Prozac Nation

Prozac Nation was the first and some say most poingant book by Ms. Wurtzel. It followed her lifelong battle with depression, from birth up through college. Though her parents divorced when she was quite young, she felt the initial sting and loss of her father, and continued to feel abandoned throughout life. From childhood, Liz hid behind the facade of a bright, intelligent and bubbly girl "full of promise." Unbeknownst to her mother and absent father Elizabeth was sufferring mutely, attempting her first overdose as a preteen. From that point on, she reached out to her mother, her psychiatrist, she clung to her boyfriends obsessively and yet nothing was enough to fill the void in her heart and her life. Prozac Nation follows Elizabeth everywhere from sleeping away her time in summercamp, to cutting herself in junior and high school, to attaching herself to her boyfriends in college, and finally the beginning of Elizabeth's Prozac regimen in 1990. Being one of the first Americans to be prescribed to the drug, Elizabeth recounts her fears and hopes, and wishes to be "free of this life on drugs."