
Major depression on the rise among everyone, new data shows - Futurebot
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/major-depression-rise-among-everyone-new-data-shows-n873146?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
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sigfubar
Color me unsurprised: life sucks for most Americans. The country is divided
against itself. Our economy favors a few professions the members of which
guard fiercely against entry by outsiders. Pollution, climate change, rising
costs of living & healthcare, poor regulatory practices: all of these and
other factors combine to ravish the average American's wallet and soul.

~~~
DougN7
What you say is true, but I suspect it’s more lack of social connection
because we spend so much time with screens. In the old days you at least
watched TV together but now we can go in our own rooms and watch Netflix by
ourselves.

I remember visiting my grandparents and people actually went for walks in the
evening and chatted with others sitting on their porches. They were poor by
today’s standards, but seemed happier to young me. That life sounds amazing
now.

~~~
astrodust
The trouble isn't screens or social interaction, it's that there's this
existential threat to _everything_ that didn't exist outside of nuclear scares
in the 1960s. The wild-eyed optimism that tomorrow would bring about something
better and brighter lasted until the 1970s, but is completely and utterly dead
now.

Millenials are the first generation to have _worse_ job prospects than their
parents. If you want to know why they spend so much time on social media it's
because it's the only thing that matters. Everything else is beyond their
control and, honestly, utterly depressing.

~~~
DougN7
I’m not sure. To me the threats you mention seem more cerebral since we have
to think about them, but don’t feel them (well, I guess one feels pressure
from one’s economic sitation). For example, irreversible global warming is a
huge concern, but I don’t walk around thinking about it all day. But feeling
lonely and disconnected is something that is hard to escape. Lack of human
connection is hugely emotional. And in my experience, depression is emotional.

But to be honest, I’m an armchair quarterback here so I’ll see what others
have to say :)

~~~
astrodust
You don't have to be actively thinking about something for it to weigh on you
and drag you down.

I think people are more connected than you think. Where you used to _have_ to
converse with a handful of people in your immediate environment you can now
maintain connections with people world-wide.

That also introduces additional stress since we share the pain of others.

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hkmurakami
Rise in incidence or rise in diagnosis?

ex: highest incidence of breast cancer is apparently in Marin County.
Incidence or diagnosis?

~~~
helthanatos
Probably actual rise -- access to the internet and news has increased to
nearly e everyone and it's all depressing. You can view the constant stupidity
and ignorance of the nation and get upset or ignore it... Those are pretty
much your only options. I choose to mostly ignore it...

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squozzer
Some of us who lived in the 1970s have been subjected to unrelenting psyops
for 40+ years, mostly in the service of selling things, including political
products.

It surprises me every day that we aren't in full-throated, Molotov-lobbing
anarchy or mass suicide.

And that was before 2016.

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mtgx
Meanwhile, Vitamin D levels keep dropping:

[http://www.newhope.com/research-and-insights/vitamin-d-
level...](http://www.newhope.com/research-and-insights/vitamin-d-levels-
dropping-dramatically-study-finds)

~~~
szemet
Ok, but infinetely many other things are happening meanwhile... So wihout
further context your statement has zero information actually.
[http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-
correlations](http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations) ;)

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Razengan
If I may suggest one more cause for this, to the list of all the other causes
suggested by everyone:

I think this rise in collective depression may also be due to the fact that
more and more people live their entire life inside cities, from birth to
death, with little or no contact with “nature” at all.

All we ever get to interact with are artificial institutions, created by other
humans just as fallible as us..

Like building ever smaller boxes inside existing boxes, few people ever get
the chance to break out and discover their true potential, let alone achieving
that potential.

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donttrack
I think it’s about a sense of freedom. Everything we do is monitored now. Look
at a country like Denmark, where everyone is supposed to be happy. The level
of surveillance for the sake of bettering society is at DDR level spy
operations (just with letter steaming rooms replaced by Mongo databases etc
and a consensus that if you don’t do anything wrong you don’t have anything to
fear).

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amriksohata
The fact no one has mentioned diet baffles me, food, sugar and the imbalance
of gut bacteria as proscribed by Hindu Sages in the field of Ayurveda explains
everything, Pitta Dosha as its called, the messing up the balance of our
system due to basically rubbish food and how it impacts our mood. Google the
gut brain axis.

