GuidoWorld

Depression and Society

August 27, 2008 on 7:39 pm | In General |

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