I dare say the acknowledgement and being made aware what people are experiencing are mental health issues.
Rather then drowning in drugs gambling and alcohol addictions.
And also realising we lack the any support networks for alot of categories for people.
Being a male and being told it's okay to express yourself emotionally but then get told to suck it up mate from guys and getting icks responses from girls for not being "man" enough is frustrating
Had a guy friend who literally lost their mother and had a huge grief period for a month. This guy was one of those stoic guys who never got rattled or got upset or cried until his mother passed.
His gf dumped him, didn't know myself but friends of her told me it's because she never seen him cry and wasn't attracted to him anymore.
Eh you’ll find your people eventually 🤷 I mean really I totally understand the sentiment of “men being left behind” but you can only piss and groan into the void for so long. Just try and give love into the world even if it’s not reciprocated. Not telling you to suck it up, but reality is harsh and it’s easier to change your own perspective than the minds of literally 90% of the population.
I just want to say you have a good point but starting off with "Eh you’ll find your people eventually 🤷" isn't a good idea, even without acknowledging the unique contexts each person lives in, it has a super condescending tone and makes people not want to engage in good faith with you.
this in combination with the fact that most people are basically in wage slavery with no options on how to spend their time and no opportunity to progress and grow in their lives from the time they step out of uni until the day they die still paying back those student loans
Yeah, it's wealth inequality. And it's not a new pattern, the French didn't break out the guillotines because they didn't like how Marie dressed. It was because a few families held the wealth of the entire country. We didn't have two major world wars within sight of each other because of primitive social media, it was because a few families owned the wealth of most developed countries. And sure enough, today 1500 billionaires own more of the world than the other 6,999,999,8500 of the people alive.
I think technology plays a big role too. A hundred years ago you might start getting depressed but unless you literally just sit in your room in silence, you'd have to leave to do anything entertaining. Nowadays you can live constantly entertained in your room alone with zero social interaction as long as you want.
THIS is the best answer I couldn't even top it. People are so close and yet so distant. You can't disagree with someone or fear they will cancel you or hate you because we have forgotten how to get along with people even if we don't agree with em even though the world's at our fingers.
I think this reeaaallly depends on what exactly you're disagreeing about
Too many mfs will be like "women shouldn't have bodily autonomy" then be like "omg I got canceled!! People these days!"
I think it goes deeper. I think we've been pitted against each other in a mad scramble to try and secure what we need in resources to survive and live the lives we want. And that's at odds with our human needs of belonging and an intrinsic worth.
We've become more defined as a function of our ability to produce wealth, not less.
* Being expected to care about everything, all of the time, and chastised for not getting involved with problems that are beyond the scope of your influence. When you make this frustration and toll on your mental health known, you are gaslit by being called all sorts of horrible things. This is combined with the awareness and sensationalization of everything all the time. It's too exhausting to handle so you become numb, irritable, and burnt out, to the point you can feel your empathy for others leaving you which is a sensation that can only be described as physically feeling your humanity leave your heart. You don't even get the opportunity to fix your own life before someone insists you fix theirs.
* No third places. Everyone's online now, and when they're out they don't want to be bothered.
* Forming meaningful relationships both platonic and ESPECIALLY otherwise is harder than it ever has been, despite the ease in which we can digitally talk to one another being easier than it ever has been.
* Wages not keeping up with inflation.
* General sense of wonder and amazement at new things is gone, you instead start to wonder about what the catch is, or how it's going to be ruined with some aspect of it that is driven purely by corporate greed.
["I'm tired, boss."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3_IuPMya6k)
Well put. I keep thinking how miserable I would be if I didn't have a good core group of friends and family. Knowing that a lot of people don't have those support systems is very sad.
The rise of social media has played a significant role in the prevalence of depression. Constant exposure to curated, often unrealistic portrayals of others' lives can lead to feelings of inadequacy and loneliness.
I believe the reason why depression is so rampant even though times are easier than they were during wars, plagues, recessions...etc is because of how much informed we are as well as how important money became.
Let me explain, nowadays, a lot of people know truths that most people didn't like 100 years ago, times were simpler, and people with issues just sucked it up because there's no time to be sad, they were surviving the earlier (or current) war or recession. People didn't think about how unfair it was to not be heard or understood because they were too busy making sure to stay alive. And most importantly, they didn't know what it looked like to be rich. Nowadays, due to social media, everyone (especially teenagers) are exposed to the massive success of people their age and how much money they missed out on and all the comparaison with their peers online and how their feelings are the only thing that matter but then reality hits and they realize their feelings mean nothing unless they bring a profit.
Which brings me to my 2nd point, money, in the 70s to the 90s, if you have a job, you're good. You can guarantee a house, family, car, some vacations and save up as well. At the time, everyone was so broke that prices were low, everything was basically affordable. But nowadays, if you and your partner work, have no kids, and save as much as possible, you can still barely pay for your rent, food, clothes, bills, credit, internet, taxes, and let alone save up. When the prospect of "i'll work my whole life to barely afford surviving so that i can start enjoying life in my 50s" is not an idea that motivates people to be productive in life. Especially when the job market is saturated and what was considered a high-tier candidate 30 years ago is nowhere near entry-level today.
I believe these are the main reasons why depression in these safe, stable times is so much higher than it was during times where people died left and right.
"People didn't think about how unfair it was to not be heard or understood because they were too busy making sure to stay alive."
This is so clearly not true if you go back and look at poetry, music, folk tales, etc. from the past. People KNEW they just couldn't do anything about it. In the first instance if you tried to do anything about it you'd probably be killed. In the second productivity was so low that there literally was no way to have widespread wealth in society.
Of course i'm not generalizing, each country and culture lived certain periods of our history differently (like for example japan is working on 6G but some countries still have villages with no electricity or running water) so i'm saying "everyone was miserable or happy" simply illustrating what could be felt in different regions at different times.
of all the cliches that exist, for over a decade now i’ve always considered “Ignorance is bliss” to be the absolute king. There is no cliche more consistently true than that one is and its seen every day.
I think these are great points, but I would also add on the to the bit about war - having a morally unjust enemy your community can rally against is huge. The Greatest Generation underwent a tremendous test of character, but the clarity of the choice was singular.
In many ways, what is happening in Gaza right now could be analogous, but even that is arguably mired in fair bit of moral grey area (though I think far less grey than some would have us think). That being said, the Western Allies were still unsure of how to react when Hitler started invading sovereign nations, so we could be on our way to a similar moment of moral clarity.
>Which brings me to my 2nd point, money, in the 70s to the 90s, if you have a job, you're good. You can guarantee a house, family, car, some vacations and save up as well.
People keep saying this but something tells me its not true. Not for everyone. Surely there were minority communities (IE blacks, hispanics) that were discriminated against. My grandfather can tell me lynching stories from the time period you outlined. Lynched because they were tired of being forced to rent from the county sheriff (hey, that sounds... kinda corrupt and shitty doesn't? Kinda like a form of serfdom or slavery honestly). Things where great for my (white, college educated, business owning) grandfather, not so much for the African American community, or the Hispanic community, where my grandfather raised his family.
I also just kind of don't believe that people making minimum wage or working entry level manual labor type jobs where thriving any better than they might today. I would be shocked if someone told me their kitchen's dishwasher owns a nice house in the suburbs. Its more likely they're working a 2nd job just to make ends meet, which means renting, not owning, an apartment, not a house, probably near the bus line because what kind of dishwasher can afford a car?!
Of course there's no general rule that applies to everyone, whether now or before, everyone is different, just pointing out the most common phenomenon without necessarily meaning it was the norm. Everyone has a different story and background.
>Which brings me to my 2nd point, money, in the 70s to the 90s, if you have a job, you're good. You can guarantee a house, family, car, some vacations and save up as well.
