Posted by sigismund on June 29, 2013, at 6:38:35
In reply to Leonard Cohen Depression and Drugs, posted by sigismund on June 28, 2013, at 11:45:27
In particular....
In this interview,6 he discusses, with his characteristic candor and dark humor, his course of treatment and his decision to unilaterally discontinue these medications:
[Leonard Cohen] I was taking things like Prozac for depression, but none of those antidepressants worked.[Interviewer] Which have you tried?
[Leonard Cohen] Oh, lets see. I was involved in early medication, like Desipramine. And the MAOs [monoamine oxidase inhibitors], and the new generation Paxil, Zoloft, and Wellbutrin. I even tried experimental anti-seizure drugs, ones that had some small successes in treating depression. I was told they all give you a bottom, a floor beneath which you are not expected to plunge.
[Interviewer] And?
[Leonard Cohen] I plunged. And all were disagreeable, in subtly different ways.
[Interviewer] How?
[Leonard Cohen] Well, on Prozac, I thought I had attained some kind of higher plateau because my interest in women had dissolved. He laughs. Then I realized it was just a side effect. That stuff crushes your libido.
[Leonard Cohen] So one day, a few years ago, I was in a car, on my way to the airport. I was really, really low, on many medications, and pulled over, I reached behind to my valise, took out the pills, and threw out all the drugs I had. I said, These things really dont even begin to confront my predicament. I figured, If I am going to go down I would rather go down with my eyes wide open........
poster:sigismund
thread:1046031
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20120327/msgs/1046056.html