearer future for all.

For the first generation that came of age on Zoloft, what does it mean to untangle the self from the prescription?

A Personal Narrative: The author’s candid ten-year journey with antidepressants, from a college diagnosis to the complex decision to try living without them. The History of Antidepressants: A deeply researched look into the “Prozac Revolution,” exploring how drugs like Zoloft and Paxil changed a culture and defined a generation. A Generational Experience: Expansive interviews with dozens of young men and women reveal the shared, yet deeply personal, experience of growing up on psychiatric medication. The Medicalization of Sadness: An investigation into the “chemical imbalance” theory and the cultural forces that blur the line between personality and prescription.