Dear Jim Carrey: Let’s Talk About Treating Depression

By Alicia Sparks

Dear Mr. Carrey,

Some people are upset, Jim. They think you’re anti-Prozac. They’ve compared you to Tom Cruise.

Tom Cruise, Jim!

This is not the most advantageous of connections. Not in the mental health world, anyway.

For what it’s worth, I understand what you were saying on Larry King Live. You weren’t saying, “Prozac is bad.” You were saying, “Prozac can help, but people need to deal with what’s making them depressed, too.”

You probably want people to be aware of the different treatments for depression out there, as well as the multitude of non-medicinal ways people can manage depression.

I especially liked it when you said, “[...] and people deal when they get desperate.” They do, don’t they? It’s kind of like the whole “sometimes you’ve gotta hit rock bottom before you’ll make a change” thing with substance abuse. You didn’t mean prescription medication doesn’t help; you meant people shouldn’t use it as a masking agent and prevent themselves from getting to - and dealing with - the true root of the problem.

Right?

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