Is depression more common now than in past years?

Question

Why or why not?

Answer 1

it goes in four/eight year circles because of the economy:
for four years...
the economy goes well.
during that time, everything/everyone is well/good.

however, when the four years are over,
in the next four years, the economy goes though a minor "crisis."

right now we are in the four years of crisis.

1990-2000
were kind of in the good stage.
im not sure what years though

Answer 2

Depression is more common in this year than in the past years because ppl is reporting how they feel, now that is a psychological problem that can be solve is something that affect lots of people and ppl is looking for help when they are depress before people just try to see depression like something that it was going to past soon or later now is different we are more educated about the causes and the complications and the treatments that depression could have.
Also we could see that depression used to be more common in women but it wasn't because it was true, it was because men were ashamed of telling someone that they were feeling depressed.

Answer 3

Vey much so. People don't have the support from extended families now. People get this misconception that antidepressants are addictive, which I think is wrong. I came off twice for 12 months, but my symptoms reoccured slowly. Addictiveness, is not coming off the medication in fear of symptoms coming back, people become dependent on them. Clinical Depression is caused by a depletion of serotonin, which I think is similar to the lack of insulin in diabetes. This means it has a high chance of coming back, like mine. It is a life long treatment. Without my treatment, I become ill again.Life events cause this depletion. I have read so many psychiatric journals to come to this conclusion. Some people cannot make this serotonin, similarly to the lack of dopamine in schizophrenia. No amount of counselling/CBT can prevent this, I have had this for years. When I am on the tablets, I am assertive and can function normally (10mg Citalopram), but without it, I cannot get up and the future seems to disappear into a black cloud.

Jobs are more stressful too, causing the onset of depression.

On seeing the response fron The Only, I agree that there is a stigma attached to depression and other illnesses; people see it is a character flaw, which is wrong.Some jobs won't accept you if you have a history of depression such as the police and RAF.

Answer 4

There is a good book I just finished call "Better but not Well: Mental Health Policy in the United States since 1950" that has a section devoted to whether mental illnesses have been increasing, decreasing, or staying the same in the last 50 years. It's a really complicated issue and hard to measure, but the short-and-simple conclusion was that the increasing rates of depression diagnoses in the U.S. population cannot be attributed solely to increases in awareness, mental health providers, and treatments or to decreases in stigma. There does seem to be a small increase in actual clinical depression since the previous two generations.

Answer 5

Depression has always been with us. In many ways and for various reasons.
We hear of it more now, since people are feeling the weight become heavier with the news of wars, and murders, or others serious problems. One of our biggest mistakes is sometimes we ignore the warning signs people show until it's too late. Recent news proves that to us.
As time passes the problems appear to come at us more .
I've fought bouts of depression for a long time. Mostly because of the side effects I get from the medicine I take to control my health situation. It's a choice of control my health and deal with the depression the best I can , or deal with the depression and chance getting hurt or dying because of no control of my health issue.
My health situation stems from a dr breaking my skull. I used to be depressed and hateful at him because of that. I had to learn to adjust my life to work for me instead of against me. As holding in those emotions were robbing me of life. That is what it does to people. It hurts us in many ways and even effects the people we love.
I dont believe that drugs can answer this problem as it really only covers it up or masks it so others can see it. I beleive we need to be there for each other, to let others know they arent alone in the battle. Serious depression can lead to suicide and is what I hope to avoid or help others avoid if possible. I accept this struggle and lean on God to keep those tghoughts from me. As I have too much to live for, When I feel the depression or suicidal thought come in, I sit down and write out the good things in my life, and why I feel I'm here . I look for ways to shine my light instead of letting it dim or burn out. Which is what my depression used to do to me.

So yes depression is more noticable now because of the net, and phones or treatments we can feel we have some sort of relief or ways to vent without causing physical harm. I pray that for those that read this question or things on Y/A that they may find some peace and help them find a way out of that pit.

Answer 6

Yes, it is a statistical fact and common sense.

As technology increases so did depression and other mental health issues. Not just specifically technology but what it lead to, for example the media (that's self explanatory and I don't want to hit common grounds).

Answer 7

I completely agree with Iris's answer. People these days are so senstive and take things way too personally.

It's like everyone thinks everyone else is out to get them or something. Maybe it's because everything needs to be hyped-up, speed-up, overexposed and exaggerated for us to pay any attention to it. Expectations are so high and many people think that good things come for free...

Eventaully, people are bound to be disappointed with themselves and/or the people around them.

So, yeah, I think depression is more common now.

Answer 8

and medication!! Yes I think so. I also think it's because more people don't talk about what's going on and some live with a lot of trauma which can be heavy and cause depression!! But I also think there's help if people want it...

Answer 9

Yes becasue more people are talking about it. Who knows? More people talk about the issue today than years past. Judt like Attention Deficit Disorder, now 5 out of 6 people/kids/adults have a form of it...asthma, whatever the illness of the year is, everyone has it.

Answer 10

Maybe. What is "good" is that there is more awareness and better diagnoses of the disease of depression.