Sedation of the Black Dog
(or Thoughts on Prozac)
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Like many people in this world of ours, I hold a prescription for Prozac. I prefer to think of it not as an antidepressant but as a sedative. For it sedates the part of the mind that Winston Churchill so accurately tagged as "the black dog." This black dog being sedated, one can function as a normal, happy human being. But if one does not regularly administer the "sedative" to the black dog, it will spring back to life within a few days, putting the person back where they started. In those few days that are the physiological equivalent to the proverbial calm before the storm, one feels an impending sense of shame that they cannot function as a normal, happy person without having to sedate a part of themselves. It is a very difficult choice to make: to function or to feel?
-30-
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(or Thoughts on Prozac)
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Like many people in this world of ours, I hold a prescription for Prozac. I prefer to think of it not as an antidepressant but as a sedative. For it sedates the part of the mind that Winston Churchill so accurately tagged as "the black dog." This black dog being sedated, one can function as a normal, happy human being. But if one does not regularly administer the "sedative" to the black dog, it will spring back to life within a few days, putting the person back where they started. In those few days that are the physiological equivalent to the proverbial calm before the storm, one feels an impending sense of shame that they cannot function as a normal, happy person without having to sedate a part of themselves. It is a very difficult choice to make: to function or to feel?
-30-
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