Mental illness is a storehouse of lost or mislaid human potential. Yet, it often holds within it small creative gifts and large insights into the ways of the world. American psychologist, lecturer and writer, Lauren Slater, suffered from severe depression, eating disorders and self-mutilating behaviour since childhood. But, when she began to take Prozac in 1988 - she was one of the first people in the world to take this anti-depressant drug - she was cured. In this book, she chronicles her journey from madness to health in a lyrical, searching way. Speaking as someone who never knew what it was like to be healthy, she joyfully embraces such simple pleasures as eating an ice cream, yet seriously questions the loss of libido, possible memory deficit and lacklustre creativity which have, for her been side effects of taking Prozac for ten years. She worries about being drug-dependent and her need to increase her Prozac dose over the years. When you consider that six million people worldwide are on the drug, 60 per cent of them women, this very personal account of long term experience of it is an important testament of our times.