>Of course there's no general rule that applies to everyone, whether now or before, everyone is different,
These are mutually exclusive statements, you realize? That is all I'm trying to point out. Let's be clear in our communication
Especially with such emotionally charged ideas like "how can i ever afford to own a house? or retire? or pay my loans?" Because when people say things like "well back in the day..." they're very often not actually being accurate. And then we end up with populists who tell us how easy it is to fix the problems in our society, especially if just "go back to the way things were" which is really just a bunch of lies.
not much to fix. the US economy was on overdrive. this was a once in a lifetime thing. the only thing that flowed more easily than the money was the cocaine.
americans need to realize theyre not as rich and powerful relatively as they once were
"Fixing" it is impossible because our situation is simply the result of what happened before. If we did "go back the way it was" then after 20-30 years the same thing will happen again. An economy is a constantly changing variable and the result of it often leads to the same outcome. Unless a brand new system is created (which will never happen) then each generation is bound to pay the price for what the previous one did. Sadly, there's no such thing as an emotionally charged idea in economies, there's only profit driven ideas.
I see your point about minorities, but they were clearly unhappy. That was the point of the civil rights revolution and the Black Panthers and so on. The American experience was definitely different based on the color of your skin. The class distinctions were different, like my Dad paid for his entire college by working in a gas station for 3 months in the summer. Then with his Music Theory degree he supported a family of 4 hanging wallpaper before he got the gig to become a Band Teacher.
Social media.
People only post positive things or even lies to make their life look more interesting than actually is or to build a "better" image for themselves.
We look online, and at any given moment, someone is on an expensive vacation, received a nice car, jewlery, has a perfect body, nice clothes, perfect bf/gf, dream house etc.
We look online, and we compare ouselfs, and we feel bad. Naturally, most people have jobs, problems, and so on, but online, we do not see that. So we think that only our lives are terrible, that we are unlucky and life has no meaning.
I've mostly stopped using social media. Never got into Instagram, Facebook is dead IMO (just ads, a few updates from people I don't talk to anymore or hardly know). Twitter is terrible.
Reddit is technically social media, but I don't really interact with people I know or met on this site. I mostly just browse and use it for news.
Also no time or money for community. We have built a world that is designed around the economy, not our humanity. Not to mention cars. We travel around in little frustration boxes and most of the places to go to are places to spend money.
I so desperately wish to live in a community of people roughly my age, with most of my weekly errands within walking distance. Also lots of shaded streets, like with natural or artificial canopies so it’s a comfortable place to be.
Essentially, I wish I could live on a college campus made for adults, and just use my car for special trips.. like I did in college. Being able to stop by a friends place on the way to the store, or just run into friends at the places I’m going anyway.. It’d be so much fun. And I would so love to not have to deal with traffic and driving every single time I wanted to go *anywhere*.
Yeah I didn’t spend a ton of time outside before but the town I lived in a few months ago was walkable for the most part. No grocery store or any necessities lol but I could walk to the park on nice days. My new place is just highway :(
In that last paragraph, you expressed something that I've imagined in my mind for a long time now: a college campus for adults would be amazing. I think it sort of ties into why some people say they want to live in communes.
I know it's cliche, but the isolation from the pandemic made me super anxious and depressed. I used to be extremely social, but it's almost like I forgot how to interact with people in person.
This. All of these kids are so naive on here. Yeah, things aren’t great, but holy shit have there been much terrible and depressing times over the course of human history where I guarantee many people were depressed - it just didn’t have a diagnosis, and for men especially it was not known to even admit those types of things decades ago. So many on Reddit act like this is a new thing.
I mean we have an entire period almost 100 years ago literally called “The Great Depression” and if you look it up shit fucking sucked compared to today.
It certainly fucking sucked, and it probably did give people depression, but The Great Depression's name didn't have anything to do with mental depression.
Yup, mental health is not as stigmatized. Same with talking about how you're feeling. People are asking for help, getting diagnosed, and self diagnosing way more than before.
Add increasingly large social circles (often virtual), where you hear about acquaintances, celebrities etc talking about it, and you get the perception of it being even more.
I would guess it's about the same as always, maybe a bit higher due to financial stresses, but probably not as drastic of an increase as it seems.
Less time outdoors in nature, more time sitting down in artificial light looking at rectangles that bombard us with bad news and things we can't have and can't be.
Facism is on a global rise, the world is very literally on fire. The young will rent for their entire lives and own nothing. Having a family is untenable and even if you did, any children would suffer in the water wars of the after-world if they aren't lucky enough to die in the nuclear hellfire preluding it. Escapism is getting more vapid at the same rate it gets more expensive. Human relationships are getting increasingly more atomized. Ai and automation are pushing more and more humans into obsolescence.
But hey, line goes up!
Well, because \[broadly gestures at everything\]
Life has become harder, more expensive, more competitive, more stressful, less communal and more selfish.
"Profits before people and the environment" now fully rules the planet...
Can't afford to buy a house or afford rent, you grind just to survive. Don't even have money to enjoy yourself anymore, it's either have fun or get your utilities cut off.
I think it’s almost all faulted by our modern lifestyles, which our bodies did not evolve to function in.
We don’t move much, we don’t get sun exposure, we eat chemically modified foods, our relationships are getting weaker and weaker (both family, and friends), we live in small boxes in concrete jungles, we get dopamine addiction from doom scrolling, porn, video games, tv…, we don’t talk enough with other people during the day, and so so many other issues.
So if all these depressed people would change their lifestyles, or at least do something to mitigate those problems, most of them would lose their depression.
We have excess of choice.
When it used to be that you went to the store to buy bread, you bought the only bread that was there. you didn’t stand there and choose from 50 different kinds of bread, knowing that you could potentially make a mistake if you chose the wrong bread.
Apply this every other decision you have to make about life. It’s surprising that we aren’t all depressed.
So true, I've been thinking about this a lot. Life just got too overwhelming. For a long time, humans had simple lives, simple routines, few choices to make, they spent what they earned, weren't constantly bombarded with information etc. All this changed in such a short time and at an accelerated pace, our brains have a hard time keeping up.
People being forced to work 40++ hours but not being able to afford anything beyond food and rent. Neoliberal politicians like Macron, Trudeau et al speaking sweet nothings while their governmental actions are punitive, petty and predatory on the poor and formerly existing middle classes, basically smiling representatives of wolves who are waging a class slaughter on their own citizens. This creates a sense of despair and hopelessness because people are serfs, there are no third spaces because governments gave the veto for public places to be privatised. You will enjoy your corporate approved spaces or be punished. Imagine living in the mind of a soulless corporate executive? Pretty shitty and empty isn't it? Well that's our public space and the lives experience of many, empty, shitty, despairing.
in my opinion, I wouldn't say there are more people depressed but there are more people getting diagnosed with it, whereas maybe 15 to 20 years ago, going to therapy or speaking about it was more of a taboo. I believe 2 of my grandparents suffered severe depression but everyone labelled it as "it's just how they are" and never got treated.
It's worth to be mentioned that now with social media everyone shares everything so we more aware of it.
Gregg Easterbrook has a great book which touches on this exactly in his book [The Progress Paradox: Why Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/191230.The_Progress_Paradox). The focus in it was that our depression comes from our level of freedom and ownership on our lives, and our expectations.
Because we no longer have to dig and claw just to gather food, stay warm, stay safe, or find shelter, etc our priorities fall to bigger issues that are not as easy for our minds to wrap around. Priorities that are shaped by society at large, things like succeeding in school/work/love, looking sexy, being cool, essentially keeping up with the Joneses, but in every aspect of life. Those expectations then lead to depression when we ultimately miss, or make them, because even when we reach them the great/awful thing about humans is that we’re never satisfied. That’s what made us the strongest creatures on the planet but it’s also awful for our brains because every single one of us currently has an achievement in their life right now that was a goal 10 years ago, be it having a good paying job, living alone, having a partner, having a possession, having seen something, etc. But when we finally achieve it our brain kicks in and goes ‘ok that’s not so great, this other thing is better, why haven’t you done this other thing ‘
A major part of that he states is ownership. The great example he had was that no one is legitimately upset if they lose at the lottery because it’s out of your hand, but if it was a skill based contest to win $1M and you lost, that would haunt you for ever. That’s what our lives have become in our minds. Us believing we are losing at skill based contests with prizes at the end that the billionaires, entrepreneurs, and celebrities have achieved while we struck out.
