61 / 128
Treatment Using SSRIs
61 •
I wonder if he’ll take away my punishment once Mom tells him the
doctor thinks I have no control over this. After all, it was his fault for
getting me so mad, wasn’t it?
But then again, maybe it wasn’t Dad’s fault. The doctor sent me
to see a therapist, Dr. Jill, and she talked to me about choices and
stuff. I guess she said my choices are my own and I am responsible
for them. I can’t blame what I do on somebody else. My actions don’t
have to be based on what Sarah or Dad or anybody else says but on
what I know is right. Each time I explode, I always think someone
else has made me do it. But no matter what time of the month it is, I
have control over my own words, no one else does.
This may take some getting used to. Sometimes it just seems too
hard. But if I ignore what Dr. Jill and the doctor tell me, then I’ll have
to continue like I am now. I don’t want that. I hate being grounded, I
hate fighting with my best friend, and I hate feeling like I can’t even
think straight. I could go crazy if I go on like this.
When Emily takes her first antidepressant she will be using one of
the SSRIs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help
control the symptoms of PMS and its more serious cousin, PMDD.
As the medicine enters the bloodstream, it travels to the brain
and attaches itself to the serotonin neurotransmitters, helping the
signals of the brain to be stronger and more normal. This allows the
brain to signal other parts of the body properly, protecting it from
pain, headaches, tension, and other annoying symptoms that are
part of the monthly struggles of PMS sufferers.
On November 3, 1999, the Food and Drug Administration’s Psy-
chopharmacologic Advisory Committee recommended that fluox-
etine hydrochloride, the main ingredient in Prozac, be approved to
treat women with PMDD. They advised that the drug be used only
for women whose symptoms are severe enough to cause problems
while at work, school, or during social activities. Without the drug,
these women would not be able to function at the same level during
the week or two they experience symptoms as they would the rest
of the month. As a result of this recommendation, Eli Lilly, manu-