“Why is Depression Incidence Increasing?”

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In Psychology Salon, Randy Paterson compares life in the present to life in the past, to try to see if there are any clues there as to why the incidence of depression seems to have been increasing so dramatically.

“If you raise this issue at a dinner party, do so with stopwatch in hand,” suggests Paterson. “Count the seconds until someone says ‘Life is so much more stressful now than in the 1950s.’ Observe as they sit back, satisfied that the question need be given no further consideration. Even clinicians offer this all-too-pat explanation.”

Why is Depression Incidence Increasing? (Psychology Salon, January 6, 2015)

Why is Depression Becoming More Common: Some Likely Cultural Factors (Psychology Salon, January 20, 2015)

5 COMMENTS

    • Monica-

      I cannot tell you how timely your linked essay is to me-all my thoughts and feelings, the despair, the fear-the frustration with the minions who are propagandized and cannot see what’s happening all around us…I have felt this way for years…like being a passenger in a car without brakes. I’m so scared.

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      • hang on…we’re everywhere…becoming clearer in mind…Just think Charles Eisenstein wrote that in 2006 and I’ve come to see it too, precisely as he does…the consciousness is out there…and we’re climbing on board. It gets easier. And there are folks like Charles out ahead beckoning to us to follow.

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  2. Of course many more people are depressed .

    The Game Is Rigged: Why Americans Keep Losing to the Police State

    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_game_is_rigged_why_americans_keep_losing_to_the_police_state

    18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons

    http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/18-signs-that-life-in-u-s-public-schools-is-now-essentially-equivalent-to-life-in-u-s-prisons

    Life is more stressful now. Things have changed.

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  3. There are probably many reasons but I can name a few candidates off the top of my head:
    – overdiagnosis – now anything in life which is not complete happiness (also called mania;p) or indifference is pathologised as depressed mood
    – drugs – they make things worse
    – collapse of social networks: what people need most are relationships with other people and we live in an increasingly fragmented society
    – collapse of environment (there are huge amounts of new chemicals which have unknown effects on or brains as well as plenty of old toxic ones) and our relationship with it (how many people spend significant time outside and in the wild)

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