This is an important quote from the article, before naively interpreting the results.
It appears to reference [0], a 2017 publication, which itself references [1] a 2015 publication, which is a bit of a dead end from a layperson perspective.
[0] https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/depression-global-he... [1] https://ghdx.healthdata.org/record/ihme-data/gbd-2015-life-e...
Are we under diagnosing Depression or Over prescribing SSRI's? The numbers dont add up AT ALL. Not even close. Not in the same league.
There are mental health problems. We need therapists.
We also need there to be good diagnostic criteria (you cant see someone for an hour and hand them a psycho active drug cause your good at diagnostic). We need better science (remember folks this is the field that is the wellspring of the reproducibility crisis we're having in science).
If you measure stress, hunger, sorrow, fear, scarcity, etc. you'll find higher levels among the global poor, but if you measure "malaise, sadness, lack of purpose, emptiness, yearning for meaning, loneliness" you won't find that the global poor suffer these things as acutely.
People are often surprised when they visit the poorer Caribbean countries, or African countries (not experience immediate war), or South America, and come back gushing about how happy the people there are. Yes; many of the people you'll interact with the third world work fewer hours, with friends and companions from the same culture, with the same spiritual beliefs, doing physical labor outside that has an immediate impact on their direct survival.
By contrast, go to any part of the third world that is experiencing "industrialization" or "globalization"--Lagos, Cairo, Luanda, etc.--and you'll find that "depression" rates begin to increase as people grow up and slot themselves into the global supply chain instead of the lifestyle of their ancestors.
(For the record, I am not advocating that we should shut down the supply chain to cure depression, but I think this understanding of why "happiness" trends down in areas where life is easy and comfortable, but trends up in areas where life is difficult and uncomfortable, is an important step in figuring out a good mental model of the world.)
But i can see how a simpler and poorer life will remove the worries of emptiness/lack of purpose when all you can focus on is making ends meet and have enough to eat at the next meal.
What does this have to do with anything? I grew up in a multicultural, multireligious and multilingual part of the third world, and no one ever said or thought that we would be happier if the 'other people' were somehow disappeared. Is this coming from some sections of the modern western society blaming PoC immigrants for their unhappiness?
Or to quote Bertrand Russle:
> There were once upon a time two sausage machines, exquisitely constructed for the purpose of turning pig into the most delicious sausages. One of these retained his zest for pig and produced sausages innumerable; the other said: 'What is pig to me? My own works are far more interesting and wonderful than any pig.' He refused pig and set to work to study his inside. When bereft of its natural food, his inside ceased to function, and the more he studied it, the more empty and foolish it seemed to him to be. All the exquisite apparatus by which the delicious transformation had hitherto been made stood still, and he was at a loss to guess what it was capable of doing. This second sausage machine was like the man who has lost his zest, while the first was like the man who has retained it. The mind is a strange machine which can combine the materials offered to it in the most astonishing ways, but without materials from the external world it is powerless, and unlike the sausage machine it must seize its materials for itself, since events only become experiences through the interest that we take in them: if they do not interest us, we are making nothing of them. The man, therefore, whose attention is turned within finds nothing worthy of his notice, whereas the man whose attention is turned outward can find within, in those rare moments when he examines his soul, the most varied and interesting assortment of ingredients being dissected and recombined into beautiful or instructive patterns.
I wonder if talking about it so much make people question their own leave of well being too often?
I compare this to long stints in HK and Singapore - not once has it been mentioned in the office or even socially.
Or maybe the culture of relying on other people in poorer economic situations (within an actual culture of interacting with others), provides some sort of preventive cure for depression.
> While the numbers listed above (and below) are valuable and vital, it is important to keep in mind that the true rates are likely much higher, especially in less developed countries. Depression is much more likely to be diagnosed in highly developed countries, whose more robust health care infrastructures are far better equipped to identify and treat mental illnesses.
> Therefore, less developed countries do not necessarily have less depression—rather, their treatment of mental illnesses often takes a back seat to broader concerns such as hunger, disease, and sanitation. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that 76–85% of people suffering from mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries lack access to the necessary treatment. Moreover, even in developed nations, many cases of mental illness go undiagnosed and unreported because the patients are either ashamed of their illness or unaware that it's a medically treatable condition.
So I'm wondering what the data displayed on the page is actually showing us. Certainly, the initial impressions that I got is that the first world lifestyle is associated with a kind of malaise, but is this just showing differences in diagnostic rates? Or a combination of the two, if so, how to untangle that and get a useful comparison between countries?
I think if we had perfect data, there'd be a strong correlation between sunlight hours and lower depression rates. It's one of the few real factors for alleviating mild-moderate depression. Stuff like living standards has very little relation to actual clinical depression.
What's wrong with violence? I never found violence to be depressing. For me it was sort of the opposite as a young man.
it all sounds too convenient. If we're chucking SSRIs at depressed people, all of these different cases should have the same cause that's addressed by them, right? But how do we know that?
the way it's treated sounds incredibly primitive, just throwing different pills at people and hoping for the best. Doesn't inspire a lot of faith in our current understanding of depression or the mind more generally
> - A persistent feeling of sadness
> - Loss of interest in activities once enjoyed
> - Changes in appetite – weight loss or gain
> - Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
> - Loss of energy or increased fatigue
> - Increase in purposeless tasks or physical activities such as pacing
> - Slowed movements and speech
> - Feeling guilty or worthless
> - Difficulty thinking or concentrating
> - Decreased confidence and self-esteem
> - Negative, bleak, or pessimistic attitude
> - Self-harmful or suicidal thoughts or actions
Ha, 8/12 of those are also the symptoms of ageing.
When people get stuck in a routine (job, city, hobby, political view, whatever) where they're focused mainly on the outcome rather than the process. Extreme long term thinking.
Alienation, that sort of thing.
It's common to say it's "under diagnosed" in places where people live more natural lives but I think this is correlation rather than causation.
