Why has suffering from depression become so popular now?

50 years ago nobody really suffered from depression, nowadays its the in-thing to suffer from? Feeling a bit down? Are you a little bit upset? Can't see the light at the end of your ****ty little rainbow? My God you must be depressed.

Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.

Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?

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Reply 1

faber niger

It's not the "in thing". People were depressed 50 years ago, it's just that there was less awareness then. And rates of depression have (I assume) increased as our society has become more atomised and competitive. We also, rightly, expect more from society nowadays, which leads us more often to be disillusioned.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 2

Miss Behaving

Wow - as someone who is currently going through depression, I just have one thing to say to you 'You're a dick'.

Reply 3

EsStupido

Original post by Miss Behaving

Wow - as someone who is currently going through depression, I just have one thing to say to you 'You're a dick'.

Go out and buy a dress sweetheart, I'm sure you'll feel fine afterward.

Reply 4

KJane

Of course people suffered from depression 50 years ago, it's just that people would have considered you crazy.

It's not about being an 'in' thing, if you've ever experienced depression you'll know it's not something you'd want people to feel because it sucks. Depression is actually a medical condition, I think it's down to chemical imbalances in the brain and it's not so easy to just 'man up' when you feel as if you can't cope with anything anymore.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

The Patriot

It's very easy to mix up upset and depression. A lot of my friends use depression in common speech when they mean upset and that's not problem. It's when people assume they must have depression because they got sad once. My mum had real serious depression, so I get quite snappy with people who jump from mildy upset to chronicslly depressed in a heartbeat.

Another thing is that in real depression cases, the only person who can give you an idea of whether you have depression is yourself because it's intrinsic. It's very difficult for someone else to conclusively say if you have depression, and so it's an easy problem to play up or even make up altogether.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 6

aja89

It's not 'more popular', it's less taboo.

Reply 7

natty_d

It's posts like that and people's attitude which make it hard for depression to be talked about and for people to be scared to say that they are genuine need of help

Doctors don't go round throwing anti-depressants at people, esp not young people :facepalm2:

Reply 8

Doyle&TheFourFathers

Original post by jismith1989

It's not the "in thing". People were depressed 50 years ago, it's just that there was less awareness then. And rates of depression have increased as our society has become more atomised and competitive.

if there was a lower awareness of depression say 50 years ago, how can you claim rates have risen? what data have you got to measure against?...

Reply 9

jimcatinnes

Original post by EsStupido

You're right there must be something wrong with people, if they have the same attitude you do.

Reply 10

kiss_me_now9

25 years ago you'd have been institutionalised for suffering from it badly enough. 100 years ago you'd be institutionalised and 400 years ago you'd be given a grave outside the church grounds for committing suicide... It's always existed.

Reply 11

nexttime

If medicine is about reducing suffering, tackling depression is about the most important task out there.

Reply 12

fibrebiz

Depression is a difficult thing to diagnose.

There are some people who clearly need to get over themselves
There are pther people who suffer from a profoundly difficult mental condition.

Depression definitely does exist and there's plenty of room for misdiagnoses with both groups of people.

Reply 13

Fusilero

Awareness has increased, life has more distractions and people have higher expectations (a few of the reasons, I'm sure there are more and probably more important ones!).

Seeing people have their dreams crushed under the iron heel of reality always bring an evil gleam to my eye.

Reply 14

Miss Behaving

Original post by EsStupido

Go out and buy a dress sweetheart, I'm sure you'll feel fine afterward.

The username makes a lot of sense.

Reply 15

faber niger

Original post by Doyle&TheFourFathers

if there was a lower awareness of depression say 50 years ago, how can you claim rates have risen? what data have you got to measure against?...

Well, I doubt that people were analysing such things 50 years ago, so there isn't any data to my knowledge (and, if there is, it's not my field to know). However, it can very well follow logically that depression was prevalent in the past but is more so today. It's a hypothesis, not the be-all-and-end-all on the subject.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 16

faber niger

Original post by nexttime

If medicine is about reducing suffering, tackling depression is about the most important task out there.

Good point, but only in the West, of course.

Reply 17

EsStupido

Original post by S129439

It's very difficult for someone else to conclusively say if you have depression, and so it's an easy problem to play up or even make up altogether.

Exactly, hence why its popularity has risen.

Its a fact of life that as the illness and its symptoms come to the fore, more and more people will suddenly develop it - without necessarily actually having it.

Makes me sick.

Reply 18

dunnicare

Double handed depressed facepalm:

Reply 19

TheRealDarthVader

It is very common amongst teenage girls, an age known for attention seeking.

I suffered from depression for quite a while. I snapped out of it when I told myself to stop being such a whiney little bitch. I'm much better for it.