96 Comments

• Digg
• Bury

Much of this article seems like common sense. Fifty years ago depression was less common. Clearly increases in depression aren't from people having worse parents than previous generations, so why sit on a couch talking about how bad your childhood was? Lifestyle changes to be more active, outside more, and have more social interaction make a lot more sense than therapy or drugs.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Its really interesting to read the comments and observe who took a psychology class in college and who took a biology class in college...and who failed out completely.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

nocturne: I have seen memetics and EP used together frequently... but after further research, I have concluded that we are both kinda-right.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

What a load of crap that is.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

I always thought the reason depression developed evolutionarily was to conserve energy. Obviously, this mechanism can get seriously out of whack and become very destructive. But I believe a book I read many years ago, the Psychology of Fear and Stress, by Grey, showed experimentally that in rats, depression was the result of being placed into a situation in which they were helpless. If this principle applies to people, there could be a logic to depression---up to a point. Depression makes a person very inactive---which conserves energy. Imagine a person who was trapped in some physical situation they could not escape. If they kept vigorously trying to escape---in some ways a natural reaction---they would pretty quickly use up all their stored energy and die of starvation. If they became depressed, they would become much less active and---in this particular situation---live longer.Obviously, in the real modern world depression is a very bad thing---I understand that. And I don't want to minimize the seriousness of the problem for many people. Personally, I have had some tendency toward depression---but not overwhelmingly so. I have found, on occasions when I fell into a really bad depression, that forcing myself into activity seemed to dissipate the depression. I very much did not want to be active when I'm depressed, but logically I had decided this was the best thing to do, and I forced myself into activity. For, me personally, I found that being active tended to dissipate the depression, even though all I wanted to do more than anything in the world was lie in bed and feel sorry for myself.However, my problems with depression were not severe, and I don't want to make it seem like other people in general could have success with this approach. I just throw it out there for what it is worth. (Scientifically speaking, is anecdotal evidence and worth nothing.)

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

"The ONLY way to truly get out and not live on drugs forever, is to learn mindful awareness and start listening to what you are being told by that viscious voice in your head."Yeah, listen to it when it tells a lot of people with depression to kill themselves. Brilliant idea; why haven't we thought of it sooner?Also, depression in my experience has never had a voice. It is pure emotion, smothering emotion, compulsion, and the "realization of the """""fact"""""" that you are worthless and that nobody cares about you. If you have voices in your head I think you may need to listen to that doctor you scorn.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

@TriptasticSorry if I offended you. I does seem a little ignorant when I read it now.It was merely an example of many possible reasons, not a single reason.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

<a class="user" href="http://astore.amazon.com/cheap.mattresses-20/&quot;&gt;http://astore.amazon.com/cheap.mattresses-20/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a class="user" href="http://astore.amazon.com/buy.cheap.scrubs-20/&quot;&gt;http://astore.amazon.com/buy.cheap.scrubs-20/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a class="user" href="http://astore.amazon.com/buy.cheap.rugs-20/&quot;&gt;http://astore.amazon.com/buy.cheap.rugs-20/&lt;/a&gt;

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

As someone suffering from severe depression (without cause, as otherwise I have a ridiculously fabulous life in pretty much every objective sense), with a long family history of depression, let me assure you that, at the very least, severe depression was not less common fifty years ago. Treatments weren't very good (sometimes it simply involved being locked up). There was also a great social cost to admitting suffering from depression. People would instead claim to be bedridden with other diseases. As for suicide rates, I know that at least in Catholic communities, they were significantly underreported, as committing suicide was considered a sin so awful it would prevent a Catholic burial. (Catholics are the largest single Christian denomination in the US). Instead, a lot of people used to die of "pneumonia" and other diseases. There was a saying in "There are no suicides in Ireland. [a Catholic country] But many people die of pneumonia."

• Reply