GuidoWorld

Depression and Society

In the last post I described the societal factors which are making depression an overused term in the US. In many cases depression is used when sadness would be a more apt term. Yet, depression is a lucrative term with professional standing and, therefore, used both to sell drugs and meet insurance companies standards for benefits (therapy).

The diagmosis of Depression is overused and misused leading to thousands of people to be unnecessarily labeled clinically depressed. Yet, the very mechanisms used to sell antidepressants and have therapy be covered by insurance do have an impact on the actual number of people with clinical depression.

Daily people see ads which ask them vague questions which almost any person on the planet would answer in the affirmative which they are told “might” be a sign of depression. In these ads people are told to consult their doctors about taking such and such antidepressant. Doctors are more vulnerable to law suits if they underservice rather than overservice so they will often prescribe a medication to see if the patient reports feeling better. If the patient does not feel better some doctors will stop the medication, yet more often then not they will instead raise the dosage or try another antidepressant. Since many antidepressants have a side effect of depression the medications may cause a level of depression not previously experienced by the patient.

While Clinical Depression is over diagnosed in our culture I do believe that the percentage of people in our culture who are truly depressed is growing. The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness endemic to depression are fostered by our culture in a number of ways. First we live in a capitalistic consumer culture which perpetually tells us that we want and need more. It says happiness is always in the next purchase and that we can never be satiated.

We live in a society that markets fear. Fear is used to muster public support of international policies as well as foster our loyalty to our government. Our news is filled with fear and danger and this wears on the mass and individual psyche.

Studies have shown that a lack of certain basic positive feelings over a length of time can be a precursor to or a cause of depression. A few of these basic psychological elements include feelings of safety, trust and constancy. A consumer based culture endangers all three of these basic anchors.

The fear culture endangers are sense of safety.  The communist scare of my youth has been replaced with the war on terrorism. The news focuses on crime, war, disease and disaster. We must forever be on alert against germs and routinely get medical tests for various silent assassins.

Our consumer culture makes constancy an endangered species. We are forever demanded to buy the new, to keep up with the times. Cars, furniture, toys, TV’s, etc. must forever be updated.  Being behind the times is a source of potential embarrassment. Your child’s ability to have friends and receive a good education are dependent on your getting the latest toys, clothes and gadgets.  Their present and future success are dependent on your ability to buy them everything you can afford.

Our sense of trust is that which is most attacked by our consumer culture. Being told the truth is a rare event in our culture. Spin, misrepresentation, exaggeration, omission, deflection and provocation are the basic tools of communication in our capitalistic Democratic/Republican society.

We all know we are being lied to. Some of us think we are only being lied to by half the people, others feel that they are being lied to by everyone. Most people feel that a certain amount of dishonesty is necessary to be successful or just plain nice.

While it may be true that a little dishonesty is almost inevitable, one must agree that the level of functional dishonesty in our culture is quite extreme. It is the pervasive level of dishonesty in our society which I see as the main reason why depression is so common in our society. Nothing is more paralyzing or disheartening as not feeling capable of discerning what is real and true. One could make a rather honest argument that dishonesty is the largest resource in our culture.

Here are a couple of my songs which echo some of these concerns

Lies (lyrics/reveries)

Pander (lyrics/reveries)

Jim Guido

Sadness and Depression

Over the last couple of decades the tendency to make these words interchangeable has grown. Depression, once a clinical term, has now become the more popular and used term in lay as well as professional conversation.

Yet, sadness and depression are not synonyms. They are vague terms which refer to experiences which lie on the same continuum and meet at the far end of their boundaries.

At their centers sadness and depression have defined differences. Sadness is a feeling, and in most cases a very strong and powerful feeling. The feeling of sadness can be painful and full of regret, but it can also be a rich and fulfilling experience.

Sadness is the root emotion of much popular music and art. Sad love songs and movies are not only popular but often cited as individual’s favorites. One could make a case that the realms of poetry and dramatic theater are dominated by the emotion of sadness. Entire forms of visual art and music such as the blues are centered around the experience of sadness.

In sum, sadness can be a very powerful and oddly fulfilling emotion, which a person can use to enrich their lives.

Depression, on the other hand, is often the absence of feeling rather than a feeling itself. Clinically it often involves a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. It can make one numb, and leave one paralyzed. When accompanied by a feeling it is usually a feeling of pain or dread.

Where sadness can make you feel so alive, depression can suck the life completely out of you.

Yet, since depression has become the popular term many people and professionals missuse and overuse the term. Even when referring to a young child you will frequently hear people describe the child as depressed when they are just a little down spirited or sad.

Our society often states as a goal for all people to be happy. Emotions such as sadness are often viewed in a negative light. Yet, in reality, happiness and sadness are not necessarily antonyms nor mutually exclusive. I can experience sadness while being in a general state of happiness. I can use sadness to actually increase my general sense of happiness and my infatuation with life.

Yet, our general strategy is to try to repress or overcome sadness. I believe one of the reasons we do this is due to our tendency to equate sadness with depression.

