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Why is depression and anxiety so common nowadays?

Nobody wants to work at being happy anymore. Just wanna scroll through their phone looking for instant gratification.
 
For a lot of human history people just externalized that energy onto some neighboring country and people would rally around feelings of contempt of their neighbor and that would suffice in compartmentalizing those emotions.

If you stop doing that then you kind of got to feel them yourself which royally sucks.

Before 9/11 when I was all hyped up on USA being the best country in the world I never really felt anxiety or depression.

I think the solution might be going back to believing we're the best or at least pretending and half believing but externalizing the contempt onto an imaginary people that we all know is imaginary.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
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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Glad it worked out for you sherbro but it's a major sore point with me, the over prescription of this shit and getting people hooked on it for life.

MOST people do not need these drugs and never did. Some genuine cases do but the massive profit incentive has led to far more people being prescribed drugs than required.
 
Contempt said:
Glad it worked out for you sherbro but it's a major sore point with me, the over prescription of this shit and getting people hooked on it for life.

MOST people do not need these drugs and never did. Some genuine cases do but the massive profit incentive has led to far more people being prescribed drugs than required.
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Tbh I think it's more of a symptom of lack of funding for mental health support in general. When a doctor has a patient who needs support but has a 6 month (on the low end) wait for them to get support, they often prescribe medication. If they were able to quickly refer people for psychiatric assessment and appropriate support, they'd probably have to medicate a lot less.
 
Social media has a lot to answer for. People are either envying the lives of others online, or they spend all day arguing with people with opposing life-views and immersing themselves in topics that make them angry, upset and frustrated. Twitter and Instagram are probably the main culprits, it used to to be Facebook but I'd say the former two are the main problems now:

Twitter - people spending 24/7 trolling around trying to find tweets that they can pounce on and initiate arguments and try cancelling someone. Immersing themselves in tweets from the opposing 'party' and driving themselves irate.

Instagram - people looking at staged, posed photos of people "living their best life" and feeling envious.
 
Because a lot of people survive actually, who would have just died of hardships a millenium ago. Because they go to a doctor instead of a priest, because they know how to form and express their thoughts.
 
Today kids are born with devices. They never learn to Nobel in their own heads. A 20 minute car ride they are watching videos or playing games as toddlers. Parents take them to dinner they give them an iPad. Tv shoes are binge watched, never have to wait a week for next episode. Kids never learn patience. As they get older, social media presence, appearance, image is important. But actual interaction is secondary. Kids sit in a room together.....and text other kids. This cause social anxiety, lack communication skills causes it as well. Depression has always been around though.
 
Modern life is moving further and further away from the way humans were supposed to live. Our brains are trying to adapt to a life they weren't designed for.
 
They've always been there. It's just more accepted now so people feel more comfortable opening up and getting help.
 
Phones and they are harming people. No one looks up from their phones anymore to appreciate their surroundings. Life is much better that way. I also believe that it has to do with TV shows and other popular forms of media romanticizing depression and glorifying it.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
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.
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I don't understand why some individuals who claim to have no issues with mental health or mood disorders get so heated about those of us who do taking meds to help deal with our chemical imbalances. It's puzzling to me how these people think & feel about us. And why they get so upset about it.

Like you, I have no doubt in my mind that I'd be dead if I were on psychotropic drugs to combat my depression. I'm bipolar 2 & my "normal state" without meds is one of severe dysthymia. And I went through the vast majority of my life misdiagnosed & unmedicated & believe me, it wasn't fun. Even though I was high functioning & I was able to do things like go to college, hold jobs & manage my own pro boxing career, I often existed in an inner state of abject misery until it finally got to be too much & I wound up hospitalized.

I was only in there for a week but it was a wake-up call & I finally got treatment from a good psychiatrist who knew what he was doing & properly diagnosed me. He took the time to work with me through a couple of different combinations of meds until we found one that worked & my life has been completely different as a result. For the better, of course.

That is until my wife passed in March & I fell into a deep depression as a result of it. One that would almost assuredly lead to suicide had I not had the safety net of my meds to buffer me a bit from the very worst of my emotional & mental turmoil. The past three months have still been a living hell for me but the despair has been manageable. I described it to my doctor as my meds being like a pane of glass separating me from an intense cold outside. I can see the frozen landscape & feel the frigid temperature through the glass but I'm protected from the worst of it so it can't kill me.

So, yeah. I'll be on meds for the rest of my life but I suffer from no side effects & they in no way change who I am. They just help keep me functional & alive. Like insulin to a diabetic.

Thanks for reading my rant. Peace, bro.
 
sweetviolenturg said:
I don't understand why some individuals who claim to have no issues with mental health or mood disorders get so heated about those of us who do taking meds to help deal with our chemical imbalances. It's puzzling to me how these people think & feel about us. And why they get so upset about it.

Like you, I have no doubt in my mind that I'd be dead if I were on psychotropic drugs to combat my depression. I'm bipolar 2 & my "normal state" without meds is one of severe dysthymia. And I went through the vast majority of my life misdiagnosed & unmedicated & believe me, it wasn't fun. Even though I was high functioning & I was able to do things like go to college, hold jobs & manage my own pro boxing career, I often existed in an inner state of abject misery until it finally got to be too much & I wound up hospitalized.

I was only in there for a week but it was a wake-up call & I finally got treatment from a good psychiatrist who knew what he was doing & properly diagnosed me. He took the time to work with me through a couple of different combinations of meds until we found one that worked & my life has been completely different as a result. For the better, of course.

That is until my wife passed in March & I fell into a deep depression as a result of it. One that would almost assuredly lead to suicide had I not had the safety net of my meds to buffer me a bit from the very worst of my emotional & mental turmoil. The past three months have still been a living hell for me but the despair has been manageable. I described it to my doctor as my meds being like a pane of glass separating me from an intense cold outside. I can see the frozen landscape & feel the frigid temperature through the glass but I'm protected from the worst of it so it can't kill me.

So, yeah. I'll be on meds for the rest of my life but I suffer from no side effects & they in no way change who I am. They just help keep me functional & alive. Like insulin to a diabetic.

Thanks for reading my rant. Peace, bro.
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Yup, that's what it is to me. It's not a magic pill but it's enough of a buffer to stop me slipping into despair and thinking about suicide when stuff goes badly.

I hope the best for you in the future.
 
Not sure on the cause BUT i would love to see a time in humanities history where passing on less suffering to each other and the next generation is our primary driving motive.

Psychological and spiritual transformation as a primary motive would transform the world in a few generations so radicaly as to be barely recognizable socially.
 
revoltub said:
It's always been that way it just wasnt something you flaunted before.
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Yep.

It's like milk allergies or something. 100 years ago people just felt like shit all the time and didn't know why.

Now we know why, and they stop eating dairy, and people are like "Derrr WTF is up with all these pussies in the world?"
 
People fall into a net and its not always easy to climb back out.

I'll give you two examples. One on meds, the other alcohol.

Mother - On meds for the last 20 years, unable to cope with everyday normal life and have a job, normal friends ect. meds over a prolonged period of time have changed the personality to an extent where you no longer recognise her. Surprisingly she seems happy. Albeit ages and

Mother in Law - Alcohol. Been drinking for close to 20 years all the time, mainly beers every night. Cognitive ability declining, personality declining and becoming extremely anti social, all suffering from paranoid delusions. Covid hasnt helped.
 
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