Why is depression so prevalent in contemporary society?

[AHunter3]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

I want to add...

I think that if you took a snapshot of a chronically depressed person's brain, and compared it to a circumstantially depressed person's brain, they would look a lot alike. There may be some permanent scarring or brain damage in the chronically depressed person's brain, but chemically I think the same basic thing is happening. When people are in crappy circumstances, they tend to have a lot of unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, thus depression. I think the core difference is that the chronically depressed person has something else going on, chemically or physically, that recreates that same chemical state regardless of what they are thinking/doing. It might be caused by the brain damage or any number of things. I don't know if that makes sense.

I agree with this also. I would like all of these discussions a lot better if "depressed" and "schizophrenic" and "bipolar" were treated as adjectives describing HOW a person is. We get that way through some combination of biology, internal mental-emotional processes, external environmental conditions and events, and ancillary things like nutrition and sunlight and whatever. But however we get that way, it's the condition that it is.

I do believe that the entire notion of a biological predisposition is NOT false. Some of us are simply more susceptible to it. And maybe psych medications help. (For other people, maybe something else helps. It's not a one size fits all kind of phenomenon).

[phouka]

With the exception of DiFool, I agree with pretty much everyone here telling their stories.

bump, I think you have an excellent point. From my point of view, depression is a symptom (or actually, a syndrome). There are multiple causes, and those causes can play off one another. There are some nutritional deficiencies that can cause depression, some illnesses seem to bring depression with them, and not just because of circumstances. Olives points out that there's a correlation to parasitic infection. There are genes highly correlated with depression, and we're only just starting to investigate the epigenetics of different illnesses. I think there's an autoimmune source for some versions.

I'm really wondering if there is such a thing as depression with only one cause. Some situational depressions appear to fit the bill, but I wouldn't take it for granted. And, I'm very much with Broomstick, that the idea a doctor can successfully diagnose and treat a bout of depression with only a very short consultation is ludicrous indeed.

[bump]

Another thing to consider is the chicken/egg problem when it comes to this kind of thing.

For example, someone with a biological predisposition to some form of mental illness may have it manifest itself, and also have children.

These children may or may not have this same biological predisposition, but they'll more than likely learn the flawed thinking and coping mechanisms that come with the mental illness.

I see this with my wife's family actually. None of my wife, her mother, and her sister are mentally ill, however, my wife's grandfather, her uncle, and 2 of her aunts are seriously bipolar, and the uncle and one of the aunts were diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Nowadays, wife, MIL and SIL have some fairly f-ed up ways of dealing with the world that seem to stem from MIL growing up in a house full of crazy people. There's a certain degree of attention seeking, and a certain amount of being unable to handle stress effectively past a certain point, as well as fairly extreme (IMO) anxiety about things that are security / safety related.

I'm convinced this is due to the MIL's upbringing, and that both of her daughters learned it from her, because they both act the same way, with it being less severe in my wife vs. SIL, probably in no small part due to my wife going to therapy regularly.

[Tollhouse]

Bump, the symptoms for mild depression and severe depression are the same? You lost me in that one...symptoms of severe depression are (by a qualified physician) able to be differentiated.....

[pchaos]

We are a youth oriented society. People are living longer and have more old people than ever. Well-known that depression is more prevalent in the elderly. So when there's a lack of respect to elderly the number of depressed elders grows.

[monstro]

We can't seem to make up our minds when it comes to psychiatric meds. When it comes to people who act and think crazy, we want to pump them up with drugs and castigate them for not being compliant. We even force some of these folks to take meds against their will, despite the horrible side effects.

But when it comes to people who act and think depressed, we want to sell them a bunch of self-help books and Dr. Phil folkisms, with a big ole dollop of religiosity and new-age bullshit on top. And if these folks decide to try meds? Well, we say they're being suckered by Big Pharma and they're just looking for an easy way out of their problems.

(I'm using "we" because "ya'll" sounds so accusatory and argumentative, dontchyallthink? )

I don't think all mental illnesses and disorders are the same. But I also think that if we treat meds as the great savior for one set of psychiatric conditions, we need to lighten up on all the judgmental attitudes when it comes to the other. The split-thinking is crazy-making all in itself.

Anyone who thinks they are depressed should find a great counselor to work with--preferably someone who is not a psychiatrist (unless they provide psychotherapy). This way, you can find out what kind of depression you have (reactive, endogenous, dysthymia, major, etc.) and what lifestyle and cognitive changes you can make to improve the situation. And if you determine that things aren't progressing quickly enough, you can always consult with a psychiatrist and try something. All the judgment and second-guessing and backseat-diagnosing from the peanut gallery? Totally unnecessary to the process. Let the professionals decide if your depression is "real" and "biological" or whatever, and just tune out everything else as you take care of yourself.

[TheCrow]

My thoughts on the question after reading this thread (A combination of your thoughts and mine):

- Depression is the natural emotive state of humans. Some people seem to have been convinced that everyone is happy but themselves, which is complete nonsense.

- Post-modernism bombards us with so much information and social saturation that no one can pinpoint real truth. Our identities change so rapidly that most of us have no fucking clue who we really are, and what we want out of life. Modern society is too vacuous.

- People with exceedingly high expectations of life coming face to face with reality.

- Most depressed people seem to ignore and or actively deny reality. But, sometimes, prevalence of depression has a positive correlation with the awareness of "bad things".

- Some people have solved all their own real problems. And those people were just as depressed before, but they didn't have time to think about it (because they were working on solutions) and nobody cared to listen to them if they complained about it.

- Irresponsible production of offspring. Speaking as someone with major depression, people with serious mental illnesses should not be reproducing, but they often do because they cling to the hope that a wife/children/etc. will finally bring them the happiness they're looking for. These diseases have a genetic basis as well as an environmental one, and people are only too willing to provide the necessary predisposing genes.

- Diet quality is decreasing as a result of subpar processing methods (hormones in meat, etc.) and the increase in high-convenience food suppliers, e.g. fast food. Why expend the finances and effortt to eat healthy when you can pick up a grease-sodden, made-to-order pizza on the way home?

- The need for exercise is decreasing as we continue to make technological advances that promote convenience and minimize physical effort. A healthy mind does not necessarily require a healthy body, but physical well-being contributes immensely to mental well-being.

- High availability of easily-abused substances that can seriously fuck up not only the abuser but the lives of those around them.

- The most basic form of expending energy for men (warfare) has been almost entirely eliminated. Even lower level forms of violence have been curbed heavily.

- Humans are innately tribal and some people in some societies are desperately in need of a meaningful tribe.

- When I was in the US, I saw that US colleges were full of people with huge self esteem - levels that were too high. When expectations don't meet reality we suffer from problems.

- Women that are looking to marry into money can very well find someone that will marry them and has money. Men want a busty wife and can very likely find a busty wife. And then they wake up the next day, and what does any of that mean? So they become depressed.

I remember watching a documentary a while ago about Bhutan. Bhutan was the last country to receive Television and internet, they're a buddhist country. Before the television they hardly had any violence or social problems. After the television, their views of each other changed. They started to become more materialistic and their ideas of what an attractive woman is changed. Before the television they found a hard working woman attractive, after they were focused on looks like the western world due to the bombardment of advertisement. Also violent crimes and other social problems which were almost unknown to them started to happen more frequently. One of the first things the children started to do after getting television was imitating WWE wrestlers and hitting each other in play where before they never did this and played peacefully.

[Guinastasia]

Once again, depression isn't just "not being happy". Spending most of the day lying in bed, just staring at the wall, not caring if you live or die is the "natural state of things"?