The question then becomes why do we overuse the term depression?

Well for one thing it just sounds more adult like and professional. It also has one take notice and listen to you. Since depression is a diagnosis and sadness is not, one cannot get medication for sadness and generally will not qualify for professional services for being sad.

Since drug companies advertise everywhere we are bombarded with the term depression. The sale of their product depends on your experience being defined as depression and not as sadness. Likewise even talk therapists have a tendency to speak in diagnostic terms and labels. This makes it likely they will describe someone as being depressed rather than sad. Also, therapist often are paid through insurance companies and government agencies who will only reimburse for labels such as depression and would deny payment for any other terminology.

The result of our society’s obsession with labeling so many people as being depressed, is that the distinction between depression and sadness has been removed. In general, the entire concept of sadness has been replaced with a preoccupation with depression. This has only exaggerated our unrealistic expectations of our maintaining only one acceptable mood (happiness), while making any deviation from this one mood life damaging or threatening.

In the next post I will discuss some of the ways our growing emphasis on depression is being played out in our society.

Below I’ve pasted a few of my songs and their lyrics which deal with aspects of sadness and depression.

She’s Not Here (lyrics/reveries)
Haunted (lyrics/reveries)
Grieving (lyrics/reveries)
Mundane Blues (lyrics/reveries

Again you are invited to listen to more of my songs in the music section of this site. I feel many of you will find my ideas easier to feel when they are expressed in song.

Jim Guido

Political Guise/Guys

In a couple of my more recent posts I explained why I am unlikely to vote in the upcoming presidential election. To sum up, I won’t vote until there’s a real candidate to vote for and I don’t want to support a corrupt political process in dire need of an overhaul.

I also mentioned that it appeared to me that anyone truly espousing policies which were different from the status quo was being marginalized and posed as a fool by the corporate media (Ron Paul and Kucinich this election and Dean in the last). In other words no candidate is able to get a nomination by the two parties unless he/she is deemed acceptable by the military/industrial complex as LBJ warned.

Candidates must tow the line even if it means losing the election. John Kerry’s decision to support the Iraq war in 2004 despite an overwhelming majority opposing the war is a perfect example. How else can you explain a Democratic candidate who willingly supports a botched war started by the incumbent despite over 2/3 of Americans saying they wanted out.

Some of Obama’s stances smack of the same political realities of playing the game. First Obama has stated the need for us to cut our dependency on foreign oil (think Arabs) despite the fact that the current bubble in the price of oil is speculative in nature, just like every other bubble. The net if full of reports and footage which shows oil tankers just sitting in the gulf. The corporations making record profits in oil are American owned, and the supply and demand figures don’t reflect any need for high oil prices. Both in terms of production and supply figures we are at levels similar to when oil was well under $40 a barrel. Greenspan and the policies of the Federal Reserve have more to do with the inflated price of oil than any foreign entity. Just as those same policies led to the real estate bubble and the bull market (bubble?) in commodities.

So instead of talking about the truth regarding inflation Obama points the finger at Arabs. Similarly he takes the low road regarding exploiting the fear of terrorism. I saw a piece in which he stated that the greatest threat to our national security is in the possibility of “terrorists” getting possession of a nuclear bomb. Now, how could that be the biggest threat.

A nuclear bomb is not much of a threat without a delivery system. Very few nations have a military and missile program capable of attacking the US. At best a terrorist group could sell the bomb to a nation who could execute an attack. Yet, to say terrorists groups are the real threat is disingenuous fear mongering at best and truly destructive of the culture of hope and trust Obama claims to want to foster.

Obama likewise has found a way to continue our paranoid war like stance with the rest of the world. He has been quoted as saying that he favors a “slow drawdown” of troops in Iraq and poses Afghanistan as the area of real concern. As the area in which we should be increasing the number of troops.

Those advocating an increase in military presence in Afghanistan point out that the Taliban is taking back control of the country and that the opium supply is back to record levels. I listened to a report on NPR that insinuated that both the government and the Taliban are the cause of the sharp rise in the amount of poppy plants in the area.

Yet, that report and any other I’ve seen over the last number of months seems to ignore a couple of important facts. First, we installed the current government and have been highly influential in all their policies. Second, the Taliban has been very successful at squashing the production of opiates in Afghanistan, and had essentially eradicated the crop before we took over. Therefore, to insinuate them as the cause while refusing to mention their previous successful actions appears to be nothing more than blatant propoganda to incite ill based support once again for aggressive policies in the Middle East.

I personally find Obama very endearing, and I’d like to see a culture of hope replace one of fear and blame. Yet, I refuse to continue to vote for the lesser of two evils. We need to demand a certain level of honesty out of our political process and the candidates who supposedly represent us. How can we put our trust into people who are not trustworthy and who routinely tell us lies and propoganda?

