Valium, Prozac, Zoloft... Harmful or Helpful?

It’s a fine line between cure, enhancement, and harm when it comes to certain innovative substances. Social context and public opinion shape the circumstances in which a drug is taken and even the effects it can have. Certain drugs are commonly accepted as being detrimental to one’s health - alcohol, hard drugs, highly addicting substances such as nicotine in cigarettes etc. However, when a new drug enters the market, it is unclear whether it is medicinal, recreational, beneficial or harmful. In the 1970s, Valium became increasing popular among middle-aged housewives, and at first was seen as a tool to help them cope with their daily frustrations. There was a shift in its place in society within the decade, when feminists started to voice their concern that Valium was being over-prescribed to women to subdue them into accepting their roles as passives housewives. Valium later became obsolete with the rise of new anti-depressants such as Prozac and Zoloft, which are commonly used today. Mood enhancing drugs always walk the line between harming and helping, since they are addressing psychological issues as opposed to physical ones. The new movie “Side Effects” (2013), directed by Steven Soderbach and written by Scott Burns, dramatizes the potentially catastrophic consequences of an anxiety-treating drug’s unexpected side effects. Are these mood-enhancing drugs a source of freedom from depression and daily stress or anxiety, or are they holding us back by thrusting us into a pleasant but flattened haze?

Sources:
"Happy Pills in America", David Herzberg, 2009
"Side Effects", Steven Soderbach, 2013