Antidepressants have impacted humans both sociologically, economically, and psychologically. They have created a society that would rather take a prescription quickly to face their problems than spend time dealing with them, they've risen to be the third most prescribed drug in the United States, and have been the harbinger of side-effects for prescription pills. At the same time, antidepressants have brought comfort to the masses and employed thousands of scientists. A controversial drug, antidepressants are worth studying to dissolve myth from fact and better progress the understanding of new societal ideas, economical effects and human behaviors.
Living in a fast-paced world has brought an entirely new ideology to society that states: I must get this done but I must get it done quickly, efficiently, and regardless of how much work it may seem like; I must stay happy because positivity leads to higher productivity. Due to this new idea, antidepressant use has increased a drastic amount.
According to Time Incorporated, the amount of antidepressant intake has increased, since it's first release in 1958, from a few hundred to over thirty-two million people in the US. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey states one out of ten Americans ages twelve and older have admitted to taking antidepressants and sixty percent of these Americans have been taking antidepressants for two years or longer. These two facts combined show that over nineteen million people in the US have been taking antidepressants for an extended, not quick, amount of time. On the flip side, SANE Australia among with Charitable Monies Allocation Committee of the mental health charity St Andrew's, Northampton both say that seventy percent of people with major depression start to feel better with their first prescription and that sixty-five of these people never report...