Why are so many people depressed?

This question was posted to our Facebook page a few years back: ‘Why do you think depression has become so much more prevalent in the last 50 years? What is it about our society that has changed so much?’

Responses ranged from materialism to disconnected communities, and highly processed diet. We put together an article and now this video to share some of the insight we gleaned from the community - please share your own thoughts in the comments below the video.

All notes and references can be found on the original post on the blog:

If you found this video helpful then please leave comment and hit the 'like' button - and don't forget to subscribe for future videos.

0:00 Introduction:
00:12 'Why do you think depression has become so prevalent?'
00:43 Cause 1: Disconnected communities
01:28 Cause 2: Materialism
02:49 Cause 3: Unrealistic expectations
04:02 Cause 4: Diet

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++About Mark Tyrrell++

Psychology is my passion. I've been a psychotherapist trainer since 1998, specializing in brief, solution focused approaches. I now teach practitioners all over the world via our online courses.

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[adriancaldwell]

In this day and age I'm more intrigued by why someone 'wouldn't' be depressed

[shadrach]

The more I watch the news, the more depressed I feel.

[emilyhops]

Food. Ready meals, fast food. 100%. When i was little in the 70s and 80s there were no ready meals. Kids at school didnt have adhd, there was no self harm, and suicide was rare. We did home economics to taught us cooking on a budget, how to run a house hold, so we knew how to make cheap healthy food. Not now. Fried chicken, takeaways, added sugar, food addiction... all adds up to depression. In my laymans opinion.

[ekakuzmanoska]

Great video. I have to agree with you that depression is usually a mix of all of this.
But most importantly, the environment.

[iloveyellow]

your channel is blessing thnk you for these videos. I am finding out so much about myself and other people

this resulted in me getting better with associating with new people too

thank you

[elisab]

Thank you for your concise overview. It's wonderful! (:
Not discussing the affects of current live events on depression shows how dated your original article is and that we truly live in a time inconceivable only years ago. Glad to see you already devoted a whole article to the live events as well! Much appreciated (:
Two questions regarding the references:
"David O. Antonuccio and William G. Danton, University of Nevada School of Medicine and Reno Veterans Affairs Medical Center Garland Y. DeNelsky, Cleveland Clinic Foundation: “Psychotherapy the best medicine”, and their meta-analysis of over 100, 000 pieces of research into the causes, consequences, and best treatments for clinical depression, conducted 1978-1993."
The meta-analysis you refer to is the one about antidepressants and depression treatments in general by Antonuccio et al.? Sadly I can't find "Psychotherapy the best medicine" either...

[etrebelle]

I feel like depression is when you don't know what to do, it always stems from learnt helplessness. It is not what happens to you (trauma included), it is only the perception(/reality) that you are helpless about it that makes a person depressed. After the big trauma of war people knew what to do: rebuild the world. which looks like a positive plan and a compensation for the past: anti-depressive.
Since going through cycles of wars and rebuilts sounds utterly stupid, the way out of depression in our era could stem from taking serious responsibility about our big plans for the future (green economy, jobs variety), instead of indulging in this brain-dead capitalistic pop-culture, where a few make money not out of innovation or added value to the community, but by squeezing profit with a bare game of leveraging power, lower-costs highest-price formula, and advertisement, and the rest is like hypnotized sheeps (me included) spending far too much free time eating, talking about silly topic and distractions like body shape, what is supposed to be ''cool'' and ''successfull'' according to the instead of being a peaceful being dedicated to higher studies or to their own projects... which there are MANY, since every single new technology is opening a wide range of applications (I have examples in mind). I feel like I've been ''depressed'' most of my life because my parents put stupid ideas in my mind; they were themselves insecure about their looks, and drinking whatever stereotype of man-woman love the movies were telling them, and they never cared about what I could actually achieve or what I was doing well with effort, they didn't praise my consistency and results, they talked negatively about those, and instead praised me for being ''ill'' and in need of ''help'' (in their opinion). I feel like we have to believe in people's intelligence, and foster it, more. Intelligent people is not the same as mean people, or sheeps, or sad people. Intelligent dedicated people are free and are happier, and they make things that others only talk about doing. Just my opinion.

