In a study released this year by the Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers concluded that antidepressant use in America has almost doubled in a ten-year period. That’s an increase from about 13.3 million to 27 million people taking prescribed medication for symptoms of depression. During that same period pharmaceutical companies increased direct-to-consumer advertising spending from $32 million to $122 million. In light of these numbers it could be argued that advertisers have managed to sell the idea of depression – and its attendant cure – to an easily swayed public.
In America and in many developed countries, the predominant notion that you don't have to experience pain is leading to the generalization of antidepressants and other medications that can alter one's emotions while "sanitizing" her/his state of mind. I have always wondered what was the point of the war on drugs if it was the norm within American society to believe that drugs put people in control of their emotions and thus make them feel what they want to feel it and avoid feeling (anxiety, depression, etc...) what they do not want to feel.
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