I think social media messed up people's sense of self worth which leads to depression and anxiety. The younger generation has it the worst because they grew up with social media and they were constantly receiving signals of their self worthlessness throughout their whole lives. Before social media, it was easier to get a feeling of accomplishment, a serotonin fueled feeling of victory. Earning enough money to buy a new house, winning a local sports championship, or getting promoted at work. A person would become the local hero and his accomplishment ranks high on the hierarchy of accomplishments within the small area he is from and in his domain. He feels like 1 in a million. However, social media connects billions of people from around the world and his accomplishment appears trivial in the hierarchy of accomplishments of the billions of people. He thought he was the only one but there’s millions of him. No matter how good he is at something or how he ranks his accomplishments there’s someone out there that makes him look incompetent. He will always have someone better than him on social media. Who cares if he is a manager at a company when some else is the president of the company. He suddenly realizes his low status and low value in the world, his life is boring and pointless, his skills are non-existent, his taste is appalling, he's fatter than his friends, everyone dreads his parties. People at the bottom feel that life is a zero sum game, when someone wins you lose and self worthlessness is the default condition when living there.
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Why is depression and anxiety so common nowadays?
- Thread starter biscuitsbrah
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I think social media messed up people's sense of self worth which leads to depression and anxiety. The younger generation has it the worst because they grew up with social media and they were constantly receiving signals of their self worthlessness throughout their whole lives. Before social media, it was easier to get a feeling of accomplishment, a serotonin fueled feeling of victory. Earning enough money to buy a new house, winning a local sports championship, or getting promoted at work. A person would become the local hero and his accomplishment ranks high on the hierarchy of accomplishments within the small area he is from and in his domain. He feels like 1 in a million. However, social media connects billions of people from around the world and his accomplishment appears trivial in the hierarchy of accomplishments of the billions of people. He thought he was the only one but there’s millions of him. No matter how good he is at something or how he ranks his accomplishments there’s someone out there that makes him look incompetent. He will always have someone better than him on social media. Who cares if he is a manager at a company when some else is the president of the company. He suddenly realizes his low status and low value in the world, his life is boring and pointless, his skills are non-existent, his taste is appalling, he's fatter than his friends, everyone dreads his parties. People at the bottom feel that life is a zero sum game, when someone wins you lose and self worthlessness is the default condition when living there.
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When I smoke, I do so heavily. I do become somewhat dependent on it to relax so quitting is stressful. It seems to take me about 2 weeks to really level out my mood. For about 2 weeks, I'm more sensitive and prone to getting upset.
I don't have the ability to moderate my weed usage responsibly like this. If I have it, I'm going to smoke it until it's all gone. I've been without it for about a month and am feeling good. That's probably also because I cut my drinking down and am practicing no fap.
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Its existed for a long time, we just hear more about it due to social media and the internet. A lot of was covered up with substance abuse in the past.
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That's not really how mental health works dude.
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4th of July weekend …. you’re gonna drink, smoke and still be social.
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Fragmented and medicated society; anxiety by design. Always on the brink of a disaster.
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I think that there is a difference between bring clinically depressed and being sad. They shouldn't be clumped together, but often are.
The problem is that if you're sad, and have been for a long time, it's still not taken as seriously as clinical depression. Because it's not chemical, you're still expected to buck up, change your attitude like that and just do better. In reality, this sadness can come from many behavioural issues that may be deep-rooted from childhood trauma and neglect in some way, and be incredibly difficult to overcome.
In terms of outside influence? Society in general has prioritised the gain of money over the pursuit of happiness for far too long. We are a fear-based society. We succeed not because we want the perks of success, or because we want to do what we love, but because we fear the consequences of not being successful. This may not be all of us, but it is some of us. We worry about not being able to own a home, or find that special someone, or having a miserable experience near the end of our lives. This can extend to our children, as we do not give our children valued experiences and emotional growth as we are too busy struggling to make ends meet, so the children's view of the world is just struggle and not recreation.
I also think that the media is overwhelmingly negative, and it is everywhere. You can't escape it. It's on the TV and internet, on the shelves in stores, it's a talking point at work. On the flip side of this, seeing people living privileged lives is also easier than ever to do, so envy and fear of missing out is also more prevalent. It's also eroded our trust in people.
The problem is that if you're sad, and have been for a long time, it's still not taken as seriously as clinical depression. Because it's not chemical, you're still expected to buck up, change your attitude like that and just do better. In reality, this sadness can come from many behavioural issues that may be deep-rooted from childhood trauma and neglect in some way, and be incredibly difficult to overcome.
In terms of outside influence? Society in general has prioritised the gain of money over the pursuit of happiness for far too long. We are a fear-based society. We succeed not because we want the perks of success, or because we want to do what we love, but because we fear the consequences of not being successful. This may not be all of us, but it is some of us. We worry about not being able to own a home, or find that special someone, or having a miserable experience near the end of our lives. This can extend to our children, as we do not give our children valued experiences and emotional growth as we are too busy struggling to make ends meet, so the children's view of the world is just struggle and not recreation.
I also think that the media is overwhelmingly negative, and it is everywhere. You can't escape it. It's on the TV and internet, on the shelves in stores, it's a talking point at work. On the flip side of this, seeing people living privileged lives is also easier than ever to do, so envy and fear of missing out is also more prevalent. It's also eroded our trust in people.
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Soooo... you're going to argue that people are tougher than they used to be?
People these days are giant pussies that wouldn't know real hardship if it turkey slapped them in the face.
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I'm not arguing that people aren't as tough as they used to be, but I also don't think that you need to have fought in the trenches for the right to have a mental health issue.
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I may be completely wrong but I bet you don't see a lot of immigrants, that are struggling with the language and hustling to make ends meet, pandering for 'likes' or getting Xanax prescriptions because they're 'a little down'.
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3rd world countries are on top of suicide rate so they got enough problems
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People are pathetic. "I live in the most comfortable, safe, coddled period in mankind's history... but i'm still going to whine anyway..."
Jesus, peoples ancestors would laugh their ass off at the pansies of today.
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There's a difference between people who are a bit whiny and people who suffer from genuine mental health issues though.
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No I'm not.
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"don't try. Go all the way." -- Charles Bukowski
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Given the massive percentage of people on head meds these days, it sure seems that they are over prescribed and that people are giant wimps that needs to harden the fuck up.
Fuck asshole doctors that get people hooked for life on these idiotic, brain altering drugs when they were just temporarily going through a tough time...
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You sort of nailed my theory at the start. It's that and also we were designed to struggle physically as humans, nearly all of us worked in agriculture 200 years ago, nowadays most of us sit on our arse. Humans haven't evolved enough to compensate for this massive change and I think this manifests itself in mental illness for many people.
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The industrial revolution and it's consequences have caused this.
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Some people may be badly prescribed but a lot aren't. I have no doubt that if I hadn't been prescribed what I'd been prescribed I'd be dead, but with it I've been able to live a normal life, have kids, have a career etc.
Never been in the trenches though.
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In their own country, right? I'm talking about people from 3rd world countries moving to a better place.
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