[messrsandersonco]

Perhaps our sedentary lifestyle is perhaps more significant than our lazy diet which is driven by our inability to cook at home and ability to afford fast food/convenience food. Children used to play outside. These days it's TV and video games - neither enhances children's social skills.

[michellebakerwork]

What a lovely (do men like lovely?) presentation. It was so beautifully put and a wonderful reminder. Just what I needed today. Thank you 😊

[jcthegreat]

I know I am it's real bad too so much to the point I don't even know what to do. Financial issues is a hard ball. My family can't help me and my friends can't neither and when other people I knew from work hear about what I'm going thru their whole view of me change negatively. My nerves are really bad. Sometimes I feel like crying while other times I feel mad at myself. The crazy thing is I feel like I'd be a whole lot better off in a poorer country because I'd be around a bunch of people who won't judge me and therefore I could interact with people comfortably instead of always having to hide the reality of my life.

[silvermoonuk]

I think most ppl sadly get depression or anxiety these days. I think 🤔 depression or anxiety is a symptom or underlying problem of something else, such as stress, physical health issues, environmental issues, burnout, media, poor diet, etc..

[VertexCarver]

I have the impression that this type of causality can be very fractured.

I think 3 out of 4 of these possibilities could be categorized as cultural?... ( Not sure of its definition, but the collective values of today's individuals? )
If I look back at my own life as a seemingly infamously discontent millennial. I think searching for where you belong is something we all do growing up?.
I just worry that "belonging" today, kind of relates to your work... At least in my (very secular) country, it's not just status but I get the feeling that it's viewed as a reflection of who you are more than previously.
I have the impression that a lot of my peers subconsciously equate their worth with how productive they are. It's as if "if you don't work really hard you're never gonna be happy or achieve anything". Along with today's corporate culture which is quite predatory. it's in my mind a pretty caustic combination with a romanticized view of a workplace.

A spontaneous thought of mine is that *modern values* are kind of all over the place & somewhat identity-driven today?
My impression & reasoning is that most of our values are outsourced as we grow up but shockingly few actually take the time to truly consider one's options that don't fall into the norm. Like being a carpentry teacher or living a simpler life.

Maybe all values could be claimed as identity-driven now that I think about it. Lol!
I could be mistaken about culture as it probably encapsulates more than just values. I hope I make sense anyway.
Edit; Broken english

[bonnacon]

It’s a completely reasonable and proportionate response to many aspects of modern life. Also, persistent mild depression can feel like a protection against a more precipitous collapse.

[MichaelPiz]

Re: The "Need" for Community

As a hard-core introvert, I have all but zero interest in social connections. In fact, I overcame my depression when I finally realized and accepted my introversion instead of trying to be an extrovert. Today, I am depression-free.

Since possibly up to half of all people are introverts, what does that say about social connections relating to depression?

[susandean]

It’s no wonder that SSRIs don’t work very often. These are medications prescribed to address “chemical imbalances” for which there are no tests and practitioners are identifying things like lack of connection and materialism as the causes of depression. So instead of fixing an individual’s circumstances a medication is prescribed as a quick fix for a chemical imbalance that probably doesn’t exist🤷‍♀️

[thewanderingartists]

Your voice is so good, you should voice for audiobooks.

[shadrach]

We get much less physical exercise than in the past

[etrebelle]

you are so helpful with your work. I love your channel it does help (not ''sounds like help'' bs which is everywhere).

[bendirval]

I think your commentators got it exactly right. Every single one of those explanations rings true to me.

[yyuwkfi]

Why one is depressed: wants: skinny body, fat account, faithless, me and only me, pressured to be to perfect, connected, looking up to fake people on TV.
Ending up killing oneself because it’s impossible to achieve the above