Ron Paul was the closest thing to a real person and candidate I’ve seen in a long while. I was willing to vote for him despite the fact I disagreed with some of his policies, because he seemed honest and caring. Such a person seems willing to acknowledge and correct their mistakes and in the end may be able to do the right thing. Those who lie for a living never have sufficient reason to do the right thing or to change their course of action. All they have to do is find the right words to gain our support or foster our dependence on them.

Here are a couple of my songs dealing with this topic. I hope you enjoy them.

Political Guys (lyrics/reveries)

Mob Rule (lyrics/reveries)

Click on song to listen, click on lyrics to read. Political Guys is from the Opportunity Lost CD, and Mob Rule is from Edge of Eden. Got to Music tab to hear more.

Jim Guido

Turning Silver Into Gold

On July 31st we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. The theme of the occasion was turning silver into gold. And to commemorate the event I wrote a song of that name.

So for today’s post I will print the lyrics to that song, a long wih a couple of others which dealt with hallmarks of our relationship. I will also include a list of songs from my CD’s which mos deal with our relationship through the years.

Turning Silver Into Gold 6/14/08

My search ended long ago
My heart no longer beats alone
Meaning entered into my life
The moment you became my wife

I wept when I realized
We were about to share all our time

The years have treated us well
We’ve been lovers, friends and co-casters of the spell
Each night I lie with you
I drift so calm, feel grateful too

Giving you pleasure fills my days
Making you happy I’ll forever seek new ways
For 25 years we’ve lived beauty
Keeping our eyes kind and our hearts true

Though thankful I hope for so much more
The coming years hold such promise to uncork
Our early years we climbed now we can coast
Spend even more time with whom we love most

I cherish all that we create
Our endless conversation stimulates and soothes
Living beyond my dreams
Is still what you have me do

Turning silver into gold
Turning silver into gold

This song was written for our engagement. It is on the Ambivalence CD.

Beyond My Dreams

There is a woman how unfolds my heart
She came like a whisper the song of a lark
Her way is patient, delicate and brave
I only pray my love’s that wayIf I could only give her what she give to me
Could I ever give her what she gives to me?

If I be granted one talent beyond my strength it would be
To have her feel the beauty that she is
All thru life I have dreamt how I want to love
She puts those dreams to shame

You have me live beyond my dreams
Love beyond my dreams
Beyond my dreams where we belong
The land of love beyond song

The goal of the poet is in her eyes
Her beauty as natural as a harvest sky
My words too frail my heart too crude
My voice too clumsy to fashion you

All my life I will strive to be my very best
For only then will I be deserving of your love
Help me find within myself the beauty that you are
Help me show the world our sacred love

You have me live beyond my dreams
Love beyond my dreams
Beyond my dreams where we belong
The land of love beyond song

This was a honeymoon song. It’s an island piece from the Take Me CD.

Dance For Me

Dance for me
I would like to see you move so free
The movement of your hips sends waves thru me
You could be my raft, take me out to sea
When I see you move, I’m all with you
Your rhythms take me away

Dance for me, dance for me
Show me love and give me pleasure
Give me life so I need no other
Move like lightning and I’ll supply the thunder

Dance for me
I just have to reach out when you encircle me
It’s so very hot in this tropic zone
I’m feeling weak from the heat

Woman be my island, I lap at your shore
These rhythms keep demanding more

Dance for me, dance for me
Show me love and give me pleasure
Give me life so I need no other
Move like lightning and I’ll supply the thunder

Dance for me
You are the one, you are the one
My little island
Dance for me

The last song I’m printing the lyric to is from the CD entitled Mortal Joy.

10,000 Miles

I’ve walked 10,000 miles with you, each day brings something new
I’ve held you 10,000 times, each morning and every night
I feel your heart beating and hear your soft breathing too
Time begins and ends with you

I build on history and play on the rhythm of the day
This is where I want to stay, I’ve no urge to go away
Moment have meaning when we are sharing our view
Finding words which capture and sooth

Walking down the winding road with you
So much we’ve accomplished so much left for us to do
Keep me laughing keep me seeking truth
Keep me bursting keep me loving you

I’ve talked 10,000 times with you about feelings as clues
I’ve watched you 10,000 times to understand or just admire
Aging is easy when history is split in two…
Between the world and me and you

Walking down the winding road with you
So much we’ve accomplished so much left for us to do
Keep me laughing keep me seeking truth
Life is magic to denude

I’ve walked with you 10,000 miles
I’ve searched with you 10,000 miles
I’ve talked with you 10,000 times

The above songs and the following one’s can be heard by going to the music section of this site. I’ve listed the CD titles for our convenience.

It’s been a great 25 years and look forward to as many as our bodies will allow.

Our songs include:

Take Me  -  Take Me
Metaphysique  - Take Me
Loving You   -  Take Me

Horizontal Hold   -  Gotta B Funky
Swells of  Passion  -  Gotta B  Funky
Easy Prey  -   Gotta B Funky

Take Hold  -  Edge of Eden

Excite Me  -  Mortal Joy
Keeping Up  -  IRock Therefore I Am
Hold On -   Ambivalence

Enjoy.

Jim Guido