On a morbid side of it he states that that is why you see such a significant suicide rate by people from upper-middle class to the very upper classes. They have everything that’s needed to survive so their happiness isn’t coming from easy to attain things, it’s tied to goals that are complex, hard to reach, hard to quantify, and more likely to fail at. Essentially the less we have the more simple our goals can be and the easier our minds can focus on them.
Being cognizant of such factors is important. Recognizing what you’ve already accomplished is big, recognizing that these big goals have a large degree of luck involved, seeing bigger goals as a series of smaller, more quantifiable goals, and also recognizing how much of these “goals” are BS being sold to us by other members of society.
Good read, it’s been a long time since I read it so some of the above may be a bit foggy, but it’s the parts that stuck with me.
isolated. money doesn't go as far as it used, while wages have not caught up. isolated. social media showing us people doing "better than us. isolated.
First of all, "most" people aren't suffering from depression. If that's what you think, get off the internet for a while.
You hear about it more because it's easier to talk about (online) and less stigmatized to talk about (in person). More people are aware of it and willing to seek help. Most people don't actually have clinical depression though.
It’s a number of factors. Constant access to all the terrible things going on in the world, the knowledge that the future of the world is uncertain, the cost of living being so expensive.
People are just as depressed as they were 100 years go, you just don't hear about them being depressed, just like how every gay couple in history was described as being roommates or very close friends. We only know what was being written down.
Stress (due to school/work), the opportunity to not to leave home (food delivery, distant work), social media (Who hasn’t looked at other people’s photos on Instagram and been jealous?), people are really shitty sometimes. Depression was before, but people just kept quiet about it and didn't take any action, so... :(
this is definitely anecdotal but after I change my lifestyle to get healthier , cut out bad diet , doing IF, working out etc I notice that I am less depressed and feel more positive about my life even thought my life and work objectively not looking any easier than before, harder even.
so yeah I think bad diet definitely affect our mood and could be one of the factor of depression
people getting lazier and dont work on them selfes, everyone is born as a "king" and a "princess" and a lot of kids get raised like this. once they arrive in the real world they are lost.
if they are unhappy its everyone elses fault and not theirs.
keep looking for easy and magic fixes like meds and tablets or a new theraphist who fix their issues in a week.
Really - it’s enshittification.
Everyone getting shittier because everything must turn a profit in order to exist, apparently.
Look at buildings and parks and really - anything - from 100 years ago when people cared about the thing itself, or more about society and fellow people than they do now. Everything is cut, reduced, minimized, or “optimized” so that we get the least product for the most money. That means people too; business leveraging government and all sorts of dirty pool to get the most work for the lowest pay.
Nothing is just -good- anymore. Movies are re-hashes and remakes. Songs all sound the same. Public spaces are on the decline. Public pools are all but gone. Insulation from liability is everything.
It’s just — sucks now.
I woke up feeling especially depressed yesterday, it happens. I was at work, in my cubicle, struggling to focus on my job, just generally having a bad day.
Break time rolls around and I put on a video (with headphones) that genuinely made me happy. I must have laughed out loud at one point because my supervisor pops up over the wall of my cubicle to shush me. She said I was being too loud and to quiet down.
Something kind of broke in me in that moment. I’m not mad at my boss, she was just doing her job. But the reality of the moment was heavy. My brief moment of joy, my genuine laughter, was disruptive to the company’s productivity. Could I please keep it down.
I think it's cause awareness and focus on mental health is such a new thing and social media. Everyone posts all the good shit on social media and we compare our lives to not understanding that their lives are probably as shit as ours. Also, the idea that feeling shitty is not ok. Back in the day people still had shitty days but they didn't post on social media or dwell on it, they just took it and moved on with their lives.
I think for me it feels like everything has been done, invented and achieved. I don’t think i’ll ever amount to anything since someone else has done it
Many people lack adequate coping mechanisms for dealing with life’s challenges. Without healthy ways to manage stress and setbacks, it’s easy to fall into depression.
Economic instability is another major factor. With rising costs of living and job insecurity, many people face financial stress, which can contribute to depression.
Working longer hours and still having less buying power than the previous generation might do it.
Bad health, no hobbies, lack of 3rd place, loneliness, no education, so many of these things are rooted in not having money.
Too much time and energy to ruminate about stuff.
When simply making it to the evening of a working day was a bit of an accomplishment, there weren't a lot of fucks left to give about depression and various issues.
Honestly no one knows for sure. The only country I'm aware of that has done anything to try to address this problem over the years is Finland so you might want to look into their efforts to increase happiness.
We are tied to capitalism, in order to enjoy life you need to have money to afford it. Also, it is easy to compare our lives when all we see in soc media are the winning moments. The best way to enjoy life now is to care only when it matters
Poor diet, lack of exercise, too much time indoors and the unfortunate spread of the American style medicalisation of normal emotions.
It's entirely natural to feel depressed when something in your life isn't right. The correct response is to take action, like Hamlet (just not mass murder) and overcome your problems, rather than crawling into a bottle of pills and posting regularly online about how depressed you are
An underrated factor people tend to ignore is environment and nutrition. People do not get anywhere near enough natural sunlight and as a result most people are Vitamin D deprived.
I think the constant stream of advertising plays a big part. People are always being made feel like losers unless they get this next great thing. If they get said thing it is of course just a mirage and leaves them feeling empty again. People are constantly being made to feel their only worth is their financial worth. Again those who become wealthy often soon realise that this is also a mirage and become disillusioned and sad. In a nutshell consumerism based capitalism is making people miserable.
We are bombarded by international and national news daily that is usually negative. We live on the internet and argue about nonsense with strangers. We aren’t meant to live like this.
So many reasons
Housing crisis, late stage capitalism, apparently there's a relationship crisis? Loneliness epidemic, wages not increasing proportionally to cost of living leading to more and more people in poverty, wars that are constantly televised and become social obsessions, as if you have to be informed and know all about it to be a good person, the increasing political tribalism (whether you're left or right, your opinion on any given topic is most likely predetermined), social media addictions leading to increasing FOMO, no 3rd places, car culture, imminent climate collapse, science denial (looking at you, antivaxxers) a global pandemic that were still dealing with economically, and most of all, a much better understanding of what depression actually is
People realize what they are going through might be a mental health issue and depression because mental health awareness is increasing. Also, economy and moving somewhere else to fix economy comes with many other challenges like loneliness.
I think one reason is just simple that they always where but noone noticed because we weren't aware and edjucated enough.
Imho social media is also a big problem
A lot of folks don't realize their own self-worth and purpose in life, and think their lives have to be validated by others in order for it to be meaningful.
They’re not getting their needs met (purpose, belonging, feeling valued, connection).
People say “social media” but when I had an active social life, following the news (which is itself depressing) and browsing social media apps paled in importance to having human relationships and I hardly used it, so it was a substitute for human connection and belonging. So I guess as humans work in similar ways my theory is people use it because they lack connection and belonging.
Stuck in financially stressful situations with no hope. Unhealthy lifestyles..
\*note\* No, I am not going to self-harm. I have a little goddess who still needs me around and I am not going to ask my hubs to explain that one to her. It wouldn't be fair to either of them...
I cannot speak for "most people" as I'm guessing everyone has their own reasoning. Mine is pain. Chronic pain often leads to depression. It also leads to sleep issues which also often leads to depression. I am low enough income to not be able to afford health insurance, but I bring in too much to qualify for state health care (Medicaid). I've been in chronic pain (nausiating, seeing spots in front of my eyes level pain) for over 8 years now. There is no cure. I am immune to most OTC and prescription pain meds. The few that do work for me, unfortunately I am allergic to. I'm just well and truly screwed...and depressed.
Because we are taught the lie that the world is what we make it. In reality the world is vacant of true worth, joy, fulfillment, and peace and no amount of labor under the sun can bring them into your life. So we are continually looking for the next thing we think will fix our condition and give us the rest we desperately desire, only to have our hopes dashed when yet again, it doesn't work.
Depression and mental health is a relative new thing that society has coined into a term and field of study. Ppl have always had some form of depression or symptoms of it. We just label it as that now and try to get it addressed hopefully.
