In defense of happy pills.

• Author: Schaler, Jeffrey A.
• Position: Letters - Letter to the Editor

Maia Szalavitz took heroin to stop depressing herself, and she now takes Zoloft for the same reason. She argues that the rewards of self-examination--and psychotherapy is not the only way to know oneself--are no different from the happiness she feels after ingesting Zoloft, and she seems bothered by statements in my book, Addiction Is a Choice: "I oppose the use of heroin for the same reason I oppose the use of Prozac. I think relying on these is an existential cop-out--a way of avoiding coping with life."

Yet Szalavitz never actually responds to what she considers worth quoting. She has chosen to take issue with me for criticizing the use of heroin and cocaine, and for pointing out the similarity with using Zoloft.

I believe there is a difference between spending 14 years training in the martial arts, receiving a black belt on the merits of effort and skill, and simply buying a black belt without working for it. Either way, the belts are black. Szalavitz seems to think the two are the same.

Certainly, she has a right to abstain from self-examination, just as people should be free to use drugs without penalty and without prescription. She doesn't seem to want to know how or why she is depressing herself; she refers to this as...