If you’re looking for happiness in a prescription bottle, bear in mind that antidepressant use can lead to a sorry situation in the bedroom.
There comes a brief, shining moment in every human life when joy feels inevitable, the world makes sense and nothing seems poised to ruin it. Then we turn seven. From that point on, it becomes embarrassingly clear that the “pursuit of happiness” our forefathers promised is less a noble right and more an endless, sweaty marathon with no ceremony in sight. Gandhi once said that happiness is when what you think, say and do are in harmony. Beautiful sentiment, but anyone living in the United States in 2025 can confirm that disaccord has become a way of life. So, we do what any modern American does when the blue notes get a little too loud in the soundtrack of our lives: we see a doctor, often leaving with a tiny slip of paper promising chemical salvation.
We are, undeniably, a nation of pill poppers—and honestly, who could blame us? Turn on the TV, and it’s pure doom. Go to the grocery store, and the prices of everything from eggs to beef reveal nothing but Grade-A doom. Crank up the heat at home, and the utility company is going to demand you give them everything you own or else. Simply getting out of bed and facing the day with anything resembling optimism feels like a herculean act, especially when the odds of “something good happening” linger somewhere between slim to none and jack shit. Many people reach for the quick fix, antidepressants, choking down hope one pill at a time. The New York Times recently reported a surge in young people turning to these treatments to fend off sadness, noting a 63% bump between 2016 and 2022.
“The majority of traditional SSRIs do have sexual side effects as a possible consequence of even short-term use, and there is some evidence that these dysfunctions will persist even after a patient stops the usage.”
