Here's another reason to love Leonard Cohen.
He has taken antidepressants without success, leading to his unilateral discontinuation of those medications, as noted in this excerpt:
[Leonard Cohen] “… I was taking things like Prozac for depression, but none of those antidepressants worked.”
[Interviewer] Which have you tried?
[Leonard Cohen] “Oh, let’s 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 don’t 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.”
The page, with footnotes, is
here
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