Why Is The World So Depressed?

a reply to: Mister_Bit

Indeed payday is really just a day to pay everyone else. How little we actually retain to enjoy life is laughable. I think I sold my soul without a true return.

a reply to: Mister_Bit

Who's mocking? Not me.

I do realize the difference between the two. I just don't think that many others do. I live in reality and see it for what it is.

In our quest to make everything as minimally offensive as possible, Western society has become bland and tasteless. We are but drones, living and working at the behest of royalty, leading predictably vapid lives. The difference between us and the bees is that many of us have realized this, although most find it difficult to articulate (which is why places like ATS are important), and that realization that "something big isn't right" can lead us down paths of anger, confusion, withdrawal, and depression.

Our lives have no substance, and we're beginning to realize it. Religion has totally confused our spirituality, which the state is slowly but surely ripping away from us anyway. Our technology has left most of us utterly helpless without it, and we have no relationship with the natural world (well, that's not true--we have an abusive relationship with it). Our popular culture serves little purpose but to facilitate vicarious sexual and violent experiences as a sales tactic.

Most people can see it, but of the few who can actually admit it to themselves, even fewer have any true desire to really change themselves. We are that dependent on the sense of security provided by our cage and our masters that we think (we've been convinced) comfortable and predictable slavery is preferable to the vast uncertainties that accompany true freedom.

That's enough to get anyone down. Combine that with a society that's been brainwashed to believe anything a "Dr." says, who is no longer motivated by honor but by profit--working at the behest of gigantic corporations--and of course you'll get a population completely dependent (yet again) on a magic pill to take all "the bad" away.

a reply to: NthOther

If ya read my signature, that's the way I live life.

Or in other words..."Lead, Follow or get the hell outta my way!"

I refuse to buy into this "We are all depressed" thing.

Screw you I say! WooHoo!

OP I think it's a combination of everything you mentioned.

The common man is treated as a machine to work and consume. The things that tend to make people happy, relationships/family, and personal leisure time are being eroded by the constant drive of our society to "progress". We are told we need to work hard at 40+ hours a week and go to 20+ years of school in order to succeed so that we can enjoy life when we hit 60. Well many do all that but never get ahead, life has become a treadmill.

The short answer? Because it is convenient for certain 'people' that it be so. A tool against the stability of the masses. Keeps them weak. All the oldies work, of course. Depression, lust, greed, hate, just tools in the belt to some. God bless.

I can only guess in this digital day and age of mass information and digital social environment ( texting, facebook etc ) is a contributing factor on the pressures of the younger generations coming through, with the loss of real quality relationships, but is just one area of the climb in depression rates.

Interestingly (to me anyway) was the lists of known famous people past and present who suffer/ed major depression...

List of people with major depressive disorder

originally posted by: TDawgRex
Oh boo-hoo! I guess everybody best call a WAaaambulance.

Yes, everybody gets depressed from time to time. Big freakin' deal. Competition and failures are good things. We learn from them.

Yes, depression can be caused by a lack of or over abundance of the chemical make up in the brain, and for those, you have my sympathy. But the rest of us that don't have that excuse...Suck it up Buttercup. Life isn't nor ever has been fair.

It's not that simple. I fsomeone you know is going through depression please NEVER go with this moto. Depression is REAL and HURTS. Here in Quebec we loose an average of 1 person a day from road accident and 3 yes 3 from suicide. They are sick, their head chemistry is unbalanced and they suffer a lot.

Simply put, for me, life is going wayyy to fast for us to adapt. Stress is raising to the top and social isolation is a big factor among others...

a reply to: AlmostRosey

Depression is so rampant in the west (US and Europe), because we have taken on a self-serving/self-centered culture. Our priorities are all screwed up, and when depression sets in to tell us that something is wrong, we throw SSRI's at the problem. Before you know it, the mounting depression thats been accumilating over the years compounds the problem into full blown psychosis, then the anti-psychotic drugs come in.

Ive watched this happen to patient after patient. Anti-depressants are designed to make you dependent on the pharmaceutical industry. You dont dare stop cold turkey, and when you've reached a new tolerance level, your dose is increased. People pay a lot of money to maintain a false sense of happiness, and in many cases the desired effects are minimal.

In the case of western culture, depression is what happens when you become so spoiled that the things that once kept you occupied no longer have an effect....I know from first hand experience. Often, the depression we feel, is our brain's way of telling us to reprioritize our lifestyles.

a reply to: NthOther

Excellent post and I would add spirituality is confused yes, but also been made irrevelant, worthless. In the long run, for power and wealth, major religions have failed us. We're half-deads and lacking spirituality, searching without a lead, filling this enormous hole with anything thrown at us by the consummer society.

Jeff

a reply to: AlmostRosey

Because life sucks. The world sucks and so do most of the people in it...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned vitamin D deficiency. No matter what your ethnicity is, you can bet your great grandparents got a heck of a lot more sunshine than you do. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to seasonal affective disorder (and interestingly, to obesity.)

Not only has our ridiculous secular religion of profit turned us into consumers, not people, it also is causing depression via sunshine deprivation. Then we buy drugs because we have no time to be in the sun.

a reply to: LoveSolMoonDeath

I did say that I understood that some have chemical imbalances and that they have my sympathy. But I bet the majority of people who say they are depressed have all the right balance in their noggins. They are depressed because life doesn't seem fair to them. That's tough, but it also pretty normal to feel down from time to time.

When I feel down, I do something about it. It may not take the first time around, but I keep on plugging at it. Needless to say, I don't feel depressed for to long.

I sometimes suspect that our advanced technology and internet usage has done damage to our peace of mind. Don't misunderstand me, I like the internet, I use it a lot myself. However, I do believe there are many negative aspects to the internet as a whole.

- Social Networking: Sites like Facebook, Twitter and chat apps seem to be replacing real communication between people. Are people becoming more isolative because much of their interaction is done online? Somehow this could key in with people who find themselves feeling lonely, or detached.

- The Internet - the world is apparently at your fingertips: Is this creating frustration at what we cannot have, afford, achieve or do? The blatant self-promotion of happy marriages, children, jobs, holidays and homes profiled online are probably undermining those who are perhaps struggling with their issues in life?

- Knowing the TRUTH. With the internet comes transparency, to a certain degree. News travels faster, conspiracies unravel quicker, we have at our fingertips a window to the world at large, and the more time passes, perhaps the more we see that this world is often not the place we once thought it was?

These are all mere thoughts and suggestions, but it's something worth considering.

originally posted by: Mister_Bit
I believe more and more of us are seeing the gold plated prison we are in.

My boss and work mates have a VERY hard time understanding that I am not driven by money and gain but rather by spiritual freedom and a healthy work/life balance. They look at me stunned when I turn down £50 for an hours extra work or when I offer to pay my boss for an extra day off.

Well said, I have often said myself that I do not live to work,
I work so that I may live.

If I can work less and live more then that gives me solace and peace of mind.

If my absence from "the system" starves it, then starve "the beast" as some have inferred.