Why do most people get depressed when they lose their job? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

I've never understood why people feel depressed, or even suicidal, when they lose their job. You'd think they'd feel the opposite. I mean, think about it. In a regular normal job, you constantly live in fear, just for a paycheck. You are also stressed and scrutinized constantly. People were not meant to live that way. Look at the way those office workers lived in the movie "Office Space" for example. So, when you are fired or set free from that, wouldn't you feel a big relief, like a burden has been lifted off your shoulders? Wouldn't you feel as if you've been set free from prison or got out of jail? I certainly would. So why then, do most people feel depressed and humiliated, like their life has been sucked out of them, when they lose their job? It doesn't make sense and should be the opposite, shouldn't they?

Check out this article:

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
www.stevepavlina.com...

I'd hazard a guess that this is more the case for those who have family to support.

I stuck my last job out 3 years longer than i would have hoped for because of the security of the paycheck. My kids and wife were fed and we had a roof over our head.

There isn't always the jobs around to just change to either, that can be stressful.

Not read your link yet, will go and take a look.

CX.

I think it is true when you have a family to support you get really scared if you lose a job. You're responsible for the well-being of your family and they are counting on you. When you somehow lose the ability to provide security it can be a very scary and tremendous thing. Your wife will be scared too and will most likely not want to have sex. Stress will invade your life extremely quickly and harshly. This can cause a lot of people to commit suicide especially if they have little savings and no where to go. If they lose their house it can be even worse.

Men want to have happy secure homes so their wives feel well protected and can "blossom" if you know what I mean. When the money flow is disrupted this good life can suddenly cease and the wife will "dry up" and turn bitter toward the man.

Uhmm,just a guess here.I don't know what world you live in but most people have bills to pay.So that's why we need our jobs.Losing said job means bills will not be paid.Which could lead to losing everything.It's human nature to worry or be sad/depressed when you lose your job.If I was to lose mine I'd worry to death about how I'd feed/cloth my daughter.In a perfect world everything would be free.But it's not.

reply to post by WWu777


Well one factor is going from a routine to doing absolutely nothing. This some times triggers depression as you do not feel needed, nor do you feel your day is full.

Other is quite obvious, you need that paycheck, how will you keep a roof over your head and food on the table. Financial stress is the main reason.

Of course no one will deny that it's not great to be set free from all that, BUT the burden hangs that a) you're now broke b) you don't feel useful any more.

I'm guessing in some peoples cases, they still live at home, and have their parents security even if they lost their jobs. But for others that is not the case, and they have to support themselves.

Some people feel that way because they have dedicated a good portion of their lives in the workplace, and to get fired is a like a big "F-U we took all your hard work and shoved it where the sun dont shine!"
Also because they no longer have that security that a job offers. Everyone has bills to pay, and when you loose your job and you know it's hard to find another one, many people feel trapped and hopeless.
Not everyone has the means and capabilities to start their own business neither, and most small businesses fail within their first year. It's as risky as going from job to job, paycheck to paycheck.

reply to post by WWu777


Do you have a job?? If not how do you support yourself??

I'll start by saying that I am currently unemployed.

While not having a job a has given me time to learn more about what is going on in the effed up world and prioritize what is actually important over what this screwed up society wants me to believe is important. The problem as stated before is the lack of income because of how the system is setup and how we "live" our lives being subservient to the system. Without a job and a source of income, things that you would normally take for granted when you have a source of income become the source of frustration and depression.

What am I going to do to pay my bills? What am I going to eat? How long will I have a roof over my head? Where am I going to be when I don't have an answer to the previous three questions?

Thinking about those questions makes one have a range of different emotions, depression being one of them for some people. To get out of this damaging process people will take any job they can get that will pay the bills as soon as they can.

This is no coincidence, the system is setup to do this to us. We struggle to make ends meet with a low paying job, then lose the job and our worlds get turned upside down. We jump head first into a lower paying job just to ease the struggle of not having one and the cycle perpetuates itself.

"Struggle for the sake of the struggle"

People who don't have these problems are people how have no financial obligations or are financially independent so there is no need for them to work.

Long ago people used to work to live.
Now we just live to work.

The system is broken and needs fixed, but it isn't going to happen when people who have found stability from a job spend their free time just trying to de-stress after working for pittance and don't see the way we were all setup for a fall.


All that being said, yes it did feel a bit better to not have to work for that wretched low life scum that fired me in october of last year.


ETA: just skimmed that link about not working and starting an online business. you can't start from no where with no money, for most people that will come from a job. the thing is pretty callous in its title 'for smart people' implying that people that don't start an online business are dumb. hate that type of mentality.

I kind of like the idea of a cashless society. Everybody gets what they want. If you are hungry, you eat. Everyone over 21 gets there own house. Everyone could have one large vehicle and one small. Since money is no longer the motivating factor, people will do things for free. Because they want to. Most people just want basic things. No more bills to pay. Free water, free electricty. Free everything.

Originally posted by Mr Moon
reply to post by WWu777

 

Do you have a job?? If not how do you support yourself??

No I'm self employed and make a living off my website. But even before I had my own internet business, I still didn't care about having a job. I never attached my ego to it. Same with grades. They aren't important unless you think they are. I saw the whole system as enslavement anyway. It was no fun. I live for romance, adventure and new experiences. Most jobs are boring and make your day UNMEMORABLE where time passes by with no meaning.

A boring routine creates no meaningful experiences or memories.

I know people who travel the world on little or nothing. One guy rides a bicycle around Thailand and Cambodia, gets free housing from monks in their monasteries in exchange for English lessons, and loves every day of it. He's not enslaved by any job.

A friend of mine is self-employed and travels the world. You can see his blog about his travels in China here:
www.jamaicaninchina.com...

Bills are not going to kill you. So you lose your house. So what? Many stay without getting evicted for years. It's not going to kill you. There are many alternative lifestyles that you don't know of cause the stupid media and education system doesn't tell you about them.

Also, meditate on this:

"What's the point of making a living, if most of your living consists of working?"

You see, if you work everyday just to make a living, yet most or all of your life is spent working, then what's the point of working? Why make a living just to stay alive and continue making a living? Isn't that a circular thing that makes no sense? If you can't do what you love and want with your life, then it kind of defeats the purpose of "making a living" doesn't it? It's self-contradictory. Think and meditate on it. And you will realize the absurdity of it.

It's partly the sadness of a loss. Anything you're used to, even if you're not thrilled with it, when it goes you feel a loss. And also they feel a sense of low self-esteem because in some manner they've been told they're not good enough. And they feel insecure because how are they going to support themselves? So all these things together make them depressed.