Cultural references to Prozac, etc., in the '90s and '00s
January 5, 2011 12:52 PM Subscribe
A job for the hive mind: I'm looking for cultural references to antidepressants and other psychoactive drugs (Ritalin, Adderall, etc) from the '90s and '00s: stuff along the lines of Tony Soprano using Prozac in The Sopranos.
This is for a thing I'm writing, in which I'm trying to document the growth of our national obsession with psych medication during this time period. Songs, TV shows, New Yorker cartoons (though I've already got Roz Chast's "If They Had Prozac in the 19th Century," it's a gem)—all fair game. Any suggestions are most appreciated!
This is for a thing I'm writing, in which I'm trying to document the growth of our national obsession with psych medication during this time period. Songs, TV shows, New Yorker cartoons (though I've already got Roz Chast's "If They Had Prozac in the 19th Century," it's a gem)—all fair game. Any suggestions are most appreciated!
Response by poster: Thanks. Any books that are directly about antidepressants, I probably already have. Though I'd be interested in something I might've missed, like a character using antidepressants in a novel.
posted by toomuchkatherine at 1:00 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by toomuchkatherine at 1:00 PM on January 5, 2011
There's a Simpsons where Bart (or maybe Milhouse) is on Ritalin. Likely in the 1990s.
posted by neuron at 1:06 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by neuron at 1:06 PM on January 5, 2011
Ritalin use is referred to in Green Day's American Idiot. Focusin, as featured in the Simpsons, is pretty clearly Ritalin or Adderal.
posted by norm at 1:07 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by norm at 1:07 PM on January 5, 2011
Henry Rollins' spoken word performances from that time often touched on his prescriptions for Ritalin as a kid.
Tom Cruise railed against Ritalin in the famous "you're glib" interview on the Today Show.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:15 PM on January 5, 2011
Tom Cruise railed against Ritalin in the famous "you're glib" interview on the Today Show.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:15 PM on January 5, 2011
IMDB keyword searches might be useful start: Find movies/tv shows that have been assigned relevant keywords: prozac, ritalin, anti-depressant, etc... Finds movies, TV series, and individual episodes.
posted by ManInSuit at 1:15 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by ManInSuit at 1:15 PM on January 5, 2011
Pilot episode of the Brady Bunch:
Carol (to Mike, on phone): Why don't you take a tranquilizer?
Mike: Already took one.
posted by Melismata at 1:15 PM on January 5, 2011
Carol (to Mike, on phone): Why don't you take a tranquilizer?
Mike: Already took one.
posted by Melismata at 1:15 PM on January 5, 2011
The movie Brain Candy was basically entirely about this.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:16 PM on January 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by burnmp3s at 1:16 PM on January 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
That exact Simpsons episode is "Brother's Little Helper", which aired in 1999.
The main character in Garden State (2004) reveals his father had him on mood stabilizers for years, and he's just recently stopped taking them.
posted by castlebravo at 1:17 PM on January 5, 2011
The main character in Garden State (2004) reveals his father had him on mood stabilizers for years, and he's just recently stopped taking them.
posted by castlebravo at 1:17 PM on January 5, 2011
"I'm trying to document the growth of our national obsession with psych medication during this time period"
this?
posted by ManInSuit at 1:24 PM on January 5, 2011
this?
posted by ManInSuit at 1:24 PM on January 5, 2011
Besides the Simpsons episode where Bart goes on Focusin, there's another one (The Good, The Sad & The Drugly) where Lisa gets put on an anti-depressant. Every bad thing she sees has a smiley face on it!
posted by onceisnotenough at 1:26 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by onceisnotenough at 1:26 PM on January 5, 2011
Although I gather your question/research is U.S.-centric, Bernard Sumner of New Order/Electronic/Bad Lieutenant took part in a BBC documentary called Prozac Diaries in which he discusses the drug's effect on his creativity.
posted by mykescipark at 1:28 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by mykescipark at 1:28 PM on January 5, 2011
A song by Reckless Kelly called "Wiggles & Ritalin" takes on the overmedicating of kids and whether it turns them in habitual user escapists.
posted by pineapple at 1:35 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by pineapple at 1:35 PM on January 5, 2011
The movie "Garden State" features anti-depressants, if you're looking for something on the totally-unrealistic end of the spectrum. The character Mirabelle is (more realistically) on anti-depressants in the book "Shopgirl," and I think the film too.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:36 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:36 PM on January 5, 2011
There is much talk of antidepressants in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. A character named Kate Gompert attempts suicide: "On Prozac for a short time, then Zoloft, most recently Parnate with a lithium kicker."
End note 69: "69 NA = Narcotics Anonymous; CA = Cocaine Anonymous. In some cities there are also Psychedelics Anonymous, Nicotine Anonymous (also, confusingly, called NA), Designer Drugs Anonymous, Steroids Anonymous, even (especially in and around Manhattan) something called Prozac Anonymous. In none of these Anonymous fellowships anywhere is it possible to avoid confronting the God stuff, eventually."
