Do we have a depression illness epidemic?

[TheGreatA]

Evolution does condition the mind but I can't tell if you are saying there is an artificial selection process (chosen for domestication) or if it is the natural outcome of evolution. I lean towards the latter, but could see it going the other way eventually.

As for dependency, yeah systems are often built up around human nature/psychology. Dependency is probably the biggest factor when it comes to having people 'voluntarily' do what you want them to do. Plenty of factors at play though.

I do not think there is really a "natural" outcome to evolution. How we wish to evolve is a choice. Largely a collective choice, but a choice nonetheless.

Right now I see ourselves as making the wrong choice. We are turning away from the principles which our societies were built upon, which have allowed us in the West to develop certain qualities that the Asian man or the Middle Eastern or the African man may not have (atleast mentally, if not physically).

In a society of 1,3 billion people, focusing on productivity alone, reducing a man to the level of a "unit" serving a particular function, there will be no room for the qualities that we've managed to cultivate over here.

 

[Deleted member 409801]

I don't think depression is a new phenomenon caused by the rigors of modern society -- it's just a more acceptable form of illness so more people come out and admit to it.

Pretty sure the stresses of life in the Alaskan wilderness trumps that of the modern metropolis -- it's just that mental health is becoming more of a mainstream notion.

There has always been a 3rd option in a stress situation -- people think it is fight or flight, but mental paralysis has always been there. Depressed people are usually people who get overly caught up in their stresses, feeling trapped in them.

The liberal dispensing of drugs to dull the sensation is a mixed blessing -- it allows people to function while mentally paralyzed but never gets to addressing their issues.

I think there is most definitely a modern living factor in there. We are made to get outside every day all day and toil away in the sun . Then we all gathered together and communed with our immediate family under the stars or setting sun . To bed with the setting sun and up with the rising one , there was a natural rhythm to life that has been distorted by modern living . Have you ever spent any continuous period of time living outside? Ive done up to 3 week stretchs on extended backpacking trips , and can vouch for combination of strenuous exertion and lack of artificial lightning for promoting deep and restorative sleep , something very key to mental health.

Then you have the fractured state of the family. How often do you see your parents, siblings or extended family? Its the norm now to take a job or go to school far away from that , thus weakening or eliminating that crucial support network.

Of course people have always been depressed , they called it " melancholia " in the old days , but i think its quite the stretch to categorically dismiss the impact on being so far from our natural stasis.