Why are depression & anxiety on the rise?
I was reading The Coddling of the American Mind, and it references heightened rates of anxiety and depression for younger generations. They tried to separate that statistic from the fact that it is likely tracked more lately, but even anecdotally I see a lot of people in their 20s and 30s around me who are terribly unhappy for whatever reason. My friends back home have had failure to launch, while my fellow high TC techies (relative to the rest of the country) in urban centers also seem to struggle, so it's across all income brackets, perhaps for different reasons. What is it about the past 20-30 years that have made people more depressed than ever? People blame the economy and inequality, they blame tech, they blame social media, they blame lack of time-off especially in America, they blame rising prices of essentials squeezing finances (housing, healthcare, etc), and all sorts of other things, but there doesn't seem to be one thing. There is a certain culmination of things in this generation however that I believe is causing an epidemic and I want to know how many others are affected or agree with me even if they aren't personally depressed, if they see a trend. I typed up a huge essay about my situation with mental health, but I think it's too specific to be broadly applied to whatever is going on right now so I deleted it. Are we doomed to continue down this road until everyone is unhappy? TC: 250kish but I'm sort of at a cliff so maybe less this year
The feedback loops are too fast. We have too much information and not enough processing outlets. There is no time to think deeply because the next bite of information is coming too quick and if you don’t absorb it you will be socially shamed for being ill-informed. It’s a brutal cycle.
How do we fix it? I do feel like my life is complicated without good reason because of how easy it is to overthink everything.
1. Unplug 2. Regulate 3. Wait for evolution to work its magic If you think of the whole of human history an average American today probably ingests more unique ‘media’ stories/streams in a week than our ancestors did in their lifetimes (in the last 10-15 years). I do not believe our brains are evolved for this. I think every other suggested reason is just noise. We’ve seen an uptick in mental health issues with every media innovation (Radio, Television, Cable, Internet, Broadband Internet, Social Media, etc.).
Did the actual diagnosis of clinical depression actually increase? Or is it the self-reported numbers that are increasing? Personally I see a lot of despair (not depression), and it’s a feeling of hopelessness. What people need is hope.
I don't have the book in front of me to reference, I gave it to a friend, but that is a good point. Still I recall my parents and grandparents speaking fondly about these years, and not just due to rose-tinted glasses.
Based on cursory research online, I see articles from the Journal of Psychological Medicine and more citing depressing rates increasing, which is likely clinical if they are obtaining medication. Also suicide has been rising for years as well.
Larger wealth disparity. Less class mobility.
Two problems with this thinking. 1. You make a lot of money at LinkedIn right now, and it's unlikely you grew up doing as well as you do now. When I was young my family's income bracket got me free lunches, and I'm no happier as my net worth increases unfortunately. 2. This seem to be happening across all income brackets, it has a deeper root cause than money. For the entire existence of humans there has never been a better time to transcend class than the past 100 years, so there has to be another explanation.
I’m not depressed. I’m talking about the general public. When my parents grew up the society was more equal. Now there is a bigger barrier to move up. Even though I make good money I don’t think I’ll ever ‘transcend class’.
Sure the last 100 years had the highest economic mobility. But that peaked in the 70s and 80s. The best economic mobility is returning to the norm: be born to a rich family.
Surely people were happy sometime in the previous thousands of years we've been roaming this earth, while generations with cited for economic mobility are the minority over the course of history.
This is a serious first world problem
More and more countries are rising out of poverty, emerging markets are a popular investment, so more of the world is becoming "first world" everyday, which puts even more urgency on solving it.
Absolutely agree
Because of women these days and their drama. Hurts both their mental health and men's.
I think there is something happening between men and women that may contribute to this situation, but if you bring it up as "women's drama", people are going to call you an incel, and no constructive conversation can come from it.
This is a sexist comment, can you explain why do you say that?
Globalization might have something to it that rolls up to this epidemic. We've benefited in a lot of ways from cultures coming together, but now we're getting to the point where even musical genres sound largely the same from country to country, which leaves something to be desired in terms of creativity.. but at the same time creativity doesn't exist in a vacuum, but it's overwhelming in it's current state. Also globalization is a major reason for increased competition, I do see a lot of competition, but I'm not sure if my vision is skewed from being around FAANG for a while.
Social media, lack of real relationships, consumerism. Short term Solution - more drugs and therapy, so I guess invest in related startups and pharma companies.
Meanwhile, VHT has performed poorly relative to other funds.
Sensationalism has continued to grow. It’s been happening since before the internet. I remember as a kid in the 80s people were blaming it on tv news. The only thing you would see on late night news is who got killed, sports and weather. When all you hear about is the bad things that happen to random people like yourself you tend to worry / stress a lot more. In comparison it’s rare that you hear how someone has been successful and when you do you don’t relate them to yourself. Back before broadcast news you would really only hear about your friends, family, neighbors, and influential people you couldn’t relate to. Much of the news you’d hear about would be someone you knew having a baby, getting married, or something else that was big in their lives. Today it seems like half the younger population doesn’t even think getting married or having a kid is a good thing. The root of sensationalism is likely advertising and consumerism.
The internet...
Can you be more specific? How do we fix it?
Don't use the internet... Matter of fact Im thinking of canceling mine...just saying, also the phone thing