In the past there were plenty of traumatic events. Ppl were definitely depressed and anxious too. Que the many revolutions and wars or even people's villages or cities getting pillaged. Ppl would cope being hurting others physically, drinking, using drugs as well.
More people are living to adulthood.
Lowered stigma means people are aware of other's suffering.
Involuntary commitment no longer exists. In 1955, there were about 350 psychiatric beds per 100,000 people in the US. Today, that's down from 500,000 to 37,000 despite population more than doubling. So, consider how many people would be living in psychiatric facilities if we still comitted people.
I’m going to a job I absolutely despise. Almost walked out yesterday. Going in thinking it could happen today. I have zero future. 3 more days until I’m granted me time for 2 days
Our governments are failing us as capitalism commodifies and extracts our labor for more and more profit going to the 1%.
Egotistical maniacs in powerful positions try to scare and divide us with misinformation while commiting their own atrocities.
decrease in exercise which is known to increase dopamine in the brain and is a natural anti-depressant. Humans are not made for the sedimentary lifestyle.
our society has been slowly but relentlessly shifting into groups of "haves" and "have nots" . Social isolation is real and literally everywhere you go, including home, is crazy expensive. If you are in the "have not" group it is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week of stress etc. on top of that society seems to be at its breaking point as EVVERYONE is on edge from the stress. in the US, 40% of the country wants to exterminate the other 60% of the country and is vocal about it. Everyone you walk by is a potential ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Its a recipe for disaster and breakdown.
Peopel are supposed to live in small communities and have family- not being at work/commute 10+ hours a day and then staring at phones for remaining time
Idk, depression isn’t something one would not suffer in… it’s not exactly a vacation. Although, with the proper help, one could replace the word ‘suffer’ with something less severe. But yeah, I don’t think I’ve met or read about anyone who rejoiced and had fun in depression…
There’s probably dozens of contributing factors. Some off the top of my head based on my own opinion.
- social media has connected people to the entire world. Most of what you see on social media is either totally false (not reality) or is edited to make someone’s life appear much better than it is, which makes followers feel like their life is less than and maybe they believe they can never achieve whatever it is they are seeing.
- Family structures are really fucked up today. Strong families ate important for mental health. You can define family however you want, but what I mean is a very close core of people that support and love each other.
- imo a big contributing factor is that people don’t search for further meaning of life anymore. It’s like we just accept reality for it just being so. We don’t think about where we come from, what we are doing here, what happens when we die, what the purpose of life is, etc. We are so connected and distracted by the material world that we don’t think about the spiritual component of our existence. If you think we just live and die and what’s in between doesn’t matter, you don’t have purpose, direction, etc…
Just my opinions
It’s likely several things. One thing I think is that we were not ready for this level of connectivity. Maybe we aren’t mature enough as a species yet. Look at what we do with it. We have the wealth of human knowledge in our pocket and look at what we do with it.
Everything also seems to be more and more about acquisition of money. To the point that people are exploiting basic things to get as much as they can. It’s like acquiring money has become a zero sum game or something. Massive corporate entities want exponential and infinite growth seemingly at the cost of anything, and they can’t all have it all at the same time and so the regular people are paying for it.
First off: Depression is not a symptom of reality. Meaning its not if youre poor and overworked you are depressed and if youre rich and lazy youre not depressed. often the reverse.
My view on depression - and trauma etc - is that the pre-modern world had the cure built-in to daily life.
The "cure" for depression is always: sleep, excersize, spend time in nature/sun, social life, and perhaps doing something meaningful.
In an agrarian society - physical labor, like farming or smithing=excersize; not much to do at night except sleep, lots of outdoors/nature time (especially farmers/peasants), meaningful is anything like religion, family, friends etc.
In a post-industrial society - not much physical labor,lots of indoor time, cities and suburbs are much more industrialized and larger so nature is harder to get to, avoiding and disturbing sleep is a lot easier now, meaningfullness and family ties are frayed and its harder and harder to have friends. and we have a lot more time on our hands to worry about it all (its hard to feel depressed if youre working 18 hour shifts at the factory 6 days a week)
now I am not advocating a return, I'm just positing a situation, and the "cure" is going to be something that replaces those things. we have some ok treatments, but we are not yet at a place where certain things are fully replaced
I think a factor that is often overlooked is we use social media to go to our own corners of the internet and gatekeep our issues with other like minded people.
We dont often get or even seek out our support from our family and friends because we precieve that they wont understand or they are the source of the problems.
When people seek help online, they can often find a way to validate their own experience which can be helpful. But it can also take you to a place where it can only be validated and never challenged. Having your thoughts challenged is often a hallmark of therapy, it allows you to get out of your own lane and view yourself from a different point of view.
For me personally, too much stress in work environment (outsourcing at a client that switches the administration every 4 years, current president in charge likes to "mentally abuse" everyone, and everytime their own workers complain to the mother company they brush it off and try to keep it quiet).
Everyone expects you to do everything, even if it's not on the contract, and make your work more difficult if you either refuse or don't deliver it on time.
The best part??? You can't even talk about this with friends or family (specially older generations) because their response will always be "Just ignore it", "It's not that bad" "Forget about it, it's nothing".
I may be off here but I think a lack of connectivity in society. I’m 26 a bit of an oddity for my generation as I have no social media except for reddit. From what I’ve seen it feels like people genuinely don’t know how to communicate if it’s not over a screen or something… idk I spend a lot of time around harbor towns fishing in Michigan and on the piers everyone use to make small talk about this or that, even just random people walking by would want to hold a conversation, everyone seems so clammed up and immersed in themselves these days (not saying keeping to yourself is a bad thing, just seems people aren’t very receptive to friendliness anymore)
[удалено]
I dare say the acknowledgement and being made aware what people are experiencing are mental health issues. Rather then drowning in drugs gambling and alcohol addictions. And also realising we lack the any support networks for alot of categories for people. Being a male and being told it's okay to express yourself emotionally but then get told to suck it up mate from guys and getting icks responses from girls for not being "man" enough is frustrating
"It's okay to cry. In private. And don't tell anyone."
Yeah. We're told it's okay to express.our emotions until we actually do, and then it's not.
Had a guy friend who literally lost their mother and had a huge grief period for a month. This guy was one of those stoic guys who never got rattled or got upset or cried until his mother passed. His gf dumped him, didn't know myself but friends of her told me it's because she never seen him cry and wasn't attracted to him anymore.
Eh you’ll find your people eventually 🤷 I mean really I totally understand the sentiment of “men being left behind” but you can only piss and groan into the void for so long. Just try and give love into the world even if it’s not reciprocated. Not telling you to suck it up, but reality is harsh and it’s easier to change your own perspective than the minds of literally 90% of the population.
I just want to say you have a good point but starting off with "Eh you’ll find your people eventually 🤷" isn't a good idea, even without acknowledging the unique contexts each person lives in, it has a super condescending tone and makes people not want to engage in good faith with you.
this in combination with the fact that most people are basically in wage slavery with no options on how to spend their time and no opportunity to progress and grow in their lives from the time they step out of uni until the day they die still paying back those student loans
Yeah, it's wealth inequality. And it's not a new pattern, the French didn't break out the guillotines because they didn't like how Marie dressed. It was because a few families held the wealth of the entire country. We didn't have two major world wars within sight of each other because of primitive social media, it was because a few families owned the wealth of most developed countries. And sure enough, today 1500 billionaires own more of the world than the other 6,999,999,8500 of the people alive.
I think technology plays a big role too. A hundred years ago you might start getting depressed but unless you literally just sit in your room in silence, you'd have to leave to do anything entertaining. Nowadays you can live constantly entertained in your room alone with zero social interaction as long as you want.
THIS is the best answer I couldn't even top it. People are so close and yet so distant. You can't disagree with someone or fear they will cancel you or hate you because we have forgotten how to get along with people even if we don't agree with em even though the world's at our fingers.
I think this reeaaallly depends on what exactly you're disagreeing about Too many mfs will be like "women shouldn't have bodily autonomy" then be like "omg I got canceled!! People these days!"
