
Depression is increasing among Americans reaching middle age - pseudolus
https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/05/15/depression-is-increasing-among-americans-reaching-middle-age
======
nikanj
When the economy and population were properly booming, pretty much everyone
had a decent change of getting promoted and building a strong career. If your
office had 10 people today and 100 in a decade, odds are good that every one
of the original ten made it into manager.

We still build career expectations around this model, but it's mostly not true
anymore. If you start in the mail room today, you'll retire from the mail
room. Actually, you won't even retire, because mail handling is going to get
outsourced.

~~~
jellicle
You'll be fired from the mail room, but you'll be eligible to apply to be a
subcontractor with Mail Room Supply, Inc. As a subcontractor, you'll be
eligible for the standard hourly rate of $9 and you'll have the freedom to
arrange for your own healthcare, own payment of all contractor taxes, and own
retirement. You're also required to purchase your own Mail Room Supply, Inc.
uniforms, but there's an easy payment plan for those that cannot afford them.
Conveniently, your assigned work location at Mail Room Supply, Inc. will be in
the basement of Acme Corp., where you used to work. (Work location not
guaranteed.)

~~~
NeedMoreTea
You'll also be fined for failing to deliver on the contract if you take time
off due to sickness. You'll be sent home without pay when conditions find the
mail room short on mail, but you are required to be available for work the
rest of the day, just in case the delivery was late.

You'll be repeatedly told how much more convenient this is for you.

~~~
swombat
America: land of the free (of worker rights)...

------
irrational
Is it increasing, or is it being identified more often? I have teenage and
early 20s age children. They and all of their peers have been diagnosed with
anxiety, depression, and a host of other mental illnesses. When I was growing
up I can't remember any kids in my high school (I had a graduation class of
900+ students) being diagnosed with any sort of mental illness. I've wondered
if the frequency with which people are experiencing mental illness has
increased, or if the rates have remained stable but diagnosis and reporting
levels have improved.

~~~
P_I_Staker
If anything, shouldn't that result in decreasing suicide rates? Either that or
treatment is worsening health outcomes. This would be extremely troubling.

I tend to think that depression is both on the rise, and historically under-
treated. In fact, it's most likely still under-treated. I'm neutral on the
efficacy of treatment.

~~~
cwkoss
Doctors are frequently prescribing SSRIs where no study has shown them more
effective for that indication than placebo.

Many doctors still believe the "correcting neurotransmitter imbalance" theory
of SSRI action which appears to be on its way to being disproved.

~~~
chucky_z
As someone who took SSRIs for 2 years this is a bullshit statement. They
allowed me to feel something other than only depression and anxiety which
allowed me to improve myself over time.

Please do not spread such misinformation without anything other than opinion.

~~~
cwkoss
There is a theory floating around that part of the benefit of SSRIs is that
they make the user feel differently, and by feeling different it is easier to
change behavior. This is independent from whether the way SSRIs make the user
feel is a more adaptive state to remain in continuously over long periods. If
this is true, the "therapeutic delta" would wear off as user acclimates to
that SSRIs effects.

SSRIs can cause unpleasant and even dangerous withdrawal symptoms when
discontinuing long-term use, so there are real benefits to minimizing
overprescription.

------
olivermarks
'poorly educated white men' hitting middle age in past years typically lived
in a warm bath of feel good US TV BS. In our current era television and social
media are very abrasive and aggressive. Matt Taibbi's forthcoming book Hate
Inc is very good on this. I wonder whether the corrosive effective of this is
an element in the mass depression claimed by the Economist. Chris Hedges and
Taibbi discuss on RT
[https://youtu.be/8_vla4l-AX8](https://youtu.be/8_vla4l-AX8)

~~~
sjg007
For sure media has a big impact.

~~~
beenBoutIT
Most Americans are obese or overweight and 40% of Americans wouldn't be able
to scrap together $400 in an emergency. Suffering from one or both of those
conditions at middle age would be good cause for situational depression.

~~~
xvedejas
Obesity rates in the US are at about 30%, which I don't think counts as
"most".

[https://www.stateofobesity.org/adult-
obesity/](https://www.stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/)

~~~
oska
The majority are obese _or_ overweight. The GP comment forgot the second half
of the formulation.

