Three-quarters suffer depression

Who was the comedian who addressed depression? If someone says you have depression, the correct response is thank you it means I'm awake.

Originally posted by Arizonee
Depression is part of life. I miss the good 'ol days when people weren't so god damned sensitive. People accepted the fact that # happens and life goes on. You took your punches with dignity and picked yourself up again. the last 50 years has seen what i call the Sissification of America. We have been reduced to whining, sniveling pathetic creatures who are too weak and frail to handle the day-to-day stresses of normal life. We are the most advanced and flexible species earth has to offer, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the modern American.

Well in the past imo the people were stronger mentally because the strength of GOD helped them through the hard times. Now with God being taken out of our schools and world, many feel there is no hope.

God is the best therapist and He doesn't charge one penny to talk to either.

Light Shines In The Darkness

[edit on 2-2-2010 by skepticantiseptic]

reply to post by Bombeni


"back then", we didn't have the resources to hear about things, as we do today.

Now peoples feelings / emotions are everywhere, TV, Internet, Phone...

Not saying people were not depressed back then, it just wasn't so easy to be able to hear about it / see it.

reply to post by elevatedone


I am quite sure we had plenty of depression back then. But, as I tried to explain you just sucked it up. At least in most cases I think. Either way, things were just different then. People seemed more satisfied with whatever their lot in life was instead of thinking of what they don't have. That's just the way I happen to see it, plenty may disagree. I only know I actually feel sorry for those who are growing up now, versus "back then" -- so many people have lost hope.

Originally posted by Bombeni
I only know I actually feel sorry for those who are growing up now, versus "back then" -- so many people have lost hope.

I can understand what you're saying. Comparing to the old days, life in the present is technically easier with all the new gadgets at their disposal. But somehow these days people seems emotionally broke, overtly sensitive and really impatient. Things are jus not as unadulterated as before.

Perhaps it is the losing of hope and direction that causes depression - I don't see how it couldn't at least weigh on a person - but it's hard to even consider depression as a viable illness unless you couple it with it's inevitable physical outcome, anxiety (if untreated or ignored).

Accept in very poor taste and foolishness is anxiety anything to laugh at, scoff at, or ridicule in jest. It produces purely urgent physical symptoms seemingly without reason and in an instant (or by trigger), usually at the most inopportune kind of moments (groups of people for instance).

Even though it's the brain seemingly supplying the cause, it produces, among other things, cold sweat, very rapid and/or erratic heart beat, unstable or 'tight' breathing, tingling arms (sometimes sharp spotty pain), vertigo (and petrification), and the most urgent sense of fight or flight response or conquer or escape mentality people ever encounter (by the way, yes, it helps to talk about it).
Worse, it all comes in ever increasing waves of hopelessness, urgency, discomfort and instability of thought process and motor function. These are the physical symptoms of sustained panic in it's most advanced stage. The overwhelming [if left unchecked] thought that life is certainly going to end if you come up with nothing to counter it.

Further, those symptoms are completely incomprehensible to those who haven't experienced them. If you do, there will be no doubt in your mind as to what the meaning of anxiety is, as well as the fact that what you're experiencing at that very moment, is in fact "anxiety".

well,maybe computers makes our life easier,(kidding)but in my humble opinion,life was easier before.Im not against technology,I love it but our grandparents lived without stress,depression,phobias....nowadays we live in a different world,full of chaos violence and natural catastrophes(ex Haiti)
so,its not easy for us to coexist with all of this stuff and keep a healthy mind

reply to post by Jazzyguy


To tell you the truth who wouldn't get depressed in this day and age?

It's hard enough to live and provide for yourself and loved ones let alone having to pay taxes on this or that or fork out for things which are overly priced... also the News is filled with depression so that's bound to get people down... then there's the pressure of keeping your Family together with all the long hours worked... it's a very tough World we live in so yeh depression will come....

We have to be able to do what we enjoy doing to be happy...

