Prozac Monologues: A Voice from the Edge
She was going to stab her doctor, but she wrote Prozac Monologues instead.
Years later, Willa Goodfellow revisits this account of an antidepressant-induced hypomania that hijacked a Costa Rican vacation. She tells the rest of the story: the wrong medication, an overlooked diagnosis of Bipolar 2, and finally a path to recovery.
Prozac Monologues: A Voice From the Edge is a book within a book: a comedic memoir of misdiagnosis with edgy commentary about the bipolar spectrum. It offers information about a mood disorder frequently mistaken for Major Depression. An appendix includes resources for recovery and further study. Plus, Costa Rica.
- If your depression keeps coming back
- If your antidepressant side effects are dreadful
- If you are curious about the bipolar spectrum
- If you want ideas for recovery from mental illness
- If you care for somebody who might have more than depression —
She wrote this for you.
PRAISE
Brilliantly written, engaging from the first page, Prozac Monologues is a bit like a great evening at a first-rate comedy club…except that it is deadly serious. Goodfellow’s painful and all too common journey to finding the right treatment for her bipolar disorder points her to the ultimate realization that doing well with this illness requires the right medication, the right psychotherapy, and the specific lifestyle modifications that support wellness.
Ellen Frank, Ph.D.Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry,
University of Pittsburg School of Medicine
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Willa’s story is a wake-up call to the medical profession and a ray of hope for people with mood disorders. If antidepressants haven’t lived up to their name, or have even made you feel worse, this book is for you. She tells her story with humor, pain, and vulnerability, but hers is more than a personal memoir. She brings clarity to the complex. You’ll gain a textbook’s worth of knowledge about depression and bipolar disorder without ever feeling like you read a textbook.
Chris Aiken, MD
Editor in Chief, The Carlat Psychiatry Report
Mood Disorders Editor, Psychiatric Times
Director, Mood Treatment Center
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Willa Goodfellow has written a clear, compelling, and helpful guide for people experiencing clinical depression. Ms. Goodfellow’s book is, at once, a vividly written personal narrative and a kind of travel guide to the often confusing territory of mood disorders. She is especially helpful in describing “bipolar spectrum” disorders, and the risks of using antidepressants for these conditions. Though Ms. Goodfellow’s book is often critical of psychiatrists who misdiagnose (and mismanage) bipolar disorder, she is also respectful of the difficulties clinicians face in recognizing and treating these complex conditions. She writes with a mixture of justifiable anger; empathic understanding; and uproarious humor. In addition, Ms. Goodfellow’s book contains a wealth of useful information and recent research findings, boiled down to clear, jargon-free English. I believe this book will be of benefit to any reader seeking to understand the personal and clinical aspects of bipolar disorder.
Ronald W. Pies, MD
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University
Author, Psychiatry on the Edge.
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Willa Goodfellow can use the words mitochondria and Deuteronomy in the same sentence and make it sound both serious and hilarious. Ranging from God to neurons, no one covers the territory better than Ms. Goodfellow. A brain science nerd with professional theological chops, a humanist bent, and a keen self-awareness, she has produced an irreverently thoughtful opus with a profound and unifying resolution. One only hopes that Prozac Monologues II is in the works.
John McManamy Author, Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder
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