End note 273: "S.S.R.I.s, of which Zoloft and the ill-fated Prozac were the ancestors."
posted by mattbucher at 1:39 PM on January 5, 2011
End note 69: "69 NA = Narcotics Anonymous; CA = Cocaine Anonymous. In some cities there are also Psychedelics Anonymous, Nicotine Anonymous (also, confusingly, called NA), Designer Drugs Anonymous, Steroids Anonymous, even (especially in and around Manhattan) something called Prozac Anonymous. In none of these Anonymous fellowships anywhere is it possible to avoid confronting the God stuff, eventually."
End note 273: "S.S.R.I.s, of which Zoloft and the ill-fated Prozac were the ancestors."
posted by mattbucher at 1:39 PM on January 5, 2011
Just recently watched an episode of Big Love in which Margene complains to her neighbor (Pam?) that she's so sad, and the neighbor hands her a bunch of Zoloft.
posted by medeine at 2:25 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by medeine at 2:25 PM on January 5, 2011
The TV Show "Intervention" generally might be of interest. Plenty of participants on pills, but other drugs as well.
The TV Show Nurse Jackie has the main character taking pills frequently, though I don't know what kind they are supposed to be. She scams/manipulated the pharmacist to get them, or steals them from patients and once a drug dealer.
posted by cranberrymonger at 2:50 PM on January 5, 2011
The TV Show Nurse Jackie has the main character taking pills frequently, though I don't know what kind they are supposed to be. She scams/manipulated the pharmacist to get them, or steals them from patients and once a drug dealer.
posted by cranberrymonger at 2:50 PM on January 5, 2011
That jerk Lily Allen has a sanctimony-laden song called "Everyone's At It" about psychoactive drugs, and I'm sure the Hold Steady's catalog is a rich vein of material, considering they've got a song called "Ask Her for Adderall."
More of a stretch, but here is a juxtaposition I've always enjoyed. Compare and contrast.
This song from 1997: "there's so much to see through/like our parents do more drugs than we do"
And this one from 2001: "99 percent of my life I was lied to/I just found out my mom smokes more dope than I do"
posted by clavicle at 3:14 PM on January 5, 2011
More of a stretch, but here is a juxtaposition I've always enjoyed. Compare and contrast.
This song from 1997: "there's so much to see through/like our parents do more drugs than we do"
And this one from 2001: "99 percent of my life I was lied to/I just found out my mom smokes more dope than I do"
posted by clavicle at 3:14 PM on January 5, 2011
Highly recommend the documentary, Does Your Soul Have a Cold?, about how marketing antidepressants in Japan was followed by a huge shift in their cultural perception about depression evolving into an actual illness.
Assuming you might want something to contrast American psychoactive drug culture and perception with, that is... pretty interesting to see how another culture perceives this issue and it was made within the last few years.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:11 PM on January 5, 2011
Assuming you might want something to contrast American psychoactive drug culture and perception with, that is... pretty interesting to see how another culture perceives this issue and it was made within the last few years.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:11 PM on January 5, 2011
Do broadway musicals count? I recently watched Next to Normal (wiki spoiler alert! entire synopsis within!), and while most of the musical deals with that sort of thing there is a song that specifically lists Prozac (briefly, but it does).
posted by sprezzy at 9:57 PM on January 5, 2011
posted by sprezzy at 9:57 PM on January 5, 2011
'He's reading Balzac and knocking back Prozac/ It's the helping hand that makes you feel wonderfully bland' - Blur, Country House, 1995
posted by mippy at 8:21 AM on January 6, 2011
posted by mippy at 8:21 AM on January 6, 2011
"Peggy's Turtle Song," a hysterical episode of King of the Hill in which Bobby eats way too much sugary cereal before school and is subsequently labeled as ADD and put on medication (probably Ritalin, although I don't think they say specifically what it is). The effects they show of hyperfocus after he takes it are wonderful (fly rubbing wings together, "milk in the fridge about to go bad--and there it goes").
In Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For, two characters went on antidepressants. Lois used Prozac (storyline played out in this book) and Clarice used Effexor (this book, I think). Clarice's results were definitely more positive than Lois's (and I think her depression--triggered largely by the Bush-Gore election--was more profound).
posted by dlugoczaj at 9:39 AM on January 6, 2011
In Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For, two characters went on antidepressants. Lois used Prozac (storyline played out in this book) and Clarice used Effexor (this book, I think). Clarice's results were definitely more positive than Lois's (and I think her depression--triggered largely by the Bush-Gore election--was more profound).
posted by dlugoczaj at 9:39 AM on January 6, 2011
In Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho, Patrick Bateman reveals that he has been taking Halcion, a controversial sleep drug that turned out to have some incredible psychoactive effects and was blamed for several murders in real life.
posted by heatvision at 12:07 PM on January 6, 2011
posted by heatvision at 12:07 PM on January 6, 2011
Big, 1988. Susan gets flustered about sth and blurts, "But that's what Xanax is for, isn't it?"
posted by JimN2TAW at 10:02 PM on August 6, 2011
posted by JimN2TAW at 10:02 PM on August 6, 2011
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Prozac Nation
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:56 PM on January 5, 2011