I was first diagnosed with severe depression almost twenty years ago. Its been an on-off battle ever since. But I've learned a few things along the way.

1. Depression can be medical/biological in origin. Read up on neurotransmitters....in such cases medication can help. But in my opinion most people who are diagnosed as "depressed" aren't really clinically depressed. So what's happening?

2. People use the term "depressed" to mean "unhappy, bored, or unsatisfied." Here in America there is this perception that we should always feel good. Just watch the beer commercials if you doubt me....even though alcohol is a depressant those beer toting friends always seems to be having a great time with the best looking people around. Just because you don't have the latest gadget, the brightest teeth, or the shiniest car does not mean you are depressed.

3. Depression is........PERCEPTION. Feelings are a natural byproduct of being human. We will all feel anger, sadness, happiness, shyness, boredom, lust, etc....and that is the glory of being human. We can feel. Unfortunantly, that means we can also feel pain, loneliness, etc. What we choose to do with those feelings, however, is up to us. And take it from me, trying to ignore depression doesn't work. You need to identify the cause of the feeling, examine it, and change it if necessary.

4. Healthy bodies do equal healthier minds. What we eat, how we exercise, the amount of sunlight we are exposed to, these really do make a difference.

5. Feeling blue? Watch a video on Youtube of a giggling baby. Mirror neurons pretty much guarantee its impossible to stay sad while watching a toddler giggle....give it a try.

Above all else, realize that the feeling is temporary. It will pass, if you allow it too.

DEPRESSION is really a function of too many ELECTRICAL FREQUENCIES altering our Brain Wave Patterns/Khemicals, affecting MELATONIN and SEROTONIN levels. Its no different from someone who has a Bad Attitude and thus sucks the ENERGY out of a room, ie., TOXIC PEOPLE. We can be influenced by all of that. Its real phenomena. The Solution? Change your environment when and where you can. Reduce ELECTRONIC EMISSIONS, Sleep in completely DARK ROOMS (think Cave), get more Sleep/Rest in the Winter, especially (at least 12-14 hours). No TV after 8pm. We need to be Dialing Down our EXPOSURE to Electrical Frequencies as much as possible. Thatz why we are Depressed.
AFTERTHOUGHT: eat more Protein and Fat too.

Originally posted by Konspiracy Brotha
DEPRESSION is really a function of too many ELECTRICAL FREQUENCIES altering our Brain Wave Patterns/Khemicals, affecting MELATONIN and SEROTONIN levels. Its no different from someone who has a Bad Attitude and thus sucks the ENERGY out of a room, ie., TOXIC PEOPLE.

As someone who has been diagnosed with depression, the toxic people usually are the ones that try to tell me and others that are diagnosed with depression of what depression is and isn't. That's not a god-complex issue, it just merely shows how difficult it is to live life when being constantly mistreated.

That is depression, yet that is depression with a KNOWN CAUSE. For someone to be diagnosed as UNIPOLAR (severe, major depressive disorder), there is NO KNOWN CAUSE.

If medical experts, doctors around the world, and even to go far as to publish in the DSM that MDD means depression for NO KNOWN CAUSE, do people think maybe it might be a good idea to layoff the depressed people as a problem and try not to make them out to be the problem... otherwise... those that do ARE THE CAUSE!!!

The problem is that people now days feel a little sad and suddenly they claim they are 'depressed' when in actual fact they are simply a little sad. Even in the original post:

Women are more likely to feel depressed than men, with 80% saying they regularly or occasionally feel down or unable to cope

Regularly or occasionaly...
Everyone feels down occasionally it doesnt mean they are suffering with depression.

From what ive experianced depression is when nothing feels good or positive, the world feels like the colour is faded, food has no taste and everything around you is basically S***.

The people who simply say things like "im feeling depressed today" are certainly not suffering from depression, most who suffer actual depression do suck it up, do not whine about it, and try to deal with it either until it gets a little better (in years), they get help (medication) or until they simply cant take it anymore and end it.