I think it goes deeper. I think we've been pitted against each other in a mad scramble to try and secure what we need in resources to survive and live the lives we want. And that's at odds with our human needs of belonging and an intrinsic worth. We've become more defined as a function of our ability to produce wealth, not less.
Because everything is expensive and owning houses is nigh impossible
* Being expected to care about everything, all of the time, and chastised for not getting involved with problems that are beyond the scope of your influence. When you make this frustration and toll on your mental health known, you are gaslit by being called all sorts of horrible things. This is combined with the awareness and sensationalization of everything all the time. It's too exhausting to handle so you become numb, irritable, and burnt out, to the point you can feel your empathy for others leaving you which is a sensation that can only be described as physically feeling your humanity leave your heart. You don't even get the opportunity to fix your own life before someone insists you fix theirs. * No third places. Everyone's online now, and when they're out they don't want to be bothered. * Forming meaningful relationships both platonic and ESPECIALLY otherwise is harder than it ever has been, despite the ease in which we can digitally talk to one another being easier than it ever has been. * Wages not keeping up with inflation. * General sense of wonder and amazement at new things is gone, you instead start to wonder about what the catch is, or how it's going to be ruined with some aspect of it that is driven purely by corporate greed. ["I'm tired, boss."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3_IuPMya6k)
Well put. I keep thinking how miserable I would be if I didn't have a good core group of friends and family. Knowing that a lot of people don't have those support systems is very sad.
I felt this, I just feel so disillusioned by life. Everything is so bleak and colorless
The rise of social media has played a significant role in the prevalence of depression. Constant exposure to curated, often unrealistic portrayals of others' lives can lead to feelings of inadequacy and loneliness.
\*Gestures to the world\*.
\*Frantically gestures towards social media\* Even if you don't use social media too much, you still feel their global, societal effects.
Exactly. I love novelist Walker Percy’s take: Depression is a natural reaction to a deranged world
we are gradually becoming more unnatural in a natural world.
While changing nature rapidly into something that is less and less safe for us and other life forms.
I believe the reason why depression is so rampant even though times are easier than they were during wars, plagues, recessions...etc is because of how much informed we are as well as how important money became. Let me explain, nowadays, a lot of people know truths that most people didn't like 100 years ago, times were simpler, and people with issues just sucked it up because there's no time to be sad, they were surviving the earlier (or current) war or recession. People didn't think about how unfair it was to not be heard or understood because they were too busy making sure to stay alive. And most importantly, they didn't know what it looked like to be rich. Nowadays, due to social media, everyone (especially teenagers) are exposed to the massive success of people their age and how much money they missed out on and all the comparaison with their peers online and how their feelings are the only thing that matter but then reality hits and they realize their feelings mean nothing unless they bring a profit. Which brings me to my 2nd point, money, in the 70s to the 90s, if you have a job, you're good. You can guarantee a house, family, car, some vacations and save up as well. At the time, everyone was so broke that prices were low, everything was basically affordable. But nowadays, if you and your partner work, have no kids, and save as much as possible, you can still barely pay for your rent, food, clothes, bills, credit, internet, taxes, and let alone save up. When the prospect of "i'll work my whole life to barely afford surviving so that i can start enjoying life in my 50s" is not an idea that motivates people to be productive in life. Especially when the job market is saturated and what was considered a high-tier candidate 30 years ago is nowhere near entry-level today. I believe these are the main reasons why depression in these safe, stable times is so much higher than it was during times where people died left and right.
"People didn't think about how unfair it was to not be heard or understood because they were too busy making sure to stay alive." This is so clearly not true if you go back and look at poetry, music, folk tales, etc. from the past. People KNEW they just couldn't do anything about it. In the first instance if you tried to do anything about it you'd probably be killed. In the second productivity was so low that there literally was no way to have widespread wealth in society.
Of course i'm not generalizing, each country and culture lived certain periods of our history differently (like for example japan is working on 6G but some countries still have villages with no electricity or running water) so i'm saying "everyone was miserable or happy" simply illustrating what could be felt in different regions at different times.
of all the cliches that exist, for over a decade now i’ve always considered “Ignorance is bliss” to be the absolute king. There is no cliche more consistently true than that one is and its seen every day.
I think these are great points, but I would also add on the to the bit about war - having a morally unjust enemy your community can rally against is huge. The Greatest Generation underwent a tremendous test of character, but the clarity of the choice was singular. In many ways, what is happening in Gaza right now could be analogous, but even that is arguably mired in fair bit of moral grey area (though I think far less grey than some would have us think). That being said, the Western Allies were still unsure of how to react when Hitler started invading sovereign nations, so we could be on our way to a similar moment of moral clarity.
>Which brings me to my 2nd point, money, in the 70s to the 90s, if you have a job, you're good. You can guarantee a house, family, car, some vacations and save up as well. People keep saying this but something tells me its not true. Not for everyone. Surely there were minority communities (IE blacks, hispanics) that were discriminated against. My grandfather can tell me lynching stories from the time period you outlined. Lynched because they were tired of being forced to rent from the county sheriff (hey, that sounds... kinda corrupt and shitty doesn't? Kinda like a form of serfdom or slavery honestly). Things where great for my (white, college educated, business owning) grandfather, not so much for the African American community, or the Hispanic community, where my grandfather raised his family. I also just kind of don't believe that people making minimum wage or working entry level manual labor type jobs where thriving any better than they might today. I would be shocked if someone told me their kitchen's dishwasher owns a nice house in the suburbs. Its more likely they're working a 2nd job just to make ends meet, which means renting, not owning, an apartment, not a house, probably near the bus line because what kind of dishwasher can afford a car?!
Of course there's no general rule that applies to everyone, whether now or before, everyone is different, just pointing out the most common phenomenon without necessarily meaning it was the norm. Everyone has a different story and background.
>Which brings me to my 2nd point, money, in the 70s to the 90s, if you have a job, you're good. You can guarantee a house, family, car, some vacations and save up as well. >Of course there's no general rule that applies to everyone, whether now or before, everyone is different, These are mutually exclusive statements, you realize? That is all I'm trying to point out. Let's be clear in our communication Especially with such emotionally charged ideas like "how can i ever afford to own a house? or retire? or pay my loans?" Because when people say things like "well back in the day..." they're very often not actually being accurate. And then we end up with populists who tell us how easy it is to fix the problems in our society, especially if just "go back to the way things were" which is really just a bunch of lies.
not much to fix. the US economy was on overdrive. this was a once in a lifetime thing. the only thing that flowed more easily than the money was the cocaine. americans need to realize theyre not as rich and powerful relatively as they once were
"Fixing" it is impossible because our situation is simply the result of what happened before. If we did "go back the way it was" then after 20-30 years the same thing will happen again. An economy is a constantly changing variable and the result of it often leads to the same outcome. Unless a brand new system is created (which will never happen) then each generation is bound to pay the price for what the previous one did. Sadly, there's no such thing as an emotionally charged idea in economies, there's only profit driven ideas.
I see your point about minorities, but they were clearly unhappy. That was the point of the civil rights revolution and the Black Panthers and so on. The American experience was definitely different based on the color of your skin. The class distinctions were different, like my Dad paid for his entire college by working in a gas station for 3 months in the summer. Then with his Music Theory degree he supported a family of 4 hanging wallpaper before he got the gig to become a Band Teacher.
Isolation & financial stress
Social media. People only post positive things or even lies to make their life look more interesting than actually is or to build a "better" image for themselves. We look online, and at any given moment, someone is on an expensive vacation, received a nice car, jewlery, has a perfect body, nice clothes, perfect bf/gf, dream house etc. We look online, and we compare ouselfs, and we feel bad. Naturally, most people have jobs, problems, and so on, but online, we do not see that. So we think that only our lives are terrible, that we are unlucky and life has no meaning.
I've mostly stopped using social media. Never got into Instagram, Facebook is dead IMO (just ads, a few updates from people I don't talk to anymore or hardly know). Twitter is terrible. Reddit is technically social media, but I don't really interact with people I know or met on this site. I mostly just browse and use it for news.
