We Happy Few & the Humanity of Antidepressants
(Content warning: Depression, mockery of antidepressants, and suicide)
The recent release of We Happy Few has led to an old interview with Alex Epstein of Compulsion Games from 2016 being passed around once again. The interview being notable due to the following statement about the game’s primary theme, “We Happy Few is inspired by, among other things, prescription drug culture — the idea that no one should have to be sad if they can pop a pill and fix it… As a culture, we no longer value sadness.”
This statement upset many people, including yours truly, but is also reflective of a larger problem, the societal aversion to antidepressants. Alex Epstein is not the first person to have that view of mental health medication, and he won’t be the last. The prevalence of misconceptions on mental issues has fostered these views, and can have dangerous ramifications by encouraging people to try battling these issues without the help they desperately require.
The biggest issue with Epstein’s statement is the fact that he still views depression as simply “being sad” when it is so much more than that. It can manifest in different ways whether that be sadness or just plain apathy. However, more than that, the view of depression being just sadness implies that there is an external issue that can be solved even though it’s really your brain being an asshole.
The other issue that particularly upsets me is the view that taking a pill is an excuse to not grapple with life’s issues. What’s missing here is the fact that many people need those pills to keep them alive. Full disclosure, I’m prescribed fluoxetine, estradiol, and spironolactone. The fluoxetine I take for my depression, while the estradiol and spiro I take for my transition, although they certainly help with my depression as well. I need these meds. These meds are what keep me a functioning human being. Before getting on my meds I was absolutely not functional. I didn’t start “popping pills” because I don’t value sadness. I started because I wanted to feel like a person.
I feel like that’s what gets lost in all this. From conspiracy theories that antidepressants are pushed by Big Pharma to seemingly innocuous statements like that of Epstein, the fact that these meds are necessary for some of us to live is left by the wayside. I don’t want to assume anything of Epstein, perhaps he has suffered depression as well and still came to this conclusion, but these statements always read to me as that of someone who has never faced the issue before. They read like someone who sees someone who’s suicidal and compares the emotional weight to that time they got rejected for prom. Epstein, and by extension We Happy Few, would do well to remember the humanity behind those of us engaging in “prescription drug culture” before speaking again.
By Luna who you can find @Lunamoonblight
