Why Is The World So Depressed?

Last year, the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation reported that prescriptions for antidepressant medication in the UK rose by a staggering 25 million, since 2008. Whether the strained financial climate of the UK - and indeed across the world - has been the reason behind the rise of people on medication for depression, is only one theory behind the worrying figure. Statistically, one in four people will experience some form of mental health problem, and it is estimated that 450 million people worldwide are effected. (World Health Organisation, 2011).

For those that live with depression, medication can help a person to live life more fully, to overcome the complex difficulties that mental health presents. Taking medication can not only ease the symptoms of depression, but can also alleviate mood and raise motivation. But is medication just masking a deeper issue about ourselves, society, and the world at large?

It is true that depression can hit anybody of any age, and does not discriminate based on background, wealth or status. So finding a common theme/explanation isn't so easy.

Why are the numbers of people suffering with depression so high? Several theories have been suggested:

- Are people being treated robotically - turned into a product of work/finance units?
- We are often forced to live in competitive and passionless environments - is this destroying happiness in humanity?
- Are the ways in which food is mass produced having an effect on diet, and then linking onto mental health?
- Has the media made us more distrustful of each other, therefore there is a lack of community and togetherness?

I would love to know your thoughts on this. Why are so many large numbers of people unhappy in the world? Are we doing something wrong, or have things always been this way? Perhaps things have always been this way, but people did not recognise depression for what it was years ago. Education is key, if that is the case.

Sadly, in most countries, a persons only real role is to consume and reproduce. Keep the wheels turning, watch some television, pursue your dreams...if you can purchase those dreams at Wal-mart. This doesn't inspire abundant happiness I suppose.

If people were able to turn the noise off for a little while and discover who they are at a basic level, I believe, and that's an opinion only, that it would be easier to live in the world as it is now, and to provide your own happiness. That being said, depression is also a mental illness that can be caused by chemical imbalance, and treatment can be helpful; the nature of the treatments can vary greatly.

Why? Simple. Soul loss. Not enough shamans to perform soul retrievals.

👣

originally posted by: Atsbhct
Sadly, in most countries, a persons only real role is to consume and reproduce. Keep the wheels turning, watch some television, pursue your dreams...if you can purchase those dreams at Wal-mart. This doesn't inspire abundant happiness I suppose.

If people were able to turn the noise off for a little while and discover who they are at a basic level, I believe, and that's an opinion only, that it would be easier to live in the world as it is now, and to provide your own happiness. That being said, depression is also a mental illness that can be caused by chemical imbalance, and treatment can be helpful; the nature of the treatments can vary greatly.

I think that this is definitely part of it. That overwhelming sense that we are on a treadmill grinding out energy for someone else's benefit hits us all eventually.

The other part is environment. We are constantly bombarded by stimuli, auditory, visual and olfactory that is unpleasant and jarring. It makes a pervasive impact on our mental well-being.

Maybe this is what circling the drain of the behavioral sink looks like. Okay, now I'm getting depressed.

a reply to: AlmostRosey

Of that 450 million, it would be interesting to know what
their spiritual belief systems are on an average.

SnF for good thread.

I know the true Answer were running out of Cocoa and that is the Major cause of Depression. ..
link

Sorry that was satire let me specify before people take it for real..

Last year, the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation reported that prescriptions for antidepressant medication in the UK rose by a staggering 25 million, since 2008.

Because they are sold to us for every little reason and any medical doctor can prescribe them. Have headaches? Well, then, you must be depressed, here, have this prescription. No joke--I went to my gynecologist for a checkup and he tried to get me to leave with an antidepressant prescription.

Since when are OB/GYNs qualified to give out mental health advice? I'm not depressed. Had I took the prescription and filled it, I would be part of those statistics. (Well, maybe not the UK statistics, but the US statistics aren't any better.) A better diet, exercise and some daily sunshine would fix a lot of those "depressed" folks.

Everyone wants a magic pill to fix their problems, it seems.

So you just went to your OBGYN for a routine issue and he tried to prescribe you an antidepressant? That seems so far off base that if I were you, I would report the behaviour to your health officials. If you gave some notion that you were depressed, you may just have a lazy OBGYN who thought you were searching out a prescription by talking to the wrong specialist about mental health issues. An OBGYN is still a fully fledged doctor with the ability to diagnose mental health issues.

a reply to: CoherentlyConfused

originally posted by: CoherentlyConfused

Last year, the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation reported that prescriptions for antidepressant medication in the UK rose by a staggering 25 million, since 2008.

