Unit 4  Section 1 Exercise 5 Approaches to treatment: medications
Clinical correlate #5 Medical treatment for depression
Click on the clinical correlate to explore the differences between antidepressants, side effects and overall efficacy. Review Jane Kenyon’s poem and read the poem excerpts by Anne Sexton and David Hernandez, respectively. Answer the study questions
1) From Anne Sexton’s "The addict"
Sleepmonger
Deathmonger,
With capsules in my palms each night,
Eight at a time from sweet pharmaceutical bottles
I make arrangements for a pint-sized journey.
….
The pills are a mother, but better
….
My supply
Of tablets
Has got to last for years and years.
I like them more than I like me.
Stubborn as hell, they won’t let go/
It’s a kind of marriage.
It’s a kind of war.
….
What a lay me down this is
With two pink, two orange,
Two green, two white goodnights.
Fee-fi-fo-fum—
Now I’m borrowed.
Now I’m numb.
Anne Sexton, The complete poems Houghton Mifflin 1981 p. 166
2) From: David Hernandez' "A Brief History of Antidepressants"
A Brief History of Antidepressants
My life a bombed site turning green again. --Franz Wright
Let's begin with the black
wind coiling inside Mother's
skull, the iron gate banging
through her nights. That
and the days she hovered
above her body, a kite
lifted airborne by a gust
the color of shadow--
darker, even.
The doctor spooled
her down, swiftly
signed the prescription
for Elavil. Lovely word,
Elavil--how the tongue
touches the mouth's roof,
lets go, touches again.
Two weeks medicated
before the hallucinations:
here's a spider
the size of human head
inching up the wall.
Here's an empty
rocking chair, leaning
forward and back,
forward, back. Enough
for her to flush the pills,
to invite back into her head
the wind's dark churning.
*
I was born with a rabid dog
chewing on my bones,
with a heart swinging
on a meat hook.
I was born with a bad idea
knocking on my brain:
See that ledge? See
the X-acto blade's fang
salivating over your wrist?
I was born with noise.
*
Gwendolyn knows
them all--Wellbutrin
and Effexor, Lithium
and Celexa. Knows
the song each one
serenades to her blood.
And this is how
she scales her moods:
one to ten. One's
a head full of nightmare,
a gang of vultures
dismantling her thoughts.
Ten means she's been
kissed by rapture, means
sunlight in her veins,
a radiant heart.
Tonight, Gwendolyn
says, I'm only a seven,
her voice deflating
in her throat. Nowhere
near those dreadful birds
picking apart her mind.
Just three states away
from bliss, but no bus ticket
to take her there,
no truck driver to answer
her thumb's plea for a lift,
aimed towards heaven.
*
Describe the sensation.
My head was a helium balloon.
What was that screeching?
The kettle on the burner.
Talk about the steam.
It spiraled like ghost shavings.
Who poured the tea?
Girlfriend then, wife now.
What happened next?
The balcony whispered my name.
Go back to the balloon.
Someone snipped the thread.
How long were you detached?
Until the hour hand fingered 10.
What did your head do?
Drift back into my collar.
And the bedroom where you slept?
Upholstered with evening.
You mentioned your wife's voice.
A sewing needle, mending, mending ...
*
I know an anguished girl
lean as a broom handle,
bale of dark hair, two drops
of Pacific for eyes.
Was anguished, I mean.
Was an orange-tailed fox gnawing
on her hind leg. It took a week
of the morning ritual,
of capsule, water glass,
and blue swallowing.
Now the steel trap's empty,
the snow's dimpled by
paw-prints, every fourth
depression glowing red.
*
Praise my beloved
for driving me to Branko's,
the shortcut she knows
so well. Praise his couch,
his first question--What's
troubling you,
young man? Praise the jeweled
necklace of speech, the way
my tongue rolled over each
beaded word: I and don't
and know, then where and to
and start. Praise the pills
the color of flamingoes.
Praise their flight to my mouth. ..
Prairie Schooner, March 22, 2005.
Study Questions
1.What antidepressants are mentioned in these poems? Why do the speakers mention the antidepressants by name?
2. What is the speaker’s attitude towards their antidepressants in these poems? Is there overlap between them?
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