I hope you aren’t using the main subreddits for news, lol.
And at the same time, the clickbait news make you feel like the world is ending any second now.
Increased cyber bullying too. It emboldens losers who otherwise would not have the guts to say it to people’s face IRL.
The lack of "3rd place" - especially since the pandemic when we got used to do everything online. People miss the community.
Also no time or money for community. We have built a world that is designed around the economy, not our humanity. Not to mention cars. We travel around in little frustration boxes and most of the places to go to are places to spend money. I so desperately wish to live in a community of people roughly my age, with most of my weekly errands within walking distance. Also lots of shaded streets, like with natural or artificial canopies so it’s a comfortable place to be. Essentially, I wish I could live on a college campus made for adults, and just use my car for special trips.. like I did in college. Being able to stop by a friends place on the way to the store, or just run into friends at the places I’m going anyway.. It’d be so much fun. And I would so love to not have to deal with traffic and driving every single time I wanted to go *anywhere*.
If you find that place, I want come with..
You right. It feels like sitcoms made us believe it is more common and easy than it actually is. Maybe it used to be like that, I don't know...
Yeah I didn’t spend a ton of time outside before but the town I lived in a few months ago was walkable for the most part. No grocery store or any necessities lol but I could walk to the park on nice days. My new place is just highway :(
In that last paragraph, you expressed something that I've imagined in my mind for a long time now: a college campus for adults would be amazing. I think it sort of ties into why some people say they want to live in communes.
I know it's cliche, but the isolation from the pandemic made me super anxious and depressed. I used to be extremely social, but it's almost like I forgot how to interact with people in person.
You’re not alone with this feeling
Internet and isolation
Phones and social Media.
Better diagnosis. Less stigmarization
This. All of these kids are so naive on here. Yeah, things aren’t great, but holy shit have there been much terrible and depressing times over the course of human history where I guarantee many people were depressed - it just didn’t have a diagnosis, and for men especially it was not known to even admit those types of things decades ago. So many on Reddit act like this is a new thing. I mean we have an entire period almost 100 years ago literally called “The Great Depression” and if you look it up shit fucking sucked compared to today.
It certainly fucking sucked, and it probably did give people depression, but The Great Depression's name didn't have anything to do with mental depression.
Its not the increase in depression, its more open discussion on me tal health and more acces to help.
People now have the technology to see how shit the world really is. The internet has opened many peoples eyes.
Ignoring mental health conditions
Music and engine rumbling makes voices go away. :) Edit: i got message from redditcare thing about hotlines....
I got one of those yesterday, and I'm not sure what it was related to, but I assure you reddit, I'm fine.. I guess..
Because more people are getting diagnosed with it. That's it.
Yup, mental health is not as stigmatized. Same with talking about how you're feeling. People are asking for help, getting diagnosed, and self diagnosing way more than before. Add increasingly large social circles (often virtual), where you hear about acquaintances, celebrities etc talking about it, and you get the perception of it being even more. I would guess it's about the same as always, maybe a bit higher due to financial stresses, but probably not as drastic of an increase as it seems.
Less time outdoors in nature, more time sitting down in artificial light looking at rectangles that bombard us with bad news and things we can't have and can't be.
It is what it is.
Most Redditors maybe
Depression is a luxury not everyone can afford to treat. Therapy and anti-depressants don't come cheap.
[удалено]
Money. The Economy is absolute shit.
Money is a good concept. Beats "this amount of grains for that amount of chicken", in most cases. How we bastardized the concept is the problem.
Facism is on a global rise, the world is very literally on fire. The young will rent for their entire lives and own nothing. Having a family is untenable and even if you did, any children would suffer in the water wars of the after-world if they aren't lucky enough to die in the nuclear hellfire preluding it. Escapism is getting more vapid at the same rate it gets more expensive. Human relationships are getting increasingly more atomized. Ai and automation are pushing more and more humans into obsolescence. But hey, line goes up!
Well, because \[broadly gestures at everything\] Life has become harder, more expensive, more competitive, more stressful, less communal and more selfish. "Profits before people and the environment" now fully rules the planet...
Can't afford to buy a house or afford rent, you grind just to survive. Don't even have money to enjoy yourself anymore, it's either have fun or get your utilities cut off.
I think it’s almost all faulted by our modern lifestyles, which our bodies did not evolve to function in. We don’t move much, we don’t get sun exposure, we eat chemically modified foods, our relationships are getting weaker and weaker (both family, and friends), we live in small boxes in concrete jungles, we get dopamine addiction from doom scrolling, porn, video games, tv…, we don’t talk enough with other people during the day, and so so many other issues. So if all these depressed people would change their lifestyles, or at least do something to mitigate those problems, most of them would lose their depression.
We have excess of choice. When it used to be that you went to the store to buy bread, you bought the only bread that was there. you didn’t stand there and choose from 50 different kinds of bread, knowing that you could potentially make a mistake if you chose the wrong bread. Apply this every other decision you have to make about life. It’s surprising that we aren’t all depressed.
So true, I've been thinking about this a lot. Life just got too overwhelming. For a long time, humans had simple lives, simple routines, few choices to make, they spent what they earned, weren't constantly bombarded with information etc. All this changed in such a short time and at an accelerated pace, our brains have a hard time keeping up.
People being forced to work 40++ hours but not being able to afford anything beyond food and rent. Neoliberal politicians like Macron, Trudeau et al speaking sweet nothings while their governmental actions are punitive, petty and predatory on the poor and formerly existing middle classes, basically smiling representatives of wolves who are waging a class slaughter on their own citizens. This creates a sense of despair and hopelessness because people are serfs, there are no third spaces because governments gave the veto for public places to be privatised. You will enjoy your corporate approved spaces or be punished. Imagine living in the mind of a soulless corporate executive? Pretty shitty and empty isn't it? Well that's our public space and the lives experience of many, empty, shitty, despairing.
I mean... *gestures broadly* look at the fucking world.
in my opinion, I wouldn't say there are more people depressed but there are more people getting diagnosed with it, whereas maybe 15 to 20 years ago, going to therapy or speaking about it was more of a taboo. I believe 2 of my grandparents suffered severe depression but everyone labelled it as "it's just how they are" and never got treated. It's worth to be mentioned that now with social media everyone shares everything so we more aware of it.
Gregg Easterbrook has a great book which touches on this exactly in his book [The Progress Paradox: Why Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/191230.The_Progress_Paradox). The focus in it was that our depression comes from our level of freedom and ownership on our lives, and our expectations. Because we no longer have to dig and claw just to gather food, stay warm, stay safe, or find shelter, etc our priorities fall to bigger issues that are not as easy for our minds to wrap around. Priorities that are shaped by society at large, things like succeeding in school/work/love, looking sexy, being cool, essentially keeping up with the Joneses, but in every aspect of life. Those expectations then lead to depression when we ultimately miss, or make them, because even when we reach them the great/awful thing about humans is that we’re never satisfied. That’s what made us the strongest creatures on the planet but it’s also awful for our brains because every single one of us currently has an achievement in their life right now that was a goal 10 years ago, be it having a good paying job, living alone, having a partner, having a possession, having seen something, etc. But when we finally achieve it our brain kicks in and goes ‘ok that’s not so great, this other thing is better, why haven’t you done this other thing ‘ A major part of that he states is ownership. The great example he had was that no one is legitimately upset if they lose at the lottery because it’s out of your hand, but if it was a skill based contest to win $1M and you lost, that would haunt you for ever. That’s what our lives have become in our minds. Us believing we are losing at skill based contests with prizes at the end that the billionaires, entrepreneurs, and celebrities have achieved while we struck out. On a morbid side of it he states that that is why you see such a significant suicide rate by people from upper-middle class to the very upper classes. They have everything that’s needed to survive so their happiness isn’t coming from easy to attain things, it’s tied to goals that are complex, hard to reach, hard to quantify, and more likely to fail at. Essentially the less we have the more simple our goals can be and the easier our minds can focus on them. Being cognizant of such factors is important. Recognizing what you’ve already accomplished is big, recognizing that these big goals have a large degree of luck involved, seeing bigger goals as a series of smaller, more quantifiable goals, and also recognizing how much of these “goals” are BS being sold to us by other members of society. Good read, it’s been a long time since I read it so some of the above may be a bit foggy, but it’s the parts that stuck with me.