Since when are OB/GYNs qualified to give out mental health advice? I'm not depressed. Had I took the prescription and filled it, I would be part of those statistics. (Well, maybe not the UK statistics, but the US statistics aren't any better.) A better diet, exercise and some daily sunshine would fix a lot of those "depressed" folks.

Everyone wants a magic pill to fix their problems, it seems.

Preface: My wife is an ER MD...she is a fellow in the american college of emergency physicians...
OBGYNs, many of whom i am friends, are entirely qualified to dispense anti-depressants.
Post delivery, a HUGE percentage of women undergo a chemically induced depression...this is physiological and undeniable.
It is the responsibility of the OBGYN to manage the post partum depression experienced by new mothers.
After a reasonable amount of time has passed, the physician will refer the patient to a mental health professional(typically a fellow MD) for further workup.

I believe more and more of us are seeing the gold plated prison we are in.

I'm working all the hours of the day to earn money I don't want, in a job I don't like, to pay bills I don't want to pay, to buy things I don't want or need.

I do feel trapped. I don't want or need a big house, fast car, fancy electronics... I would genuinely be happy to live in something like a traveller's caravan.



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.

I feel my life is passing me by without actually having lived.

My wife went through PPD after my daughter which is my second child took no pills and is fine she did not need pills to solve her problem we talked alot and she walked and made it through no problems..a reply to: Christosterone

a reply to: ATF1886

Lots of new mothers aren't that lucky, unfortunately. Some don't have supportive partners, either.

I guess im a small statistic then...a reply to: Atsbhct

I'm reading a book called "Borderline Times", sorry to add it's only in Dutch...

But it's VERY relevant. Do you know that where I live the number 1 cause of death for people my age (24-30-ish) is SUICIDE? I was shocked when I first read that little known fact, as were the people I mentioned it to

I'm not done with the book yet but it was written by a top psychiatrist here, known for his controversial opinions, who claims that SOCIETY is suffering from borderline, since all the criteria fit. More and more people with psychological problems are a symptom on their own!


The book goes into detail on a lot of different subjects and though I've not finished it yet it's struck home quite hard a lot of times already!


Just the simple fact that NOTHING is certain anymore seems enough for people to fall into a deep hole. Sure you might roll your eyes when I mention things like religion and church (I'm not religious ftr), or the pre-internet days, but in the past, there was A LOT more "security" than there is now, people KNEW pretty much what their lives would be like, with of course the exceptional few adventurers etc... Of course, security is saying a lot, but what I mean is, there was no readily available method to go "mehh I'm tired of being a farmer, this is not my life!" You'd be an unhappy farmer, that's that.


But nowadays? We're ALL adventurers, or so we're told. Yet how many actually are?... And how much is left of that alternative? Nothing, we all look online to find that same sense of comfort, and though the opportunity to find it IS there, we get distracted continuously. War, death, violence, what to believe, what not to,...


Utter chaos is what brought us here imo, and as much as I wouldn't want to miss the internet, I'm pretty sure it IS what's brought this upon us! But I also believe we're to get through all of this.


A nice quote on the back of the book, and I paraphrase: "The silent majority are nearing a point where they can no longer be ignored"


That silent majority is everyone who's felt that society as we know it doesn't work anymore, and who knows HE's not to blame (as politicians and banksters alike would like to have us believe)



We can fix this! It's not just the people, and there will come a point where enough people feel the same, and will understand it's not up to a million individuals to change how they feel about life!!!

Every living creature on earth lives symbioticly with parasites,to stay healthy both pysiclly and phisiologiclly we must maintain a proper balance within these parasite populations in our bodies,animls instinctively et the proper plnts to police their internl prasite popultions,we have lost this tendancy,it has been intentionlly removed by marketing compnies and food producers, many people globally have over-populations of many types of parsites and these over-populations catalyse internal changes which effect our organs which in turn catalyse phisiological changes which effect our emotions and can cause or contribute to depression or anxiety or anger or hopelessness,these are normaal natural rections we have to simple parasitic infestations and over-populations.

If by some chance big pharma includes ingredients which kill one type of parasite but produce things in your body which support OTHER TYPES of parasites that one COULD BE kept on a lifelong merry-go-round never ever relly knowing what it feels like to be truly healthy.

a reply to: Strawberry88


Is he talking about Belgium? Which has a suicide rate of around 17 per 100000? That doesn't seem incredibly high.

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.

stress.
in every f***ing way.
and it doesn't get less!

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.

Everyone gets "fed up" from time to time... not depressed.

Understand the difference before you mock.

a reply to: AlmostRosey

Why Is The World So Depressed?

Because the Doctors...I mean pharmaceutical companies....I mean....I get so confused between those two anymore.
Is there a difference?

Yeah, because 'they' tell us we are. And don't forget the $$$$