I once had a friend who was opposed to the idea of antidepressants. I was too at the time, and I don’t like the fact that I have to take them, but I ran out of options. Anyways, she argued that our ancestors didn’t have pharmaceutical drugs, and people living in third world countries who’ve gone through much more trauma still have the will to live. Anyone have thoughts on this? Yes, depression is a mental illness, but what do you think the reason is for today’s higher rate of suicide?
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6 comments
Is it higher these days or just better reported? Back in the old days people were private and didnt talk about these things, With people today and modern gadgets your I phone app knows you farted and tells the world before you can smell it.
Lol at Alien.
But they have a point – it is more reported now than ever. It will soon be the most profitable desease. I read in a couple of years it will pass TB and cancer.
Ok, so it’s better reported. But biologically it just does not make sense for our brain to be telling us to die. I can’t help but wonder if part of it has to do with our environment and society.
We are a product of our environments most of the time. I am sure it has a lot to do with our depression.
I always wonder if it’s pressures of modern society which make us more depressed, or is it just we tend to discuss depression more openly in modern society.
I too have an extreme distrust of depression pharmaceuticals, and I don’t want to take them. But I have reached a point that it’s either take them, or end up killing myself.
Depression is more common in developed nations. The suicide rate in underveloped countries is almost nothing, because frankly, those people have enough challenges to keep their mind occupied finding food and water to worry about ‘the larger problems’.
Depression with a genetic component is often caused by an inherited gene that stops the brain from producing serotonin. So it makes sense that in todays society, those people who have inherited that gene have greater means to survive, with meds and therapy, and are not bred out through natural selection.
Anyway, I don’t think anyone should turn their noses up at modern medicine because antidepressants just make sure that the brain releases enough serotonin – basically they just make our brains function the same way a ‘normal’ person’s brain functions.
But it’s inportant that we find enough challenges and stimuli to keep our brains excercising and happy, and we don’t become too introverted and self-obsessed, which is characteristic of a lot of depressed people. In underdeveloped nations, their challenges are very primal – food and water. Our society is more complex so we just need to find more complex stimuli – art, music, meditation, philosophy, academia… at least we have almost infinate choices.