I don't think depression has really increased, rather I think more people are diagnosed with it. I also believe that many of these diagnoses are in error. Anytime someone feels even a little down, doctors want to put you on the happy pills when in reality, that just clouds your ability to deal with life.

I really feel it is good for a person to coup with traumatic events in their lives because one gains life skills from these experiences. They are part of human nature, part of growth and maturity & most importantly, they give you the ability to handle future hardships you will face. (we all know life is far from easy) When one throws a fix-it pill at the situation, you really are not dealing with anything, you are chemically altering your brain so you don't have to face reality when that is exactly what you should be doing.

With that said, I also want to make it clear that I understand that many suffer true depression and medical intervention is a necessity to get through daily life. I would never discount depression as a real illness, I lost a good friend to it several years ago and know how devastating it can be to those who suffer from it. I just think the term is over-used as the catch all phrase for anyone is not feeling great about their current life situation.

Those of you who've researched their family-history will (mostly) be aware of how hard it was in the past

* children under the age of ten working 14 hour days, six days a week, with church attendance compulsory and fines and other penalties imposed for non-attendance (even though most who failed to attend did so because they were ashamed of their ragged clothing)

* entire families placed in workhouses where conditions were so bad that people chose to die of starvation out in the open, rather than enter a workhouse

* six out of ten children from one family, dying of childhood and other diseases

* wretched poverty, with up to 26 people sharing a three room, dank and dark basement 'home'

* window-tax (a tax imposed on the number of windows in a dwelling) which forced people to brick in their windows, leading to tuberculosis and other diseases

* 200 years ago, the life-expectancy in London for a male was 28 years, according to a recent report. This was caused by unemployment, poverty, starvation diets and overcrowding

* women dying in childbirth, resulting in her children being raised by sometimes a series of stepmothers, alongside numerous half-siblings

* deportation to the colonies as punishment for offences which these days wouldn't even go to court

* thousands of prisoners held in chains below decks of putrid, rotting, rat-infested hulks in the Thames. Some of the prisoners were children as young as ten. Those who didn't die from their imprisonment were transported to the US and Australia

* children from poor families being placed in service as lowly servants or apprenticed to brutal abbatoirs. Regardless of what talents and skills the children possessed, they were condemned to a lowly life of no opportunity or education

* entire families at work weaving lengths of cloth in their tiny homes. No running water or electricity or any modern technology. When they weren't working to produce woollens and cloth to sell for a pittance, they worked in snow, sleet, rain, frost and mud on their small pieces of land where they struggled to raise enough basic crops to keep them alive


* amputations without anaesthetic

* teeth extracted with pliers ... no anaesthetic

* no antibiotics or penicillin: people died in agony and children died in their tens of thousands from what today are regarded as 'ordinary childhood diseases'. The deaths of children and family members were as painful then to their parents and loved-ones as they are today

* old people dying in the cold and from starvation and sickness. No welfare State. No age pensions

* streets filled with homeless orphans who were seized or bought by factory owners and put to the most dangerous of occupations where they were killed or suffered loss of limbs and eyesight


Most people of the past suffered bouts of extreme depression, with good reason, just as they do today

Conditions are much improved today, but still fail to meet expectations, much of the time, leading to a sense of hopelessness and despair

There are degrees of depression, ranging from the occasional 'feeling low' to a crippling, chronic depression which renders sufferers virtually immobile

Dependency on prescription drugs can exacerbate the condition, whereas a simple philosophy of 'keeping busy' (at basically anything) can provide relief, depending on the severity of the symptoms

Depression in its many forms will be with us as long as we're human, but it needn't always be a negative. Depressed people tend quite often to introspection, which sometimes bears valuable fruit

We have become disconnected.

That is why so many people are depressed. Take an animal out of its natural environment and it will die.

That is what has happened to humanity - we have died, our souls have shrivelled.

Technology is the culprit.

Since technology has taken over the world, humanity has died.