Prozac Nation

Reading this book, I kept thinking that her symptoms seemed to reflect bipolar disorder, perhaps complicated by BPD, rather than a depressive disorder. The chaos, the neediness, the need for others to prove their love, and, most telling, others' responses to her behavior spoke to me as BPD...which would allow explain other readers' irritation/revulsion.

The epilogue was the best part, and what I was expecting more of from the book. In the epilogue, she talks in general terms about the Gen-x tendency toward depression and the culture of the 1990s. Most of the rest of the book is her own story and it is sad but, as she herself admits in the afterward, the repetitiveness of it can be annoying. Still, I'm not sorry I read it. It was a book I always hear about and never got around to and it was relatable sometimes.

Elizabeth Wurtzel's writing style is nice and easy to read, though she tends to get a bit ranty from time to time. I flew through this book when I first read it, and like many kids just entering college, I was like “duuuude, this is soooooo insightful.”

I read it again just after I graduated and found it to be ridiculously self-involved. Wurtzel basically wrote a really, really long blog entry about how down and out she is and how nobody truly understands her. You can read the same stuff all over the blogosphere these days; she just happened to get paid for it.

Upon first read I would have given this book five stars. Now I give it two. This book isn't all it was hyped up to be.