BigPharmaSlut Using Social Media to Encourage Vulnerability & Positive Behavioral Health Changes in Society

• Main Author: Merz, Alissa
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2019
• Subjects: Film and Media Studies; Fine Arts
• Online Access: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1266; https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2339&context=scripps_theses

My original, web-based, digital media project is an Instagram account that offers an honest dialogue about personal experiences with mental health, recovery, and pharmaceuticals. The account @bigpharmaslut provides a first hand account of my journey through the process of finding an anti-anxiety/anti-depression medication that works for me. I use the word slut ironically to describe my dependent relationship with pharmaceuticals and highlight the fact that both the concept of sluts and the insidious mechanisms of pharmaceutical industry have been constructed by society. @bigpharmaslut does not promote or idolize the use of pharmaceuticals, but it is also not engaging in or endorsing pill-shaming—for me, it is about transparency and sharing information. This installation documents and explores my year-long breakup, as I like to call it, with Paxil. “Paxil, which also goes by the generic name paroxetine, is a common type of antidepressant classified as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). It’s considered non-addictive by both the medical community and the federal government. Patients who stop taking the drug still experience withdrawal symptoms referred to as discontinuation syndrome.” The FDA now warns patients that withdrawal from paroxetine can be severe. Paxil has received more than 40 warnings from drug regulatory agencies in seven countries, including warnings in Australia about an increase in death rates among female Paxil users. The United States issued a public health warning about Paxil’s risk for inducing serotonin syndrome. This condition can cause hallucinations and hypertensive crisis, and in some cases, be fatal.