Lauren Slater: Killing My Body to Save My Mind

Lauren Slater, in her twenties, was an active young girl with the perfect body. By the looks of her, the average person would think she was perfect, but the average person would not know what was going on inside her mind. Slater struggled with depression and no drugs seemed to work until she tried Zyprexa. This drug cured her mind, but it also caused her to become extremely overweight and prediabetic. Slater is now in her forties, five feet tall, and one hundred and eighty pounds. I believe Slater wrote this essay to inform middle-aged men and women that living until you are ninety and having the perfect body is not worth it unless you are happy. Although Slater's body is having a "breakdown", as she describes it, her mind is not emotionally breaking down. She helps support her purpose by explaining to people that having a perfect mind or a perfect body is a choice. There are people that sued Eli Lilly, the maker of Zyprexa, for causing excessive weight gain. However Slater stated that she will not sue Lilly for "making a drug that saved [her] life" even though it is "leaching it away" (Brooks and Atwan 259). She knows what she is doing to herself and she explains that she is fully accepting of it. I think that Slater accomplished her purpose of writing the essay because of her acceptance. She stated that she made her choice and she is no longer depressed. Also, I think she realizes that not everyone is strong enough to make the choice she made, but she doesn't regret her choice either. I personally do not agree with her choice. I do not suffer from depression, but I would definitely stop taking the pill if my cholesterol rose as high as hers and I became prediabetic. However, her purpose was more informative than persuasive. Not everyone will destroy their bodies to become happy, but now her audience knows another way for happiness to be possible.

Thin to Thick

from picstopin.com

Works Cited

Brooks, David, and Robert Atwan, eds. The Best American Essays 2012. Boston: 
       Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print.