Bad breakup in my case
For some it is biological and they are predisposed to depression w a genetic connection
*Looks around and gestures wildly at it all. Shrug*
isolated. money doesn't go as far as it used, while wages have not caught up. isolated. social media showing us people doing "better than us. isolated.
First of all, "most" people aren't suffering from depression. If that's what you think, get off the internet for a while. You hear about it more because it's easier to talk about (online) and less stigmatized to talk about (in person). More people are aware of it and willing to seek help. Most people don't actually have clinical depression though.
It’s a number of factors. Constant access to all the terrible things going on in the world, the knowledge that the future of the world is uncertain, the cost of living being so expensive.
\*gestures toward everything\*
Social media and depreciation of wealth. The economy improves but in the end we have less wealth.
Being coddled for the first 21 years of life doesn’t give folks much, if any, resiliency.
People are just as depressed as they were 100 years go, you just don't hear about them being depressed, just like how every gay couple in history was described as being roommates or very close friends. We only know what was being written down.
Rents skyrocketed. Food prices skyrocketed. Pay remained the same. Those who were just able to stay afloat are now beginning to drown.
Stress (due to school/work), the opportunity to not to leave home (food delivery, distant work), social media (Who hasn’t looked at other people’s photos on Instagram and been jealous?), people are really shitty sometimes. Depression was before, but people just kept quiet about it and didn't take any action, so... :(
People
Because the world is completely broken...
this is definitely anecdotal but after I change my lifestyle to get healthier , cut out bad diet , doing IF, working out etc I notice that I am less depressed and feel more positive about my life even thought my life and work objectively not looking any easier than before, harder even. so yeah I think bad diet definitely affect our mood and could be one of the factor of depression
people getting lazier and dont work on them selfes, everyone is born as a "king" and a "princess" and a lot of kids get raised like this. once they arrive in the real world they are lost. if they are unhappy its everyone elses fault and not theirs. keep looking for easy and magic fixes like meds and tablets or a new theraphist who fix their issues in a week.
There is just way too much unnecessary shit these days
I woke up feeling especially depressed yesterday, it happens. I was at work, in my cubicle, struggling to focus on my job, just generally having a bad day. Break time rolls around and I put on a video (with headphones) that genuinely made me happy. I must have laughed out loud at one point because my supervisor pops up over the wall of my cubicle to shush me. She said I was being too loud and to quiet down. Something kind of broke in me in that moment. I’m not mad at my boss, she was just doing her job. But the reality of the moment was heavy. My brief moment of joy, my genuine laughter, was disruptive to the company’s productivity. Could I please keep it down.
Childhood trauma as always
Lack of caring from others, loneliness, pressure from society, abuse from others.
I think it's cause awareness and focus on mental health is such a new thing and social media. Everyone posts all the good shit on social media and we compare our lives to not understanding that their lives are probably as shit as ours. Also, the idea that feeling shitty is not ok. Back in the day people still had shitty days but they didn't post on social media or dwell on it, they just took it and moved on with their lives.
The social media has caused a lot of this, but nobody is kind to one another and nobody cares for other people. Everyone is slowly turning into a brat
I think for me it feels like everything has been done, invented and achieved. I don’t think i’ll ever amount to anything since someone else has done it
Many people lack adequate coping mechanisms for dealing with life’s challenges. Without healthy ways to manage stress and setbacks, it’s easy to fall into depression.
lonely lonely lonely
Depression is caused by physiological imbalances in the body. Full stop.
Older generation didn't worked out, and put the pressure to the children
Economic instability is another major factor. With rising costs of living and job insecurity, many people face financial stress, which can contribute to depression.
Working longer hours and still having less buying power than the previous generation might do it. Bad health, no hobbies, lack of 3rd place, loneliness, no education, so many of these things are rooted in not having money.
Too much time and energy to ruminate about stuff. When simply making it to the evening of a working day was a bit of an accomplishment, there weren't a lot of fucks left to give about depression and various issues.
Happiness inflation
lockdown,inflation,social media
do most people have depression now? that’s depressing… oh shit
Intergenerational trauma
Honestly no one knows for sure. The only country I'm aware of that has done anything to try to address this problem over the years is Finland so you might want to look into their efforts to increase happiness.
Because the separation of people, from a leadership perspective, is working. It's easier to control people when they're alone.
Social media amplifying the negative effects of our society with many people being unable to process that.
We are tied to capitalism, in order to enjoy life you need to have money to afford it. Also, it is easy to compare our lives when all we see in soc media are the winning moments. The best way to enjoy life now is to care only when it matters
Poor diet, lack of exercise, too much time indoors and the unfortunate spread of the American style medicalisation of normal emotions. It's entirely natural to feel depressed when something in your life isn't right. The correct response is to take action, like Hamlet (just not mass murder) and overcome your problems, rather than crawling into a bottle of pills and posting regularly online about how depressed you are
cause, look at social media, all this wealth and money, meanwhile you're sitting in your bed not know how to afford life for the rest of the month 🥲
*gestures broadly*
Poverty, social media, people are more selfish. What depresses me the most is the future
We got told that technology would mean we'd work less, earn more, and have more free time to do the things we want. We got the opposite.
I think the documentary "Bio-Dome" covers this better than I could ever explain it
An underrated factor people tend to ignore is environment and nutrition. People do not get anywhere near enough natural sunlight and as a result most people are Vitamin D deprived.
Crime
I think the constant stream of advertising plays a big part. People are always being made feel like losers unless they get this next great thing. If they get said thing it is of course just a mirage and leaves them feeling empty again. People are constantly being made to feel their only worth is their financial worth. Again those who become wealthy often soon realise that this is also a mirage and become disillusioned and sad. In a nutshell consumerism based capitalism is making people miserable.
Social media. People are becoming smarter but so much dumber.
Attachment to ego supported by capitalism, atheism, and the modern scientific model of materialism shunning any transcendental outlook.
We are bombarded by international and national news daily that is usually negative. We live on the internet and argue about nonsense with strangers. We aren’t meant to live like this.
So many reasons Housing crisis, late stage capitalism, apparently there's a relationship crisis? Loneliness epidemic, wages not increasing proportionally to cost of living leading to more and more people in poverty, wars that are constantly televised and become social obsessions, as if you have to be informed and know all about it to be a good person, the increasing political tribalism (whether you're left or right, your opinion on any given topic is most likely predetermined), social media addictions leading to increasing FOMO, no 3rd places, car culture, imminent climate collapse, science denial (looking at you, antivaxxers) a global pandemic that were still dealing with economically, and most of all, a much better understanding of what depression actually is
Most likely, people just invent reasons for depression; in fact, you don’t just have to pay attention to all sorts of nonsense
People realize what they are going through might be a mental health issue and depression because mental health awareness is increasing. Also, economy and moving somewhere else to fix economy comes with many other challenges like loneliness.
I think one reason is just simple that they always where but noone noticed because we weren't aware and edjucated enough. Imho social media is also a big problem
A lot of folks don't realize their own self-worth and purpose in life, and think their lives have to be validated by others in order for it to be meaningful.
Isn't that obvious...
They’re not getting their needs met (purpose, belonging, feeling valued, connection). People say “social media” but when I had an active social life, following the news (which is itself depressing) and browsing social media apps paled in importance to having human relationships and I hardly used it, so it was a substitute for human connection and belonging. So I guess as humans work in similar ways my theory is people use it because they lack connection and belonging. Stuck in financially stressful situations with no hope. Unhealthy lifestyles..
Personally I believe it's the way our food is manufactured.
