Classical Ideals

Classical Ideals

Dark Thoughts, Anti-Depressants and Free Will

An Investigation of Modern Evil

Megha Lillywhite's avatar
Megha Lillywhite
Sep 04, 2025
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“Let me tell you about my experience with Zoloft since it drove me to the brink of insanity and almost killed me.” begins the excerpt by X user @9mmSG. The experience he describes with this anti-depressant drug is unfortunately very common. Many anti-depressant users are driven to greater depths of madness and even suicide following the use of these drugs whose primary purpose was, paradoxically, to prevent these very things from happening. This essay is not necessarily about the safety and efficacy of anti-depressants such as SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), rather, it is about a more important question of free will that are raised when we consider the effects of these drugs on the human mind.

After a couple of months of use, I started feeling very strange in my body. It felt like it was no longer me directly operating it, but I was controlling it like in a first-person game. It sort of felt like I was floating and everything that was happening. I was watching it more than experiencing it. This was the easy part.

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