The Symptoms We See In Elizabeth's Life

What are the symptoms we see in Elizabeth’s life that are concerning? As Elizabeth’s depression progresses her symptoms seem to range from one extreme to another. At the beginning of her college career she turns to the party scene, and starts to heavily abuse drugs and alcohol, and has emotionally unattached promiscuous sex. She ignores the underlying problems, and turns to various coping mechanisms, such as the drugs and alcohol. Additionally, she turns writing into a coping mechanism, and becomes so obsessed with perfect writing, than she literally loses herself, and goes sleepless. The above symptoms become so extreme that her friends check her into the hospital where she begins to outlandishly deny any problems existing in her life. In
her route to recovery, she has a full swing of emotional extremes. Instead of writing constantly, she stops writing, and she commits herself to a relationship where she becomes emotionally obsessive.
What was she referring to when she said: Sometimes it feels like we're all living in a Prozac nation.
The United States of Depression. At the end of the movie, she stands outside of the pharmacy and watches the continuous flow of people pouring in and out of the drug store and makes reference to the actual statistic of how many Americans are on anti-depressants. According to Elizabeth, we have become a “Prozac nation,” a nation where so many are depended on medication to live supposedly normal lives.
Was her portrayal of depression accurate when she said: Hemingway has his classic moment in "The Sun Also Rises" when someone asks Mike Campbell how he went bankrupt. All he can say is, "Gradually, then suddenly." That's how depression hits. You wake up one morning, afraid that you're gonna live. Depression hits people in different ways, and can largely depend on what circumstances brought out the depression. For some, an unexpected tragedy may launch them into a full-scale depression, and they find themselves unable to get out of it. In general though, depression does not tend to come out of nowhere. It seems to be a gradual weakening of one’s ability to carry on, and then finally, one day the lowest low hits, and suddenly depression
hits.
When talking about the article she wrote in Seventeen Magazine about her parents’ divorce, she said: It was just wish fulfillment. I was writing about how I wanted things to be. And the way people talking about it, the way you talked about it, it made it seem real. How did this wish fulfillment block her ability to change? Elizabeth’s wish fulfillment and the reinforcement perpetrated by those around her allowed her to believe that things were okay, when in reality, everything was far from okay. Although she acted like everything was okay, part of her knew she was still deeply damaged. Consequently, instead of addressing the underlying issues, she turned to extreme behaviors that left her far more damaged.
Elizabeth describes Prozac as giving her the space she needed to see things differently. What did she mean by that? Taking Prozac does not change the circumstances of your life, nor does it exactly make them better. Instead, it allows a person who has a lot on their plate to just breathe, and take a step back from the turmoil of their life. Sometimes, all a person needs is to take a step back, breathe, and then tackle their problems. It’s already hard enough to climb uphill, but it becomes even more difficult when you can’t breathe.