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Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America

Book by Elizabeth Wurtzel · 13 quotes · Prozac, Prozac Nation, Depression

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Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America Quotes

“I wonder if any of them can tell from just looking at me that all I am is the sum total of my pain, a raw woundedness so extreme that it might be terminal. It might be terminal velocity, the speed of the sound of a girl falling down to a place from where she can't be retrieved. What if I am stuck down here for good?”

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Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
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“Depression is all about if you loved me you would. As in, if you loved me you would stop doing your schoolwork, stop going out drinking with your friends on a Saturday night, stop accepting starring roles in theater productions, and stop doing everything besides sitting here by my side and passing me Kleenex and aspirin while I lie and creak and cry and drown myself and you in my misery.”

IfsLyingNightSidesAcceptingRolesCrySittingTheaterMiseryDrinkingProductionsPassingPassingsGoing OutSaturdaySaturday NightAspirinSchoolworkKleenex
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
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“Taking a hypersensitive approach to life had come to seem so much more pure and honest then joining the ranks of the numb masses who could let it all slide by. What I stopped realizing was that if you feel everything intensely, ultimately you feel nothing at all. Everything registers at the same decibel.”

IfsFeelsSeemsRealizingHonestPureApproachMassSlidesJoiningNumbRegister
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“And it seemed hard to believe that these people who were so close to me couldn’t see how desperate I was, or if they could they didn’t care enough to do anything about it, or if they cared enough to do anything about it they didn’t believe there was anything they could do, not knowing—or not wanting to know—that their belief might have been the thing that made the difference.”

PeopleIfsKnowsBelieveHas BeensMadeHardEnoughMightCareBeliefDifferencesKnowingDesperateNot KnowingMight Have BeenHard To Believe
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
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“The measure of our mindfulness, the touchstone for sanity in this society, is our level of productivity, our attention to responsibility, our ability to plain and simple hold down a job. If you're still at the point when you're even just barely going through the motions--showing up at work, paying the bills--you are still okay or okay enough. A desire not to acknowledge sadness in ourselves or those close to us--better known these days as denial, is such a strong urge that plenty of people prefer to think that until you are actually flying out of a window, you don't have a problem.”

PeopleIfsThinkingStillsEnoughProblemJobsDesireStrongSimpleAbilityLevelsAttentionResponsibilityKnownSadnessMindfulnessWindowOkayBillsProductivityFlyingPlentyDenialThese DaysAcknowledgeUrgesSanityShowing UpThis SocietyTouchstonesPlain And Simple
Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
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“But day after day of depression, the kind that doesn’t seem to merit carting me off to a hospital but allows me to sit here on this stoop in summer camp as if I were normal, day after day wearing down everybody who gets near me. My behavior seems, somehow, not acute enough for them to know what to do with me, though I’m just enough of a mess to be driving everyone around me crazy.”

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Book:Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America
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