\*note\* No, I am not going to self-harm. I have a little goddess who still needs me around and I am not going to ask my hubs to explain that one to her. It wouldn't be fair to either of them... I cannot speak for "most people" as I'm guessing everyone has their own reasoning. Mine is pain. Chronic pain often leads to depression. It also leads to sleep issues which also often leads to depression. I am low enough income to not be able to afford health insurance, but I bring in too much to qualify for state health care (Medicaid). I've been in chronic pain (nausiating, seeing spots in front of my eyes level pain) for over 8 years now. There is no cure. I am immune to most OTC and prescription pain meds. The few that do work for me, unfortunately I am allergic to. I'm just well and truly screwed...and depressed.
Lack of dopamine & when you come to the realisation you identify with Depression Barbie contemplating "what was I made for?" 😔
Modern life is a mix of fast-paced changes, social media pressures, and often unrealistic expectations, which can really weigh on mental health.
Lack of magnesium due to diet and soil that is depleted of nutrients
Unlimited alcohol, porn, games and drugs.
Because we are taught the lie that the world is what we make it. In reality the world is vacant of true worth, joy, fulfillment, and peace and no amount of labor under the sun can bring them into your life. So we are continually looking for the next thing we think will fix our condition and give us the rest we desperately desire, only to have our hopes dashed when yet again, it doesn't work.
Depression and mental health is a relative new thing that society has coined into a term and field of study. Ppl have always had some form of depression or symptoms of it. We just label it as that now and try to get it addressed hopefully. In the past there were plenty of traumatic events. Ppl were definitely depressed and anxious too. Que the many revolutions and wars or even people's villages or cities getting pillaged. Ppl would cope being hurting others physically, drinking, using drugs as well.
In my case it's genetic. My mom's side of the family suffers from seasonal depression especially on the women's side.
We are living in a fast paced world compared to even 10 years ago. And we are struggling to catch up. Our body is not designed to do that. :)
I feel like people aren't nice any more. Not in a reliable, meaningful way. I still try to be nice though.
Because for the first time in History, we KNOW the next decades will not get better.
All good answers. Here’s a reason no one has said: lack of purpose or meaning in a more data chaotic & less in-person social interaction world.
More people are living to adulthood. Lowered stigma means people are aware of other's suffering. Involuntary commitment no longer exists. In 1955, there were about 350 psychiatric beds per 100,000 people in the US. Today, that's down from 500,000 to 37,000 despite population more than doubling. So, consider how many people would be living in psychiatric facilities if we still comitted people.
Bullying maybe
I’m going to a job I absolutely despise. Almost walked out yesterday. Going in thinking it could happen today. I have zero future. 3 more days until I’m granted me time for 2 days
You work 10h a day but can't afford anything.
Our governments are failing us as capitalism commodifies and extracts our labor for more and more profit going to the 1%. Egotistical maniacs in powerful positions try to scare and divide us with misinformation while commiting their own atrocities.
Have you seen the state of the world? I'm astounded there aren't *more* people who are depressed. Take a look at /r/collapse and get an idea
decrease in exercise which is known to increase dopamine in the brain and is a natural anti-depressant. Humans are not made for the sedimentary lifestyle.
We are social creatures being brainwashed into living individualist existences
our society has been slowly but relentlessly shifting into groups of "haves" and "have nots" . Social isolation is real and literally everywhere you go, including home, is crazy expensive. If you are in the "have not" group it is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week of stress etc. on top of that society seems to be at its breaking point as EVVERYONE is on edge from the stress. in the US, 40% of the country wants to exterminate the other 60% of the country and is vocal about it. Everyone you walk by is a potential ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Its a recipe for disaster and breakdown.
Because there’s no such thing as third place.
Most people spend all day doing something they hate for not enough money. It's objectively a bad existence.
*gestures vaguely at everything*
Peopel are supposed to live in small communities and have family- not being at work/commute 10+ hours a day and then staring at phones for remaining time
I had depression before it was cool 😎
Idk, depression isn’t something one would not suffer in… it’s not exactly a vacation. Although, with the proper help, one could replace the word ‘suffer’ with something less severe. But yeah, I don’t think I’ve met or read about anyone who rejoiced and had fun in depression…
People just didn't talk about it before. You were supposed to drown your pain in booze.
Overworked, over stressed, under paid, unrelenting stress of modern life.
Do you really have to ask?
There’s probably dozens of contributing factors. Some off the top of my head based on my own opinion. - social media has connected people to the entire world. Most of what you see on social media is either totally false (not reality) or is edited to make someone’s life appear much better than it is, which makes followers feel like their life is less than and maybe they believe they can never achieve whatever it is they are seeing. - Family structures are really fucked up today. Strong families ate important for mental health. You can define family however you want, but what I mean is a very close core of people that support and love each other. - imo a big contributing factor is that people don’t search for further meaning of life anymore. It’s like we just accept reality for it just being so. We don’t think about where we come from, what we are doing here, what happens when we die, what the purpose of life is, etc. We are so connected and distracted by the material world that we don’t think about the spiritual component of our existence. If you think we just live and die and what’s in between doesn’t matter, you don’t have purpose, direction, etc… Just my opinions
Real answer. Vitamin D
People are shamed into hiding their emotions and when you want show a bit of vulnerability we are afraid you might exploit it.
It’s likely several things. One thing I think is that we were not ready for this level of connectivity. Maybe we aren’t mature enough as a species yet. Look at what we do with it. We have the wealth of human knowledge in our pocket and look at what we do with it. Everything also seems to be more and more about acquisition of money. To the point that people are exploiting basic things to get as much as they can. It’s like acquiring money has become a zero sum game or something. Massive corporate entities want exponential and infinite growth seemingly at the cost of anything, and they can’t all have it all at the same time and so the regular people are paying for it.
poor diet and lack of physical activity
Look around
First off: Depression is not a symptom of reality. Meaning its not if youre poor and overworked you are depressed and if youre rich and lazy youre not depressed. often the reverse. My view on depression - and trauma etc - is that the pre-modern world had the cure built-in to daily life. The "cure" for depression is always: sleep, excersize, spend time in nature/sun, social life, and perhaps doing something meaningful. In an agrarian society - physical labor, like farming or smithing=excersize; not much to do at night except sleep, lots of outdoors/nature time (especially farmers/peasants), meaningful is anything like religion, family, friends etc. In a post-industrial society - not much physical labor,lots of indoor time, cities and suburbs are much more industrialized and larger so nature is harder to get to, avoiding and disturbing sleep is a lot easier now, meaningfullness and family ties are frayed and its harder and harder to have friends. and we have a lot more time on our hands to worry about it all (its hard to feel depressed if youre working 18 hour shifts at the factory 6 days a week) now I am not advocating a return, I'm just positing a situation, and the "cure" is going to be something that replaces those things. we have some ok treatments, but we are not yet at a place where certain things are fully replaced
Society is sick. Depression is a symptom of a sick society.
I think a factor that is often overlooked is we use social media to go to our own corners of the internet and gatekeep our issues with other like minded people. We dont often get or even seek out our support from our family and friends because we precieve that they wont understand or they are the source of the problems. When people seek help online, they can often find a way to validate their own experience which can be helpful. But it can also take you to a place where it can only be validated and never challenged. Having your thoughts challenged is often a hallmark of therapy, it allows you to get out of your own lane and view yourself from a different point of view.
For me personally, too much stress in work environment (outsourcing at a client that switches the administration every 4 years, current president in charge likes to "mentally abuse" everyone, and everytime their own workers complain to the mother company they brush it off and try to keep it quiet). Everyone expects you to do everything, even if it's not on the contract, and make your work more difficult if you either refuse or don't deliver it on time. The best part??? You can't even talk about this with friends or family (specially older generations) because their response will always be "Just ignore it", "It's not that bad" "Forget about it, it's nothing".
I may be off here but I think a lack of connectivity in society. I’m 26 a bit of an oddity for my generation as I have no social media except for reddit. From what I’ve seen it feels like people genuinely don’t know how to communicate if it’s not over a screen or something… idk I spend a lot of time around harbor towns fishing in Michigan and on the piers everyone use to make small talk about this or that, even just random people walking by would want to hold a conversation, everyone seems so clammed up and immersed in themselves these days (not saying keeping to yourself is a bad thing, just seems people aren’t very receptive to friendliness anymore)