~~~
sjg007
60% are overweight or obese, which is the majority. Clearly we can survive on
less.

~~~
oska
It's now reached the two thirds mark (67%) in some countries, including the
US. This is the case in my own country of Australia where it's roughly one
third normal weight, one third overweight and one third obese. [1]

[1]
[https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject...](https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4364.0.55.001~2017-18~Main%20Features~Key%20Findings~1)

------
padseeker
While my heart empathizes with the anti-consumerist and fear of the end of the
world sentiments expressed on this thread, I wonder if it is the loneliness
issue that keeps being cited in many modern studies.

I think I could have easily been on this path to misery, but then I formed a
soccer team that plays once a week. We play and then go out for beers. The
whole team has bonded. I cannot tell you how much a difference it has made in
my life. The joy I get from playing together and then hanging out afterwards
is immeasurable.

I have people in my close circle, even my significant other, who feels like
they have limited social interactions. The rise of social media, lack of group
activities, the rise of suicide, social isolation, blah blah blah, you can
fill in the rest.

I am very scared for our collective future but I cannot emphasize enough how
important this small social activity of playing a sport together with people I
have come to really like has given me purpose and joy that made an enormous
difference in my life.

~~~
dorchadas
Agreed. Just being in the presence and interacting with other people can often
help me on my worse days. Even somethig as simple as interacting with a
waitress or a cashier at a fast food restaurant. It's something we're losing
at a rapid rate, and it sucks.

This lack of face to face communication also hurts us in other ways too. I've
an 11 year old cousin who's had a phone since he was 8. He can't understand
tone and jokes, and unless it's obviously meant to be funny, he'll often come
back with a really rude remark about something too. He just doesn't understand
empathy or how to interpret jokes because he spends all his time watching
YouTube...

~~~
copperx
What makes YouTube different than TV, which many of our parents watched as
kids? TV used to be a babysitter, too, for the previous generation.

~~~
whamlastxmas
YouTubers often have a very distinct artificial sort of personality that kids
try to emulate. This is especially bad if you ever watch Logan Paul type
videos and it's basically a bunch of antisocial behavior under the guise of
having fun and playing jokes. They're also universally loud and abrasive.

~~~
krageon
Television has similar problems (weird personalities), so while I agree with
you on the troubling personality types I don't see how it is materially
different.

------
msie
When I was young I used to laugh at the middle-agers living dull lives. Not
anymore, the joke's on me.

~~~
house9-2
> I grow up too slow, I don't wanna go

> But those I loved so much they underwent this change

> They're working fourty hours they got caught in the game

> But now I'm working just like everyone else

> But I'll get out

> I'll get out of here

\- Operation Ivy: Junkie's Running Dry

------
univalent
Wait, 40 counts as middle aged? I guess I'm middle aged. Now THAT is truly
depressing.

~~~
hyko
The generally accepted definition of middle age is 45 years old; and young
adulthood ends at 40, which gives you five years to adjust I guess!

~~~
copperx
I thought that I became middle aged when I turned 35.

I refer to myself as middle aged when talking to people (e.g., "I'm middle
aged but single"). I have even mentioned getting getting screened for cancer
now that I'm middle aged to my doctor and he didn't disagree or say anything.

Are you sure middle age starts at 45?

~~~
makerofspoons
45 is much too late for the average human. The average human has a life
expectancy of 79 years.

~~~
coldtea
That's not really relevant, as middle age doesn't actually mean "in the middle
of one's life expectancy".

"Middle" is just the etymology, the intended meaning is "somewhere between
young man 18 to 40-something and old person (60-65+)" (childhood being its own
thing).

middle age, noun: the period after early adulthood and before old age, about
45 to 65.

------
bernardlunn
Maybe something to do with diagnosis means more money selling Pharma drugs? Or
is that too cynical?

~~~
P_I_Staker
No, but it's not just diagnosis. There's a troubling tend towards rising
suicide rates. This is especially true among middle aged poor whites.

~~~
coldtea
Well, there's also a declining middle class -- middle aged poor people that
used to be predominantly white middle class.

~~~
zdragnar
Both middle class (35k-100k income) and the poor groups are shrinking as a
percentage of the population. Mobility is upwards, not down.

~~~
coldtea
I think the main mobility is down, it's just that the measurements are
antiquated, and the "inflation adjusted" income brackets defining various
groups (or the "subsistence spending multiplier" metric and such) don't take
other things into consideration, like the skyrocketing costs of now basic
services, healthcare, education, housing, and so on.

