[Serious] The Mental Health Crisis

[Belacqua]

You think the root cause of depression is our economic system. Really?  Gee I wonder why no one else has posited that as an idea. People such as Psychologists and Psychiatrists

He said "general depression and anxiety." Granted, these phenomena are far too varied to have a single cause. All mental health professionals, though, hold that environmental factors significantly contribute to occurrences of these problems. Constant financial anxiety, feelings that you'll never get ahead of your debts or provide properly for your family -- these things can harm mental health. 

There are any number of other environmental factors involved, too. Lack of connection with others, for example. 

While investigations into brain chemistry have provided chemical treatments, it would be dangerous to conclude, therefore, that all depression and anxiety are only caused by chemicals, and that only new chemicals are needed to treat the problem. As with all brain electrochemical events, these harmful ones are reactions to other things. Simply doing drugs may be masking the symptom while leaving the causes intact. The "medical model" makes a hell of a lot of money for powerful people, though, so we're likely to be seeing that as our only option for now. 

Or think about it the other way: imagine a much improved society, where the environment is clean, economic security is guaranteed, violence is minimal, and people care about each other. Do you really think that such a society would have the same levels of depression and anxiety as ours does? 

Good story from ancient times: Porphyry, a Neoplatonic philosopher, had serious depression. "Melancholy" in those days. His teacher advised him that depression was caused by an imbalance of cold and dry humors in the body, and the treatment was to go somewhere warm and wet. Porphyry then spent two years on Mediterranean beaches, and his depression was cured. Moral of the story: even if the medical diagnosis is wrong, a change of setting may help. Especially if it involves sitting on the beach for a couple of years. Especially in the presence of warm and wet girls.