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Brooke Siem is the author of the 2022 memoir, May Cause Side Effects, about the decade and a half she spent on anti-depressants (prescribed after her father died when she was 15) and what happened when she ditched them. Sarah is currently on anti-depressants, though she wonders whether she needs them. Nancy is not on SSRIs, though she was part of a gentle brigade who nudged Sarah to increase her dosage last year. This is a complicated knot! The ladies talk about over-medication, how cultural taboos migrate, and the problem with treating sadness, anger, frustration — very human emotions — with a pill.

Also discussed:

* Nancy suddenly cares about the Navy; Sarah questions this

* That time Brooke wore a foxy denim jumper

* “Chemical imbalance” is a hoodwink

* The “Come Out of the Dark Campaign” meant to eradicate depression stigma leads to an explosion of SSRI prescriptions

* SSRIs and orgasm

* The opiate epidemic tracks with the anti-depressant era

* “Chemical castration” didn’t start with puberty blockers …

* 70s-80s Ritalin vogue

* Related: Does Ritalin suppress male growth?

* Hold up: a link between transitioning genders and SSRIs?

* Drinking and depression, a tangled saga

* “Headaches are caused by an Advil deficiency”

* Beware Wellbutrin

* Gothic SSRI withdrawal

* “I never boned a cabbie … that I’m aware of.”

* That time Sarah went hypomanic …

* 1 in 4 American women are on anti-depressants

* The hormones and menopause of it all

* “Fuck you, person at Whole Foods!”

* Big Pharma / Big Food = same playbook, different expression

* “Do you bake with yeast?”

* WTF with Pol Pot?

Plus, boozy cupcakes, a coyote sighting, was Tom Cruise right about pharmaceuticals — and much more!

This one’s a banger! Listen to the whole shebang when you become a paid subscriber.