It's the same games played with unemployed, where people who have given up
trying to find work for a few years, or had some temp gig, are magically
discounted from the unemployed statistics.

~~~
zdragnar
The raw numbers don't lie. Both brackets (0-35k and 35k-100k) have been
shrinking as a percetage of the population, with 100k+ growing.

------
triplee
It's almost as if a few decades of being told that mental health is for wusses
and making it exceedingly expensive due to crappy health care is paying off
with a bang.

Not to mention that middle aged people at this point are firmly in the
generation that the media has literally been ignoring for a very long time. At
the same time, that generation is taking care of the two generations that
always do get all the attention (their kids and their parents).

------
babyslothzoo
Presumably this tracks economic and social status closely, and perhaps the
meeting (or not) of traditional American life goals; marriage, kids, house,
safety, economic security, etc

In that case, an increase would not be surprising. Many people are simply
falling through the cracks, or are a decade or two behind where prior
generations were by the same age.

------
HNLurker2
You just described the doomer

>25 year old

>Kinda given up on girls.

>Realized videogames is a waste of time watches YouTube instead

>Waits for societal collapse

>Does a lot of weed, knows he needs to stop. He doesn't.

History of the meme: started in 2018 September but the underlying cause is as
old as time (depression and anxiety)

------
neonate
[https://outline.com/V5JWbk](https://outline.com/V5JWbk)

------
CalRobert
Ah, but we maximized profit extraction from those units!

Also, remember that old millenials are pushing middle age (late 30's). Their
mortgages have been used to fund a bunch of boomer retirements, they can't
afford to see a doctor, they watch a lucky few (including many readers here)
collect a huge chunk of the output of human labor, and they were left a dying
world where the thought we might literally see the collapse of civilisation is
not completely outlandish.

I mean, hell, I'm not diagnosed but I've had points where I'm pretty fucking
depressed. I'm trying to check out of the system (cheap house, no commute,
etc.) because it seems purpose-built to make other people happy. but I still
worry my kid will need to learn to shoot, trap, grow, organize, and hide in
order to get by in the world we're leaving her.

Maybe people feel depressed because the world is depressing?

~~~
DisruptiveDave
The world is depressing? That's obviously subjective. There's nothing special
about me or my circumstances and the only way I can label the world as
depressing is if I choose to see it that way, consciously or not. A lot of
what you outlined above is purely your mind fucking with itself, because those
things, quite literally, are not reality. By no means do I think it is an
entirely fruitless endeavor to consider the future, but anyone who lets that
lead them into anything negative - nevermind life altering - has themselves to
blame.

~~~
behringer
Why? When my parents were working, a simple factory job by one person in the
family unit was enough to get them a house. Nowadays, professionals don't have
health insurance, they have a failing justice system, they have high crime and
low paying jobs.

Today the American Dream is impossible to attain for, I'd say, the majority of
people.

~~~
badpun
> When my parents were working, a simple factory job by one person in the
> family unit was enough to get them a house.

It may be that it was just a complete anomaly - in human history, it was never
possible to achieve this, barring a couple of decades in one country (USA).
And after it, even in the US, things got back to normal. It may be that your
parents' generation was the luckiest generation in history.

~~~
bdavisx
It's still totally possible to achieve this (at least in the US, and likely
the world), but as a society we've decided it's more important that the top x%
get a larger share of the pie than they did in those "couple of decades".

~~~
malvosenior
We didn't decide anything. Globalization happened because the same technology
the US deployed to raise their standard of living (from the industrial
revolution on) eventually ended up distributed to the rest of the world. Now
everyone competes with each other and the US has been normalized. Post WWII
USA was definitely an anomaly that won't be happening again anytime soon.
That's probably a good thing since it was built on the back of the destruction
of most of the rest of the first world.

~~~
CalRobert
There's tons and tons of space that we could build affordable homes on. I
don't mean token "affordable housing" that distracts so many people, I mean
"10,000 people want to live here, so let the market build 10,000 apartments".

Instead, we let a housing cartel (boomers) forbid any new homes.

~~~
malvosenior
This thread is about being able to buy a single family home on a single
income. There's a lot more to that than zoning issues.

------
camdenlock
Y’all need to read Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker.

Life is better than it ever has been, and there’s an embarrassing amount of
data backing up that claim.

We’re depressed because our brains didn’t evolve to live in this kind of
society, but that doesn’t mean our civilization is falling apart.

~~~
scottlocklin
I like Pinker, but his utility function is egregiously broken here. This sort
of Panglossian thing is typical of the smug upper middle classes in the West
who look at the lower orders in their own societies as being morally defective
somehow; downstream fallout of the ideology of "meritocracy." It's a tale of
the hero-bureaucrat; a very questionable story indeed -most of the actual
progress we've experienced in recent years is made possible a handful of
individuals, just as it has always been. Aka no fracking, no green revolution:
things would look a lot different.

If you're a descendant of an American factory worker, or one of the Gilets
Jaunes who can't afford to have a normal life like your parents did, you
really don't give a shit that many people in Asia have much better lives now,
or that childhood immunizations are so much better. Worse, one ought to be
suspicious of shrinking metrics collected by bureaucracies whose definition of
success is shrinking metrics.

