depression

[jales]

lol i didn't live in the past so i don't know..

but it seems like there is a lot more depression in society today than there was in the past. People still deal with the same problems basically .... but from listening to my parents and older people in general ... although they had difficult times they never speak about people who were depressed or so from their time...?

what do you think.. were people less prone to depression in older times?.. btw my parents are a bit old ..lol
why? do you think is has anything to do with religious beliefs? or does life just get more difficult as the population increases? is it community life that's different?

what changed? did anything change? .. or were the percentage of sad people pretty much the same back in the day?

 

[Josh]

lol i didn't live in the past so i don't know..

but it seems like there is a lot more depression in society today than there was in the past. People still deal with the same problems basically .... but from listening to my parents and older people in general ... although they had difficult times they never speak about people who were depressed or so from their time...?

what do you think.. were people less prone to depression in older times?.. btw my parents are a bit old ..lol
why? do you think is has anything to do with religious beliefs? or does life just get more difficult as the population increases? is it community life that's different?

what changed? did anything change? .. or were the percentage of sad people pretty much the same back in the day?

I am pretty sure the numbers of people with depression hasn't really changed much it is in how we deal with it. Back in older times people just dealt with it many of them had really good ways to dealing with it too they had to work hard and so they generaly kept there mind off it and gave them some self worth. I also believe that communties used to be much more close and so you had less loners and people that couldn't connect with someone(which I believe is a major deal with depression). I think also a lot of it just was they had to deal with it. There wasn't near the infomation about depression that there is today and there was little to no treatments. Many people just would find a way to self medicate themselves.

 

[lonelyloser]

True. A big reason for more depression now days is the INTERNET. Why go out with people when you can sit in your room and surf the internet? It's made people a lot more lonely and made the world so much more disconnected. They say, distance doesn't matter anymore, you can work from anywhere...blah blah blah...people are more distant from each other than ever because there is no face to face connection anymore.

I think also, the rich people are getting richer and the poor people are getting poorer. People who are not as well off do not feel the need to participate in society. Think about the 60's, the 70's, everyone rallied together for a cause...whether it be anti-war or civil rights. Now days, there's something called "apathy" which people seem to be very fond of. People are dying in Iraq every day, including U.S. soldiers...but no one seems to care. In the 70's people were outraged about the Vietnam War. Anyway I'm going off on a tangent...there are a lot more people falling through the cracks now because of divorces, messed up parents, alcoholism, abuse, neglect...the list goes on and on. We're in a truly messed up society that worships the fake people instead of the real people who are being honest. So, if you're normal, you're bound to be depressed.

 

[nutellacat]

the pace of life
and values and attitudes
of society has made people
more prone to depression today
that's what i think :/

and kids are growing up
wayy faster...

 

[diamond-dancer]

lol i didn't live in the past so i don't know..

but it seems like there is a lot more depression in society today than there was in the past. People still deal with the same problems basically .... but from listening to my parents and older people in general ... although they had difficult times they never speak about people who were depressed or so from their time...?

what do you think.. were people less prone to depression in older times?.. btw my parents are a bit old ..lol
why? do you think is has anything to do with religious beliefs? or does life just get more difficult as the population increases? is it community life that's different?

what changed? did anything change? .. or were the percentage of sad people pretty much the same back in the day?

I think a part of your answer may be that there is a lot more awareness about mental health in modern society. I have spoken about this issue with my grandparents once, and they told me they usually wrote someone off as "a bit mad" if they started showing signs of behaving a bit off. I know LOTS of people from older generations who won't even acknowledge that depression is a real thing, which makes you kinda mad. Even my mother who suffered through depression at one stage in her life tried to convince me that, "there's nothing wrong with you" when I turned to her for support during a particularly difficult time in my life. The only people who have ever taken depression seriously in my life have been one close friend and a few various doctors and specialists.

 

[Almond]

lol i didn't live in the past so i don't know..

but it seems like there is a lot more depression in society today than there was in the past. People still deal with the same problems basically .... but from listening to my parents and older people in general ... although they had difficult times they never speak about people who were depressed or so from their time...?

what do you think.. were people less prone to depression in older times?.. btw my parents are a bit old ..lol
why? do you think is has anything to do with religious beliefs? or does life just get more difficult as the population increases? is it community life that's different?

what changed? did anything change? .. or were the percentage of sad people pretty much the same back in the day?

There is most definitely more depression now. I think it has to do with how we treat each other and the fact of how self absorbed people are now in comparison with years ago.
I think we just spend a lot more time in our own heads than people years ago did. Whereas people years ago kept themselves more busy with community and responsibilities.
People are living such unfullfilling lives and it shows.

 

[Qui]

There have never been as many people in the world as there are right now, so it makes sense that there would be more depressed people.
But nowadays people who aren't depressed but have whatever nutritional issues or just don't do enough are said to be depressed when in truth it is their lifestyle that is making them unhappy. To these people the only real cure is some proper nutrition and an ass-load or manual labor. Really, it helps.
Another factor, as mentioned, is that people who are depressed are diagnosed with depression. It tends not to go unnoticed forever or just be written of as being a little off in the head.
Another thing that has changed depression is that though the standard of living is much higher than it was in the past the was that society has changed people are not happier. Back when people had to stick together to live they were closer and could talk more easily about their problems, but nowadays people have grown so distant. It's sad really to be on a city bus and see people opting out of a social situation with strangers by listening to an ipod. Nobody really strikes up conversations with strangers, we're all so distant and this makes for a whole lot more lonely people. Being social creatures, loneliness makes us unhappy. So though the number of depressed people may not be much higher, the way society has changed we have made it so that a person who might have only been mildly depressed has, rather, a serious problem.

 

[mimizu]

That's because they don't need to talk to strangers, they have their own friends to talk to. They aren't interested to speak to anyone who is outside their clique. Of course, as this progresses, the cliques will get smaller, and there will be more and more lonely people. Example: Japan.

 

[Qui]

But the problem with that is that the people you know see you a certain way and you tend to live up to the way that they see you. This makes it hard to grow as a person, and keeping those changes in eventually leads to some dissatisfaction with yourself for not growing emotionally in a way that you need to. Changes are healthy, as scary as they might seem. Being trapped by the expectations of a very small clique isn't a good thing because people need to keep growing emotionally all their lives, we learn from our mistakes so that we can live better and this is easier when we are around new people.

 

[mimizu]

You're right, but that's the way society works now. Many many little cliques. And I do think people mature slower now... People way in their fourties with the mentality of teenagers. Not exactly like teenagers... it's hard to explain. They are missing something that a mature person should have. But I can't pinpoint this "something" now. Perhaps it's how competitive and judgemental they are. Let alone the twenty-somethings. #_#