Age is nothing but a number, that brings with it a whole lot of other issues associated with aging. It is a bit of a silly saying, isn't it? Yet, while getting old sucks in many ways, it is just part of life (and death) so we have to accept it. Our body fails, our mind fails, but perhaps worst of all - our hopes and dreams fail, because we realize that the things we had wanted, are no longer available to us. We are too old, too slow and we don't have the right conditions to meet the demand.
Depressing.
Such is life.
But, is being depressed bad?
There are heaps of depressed people these days and at least in this neck of the woods, most people don't have much of a reason to actually be depressed, based on their general living conditions, access to things like healthcare and opportunity for education and employment. Yet, still depressed.
Perhaps the symptoms of depression are growing, but the rate of clinical depression isn't. Maybe, rather than people being somehow broken psychologically, the conditions of life are bringing out the symptoms of depression, making people feel like they are ticking all of the boxes for being depressed, because they are doing things that illicit that kind of response outcome.
For example, if you watch a heartbreaking drama movie, you are going to feel sad, but that doesn't mean you are depressed and you are able to connect the dots from the event of watching, to the feeling and know that the feeling has a cause. Step away from the screen and change the frame, and the feelings of sadness dissipate and are filled with other feelings.
What if what most of what we do in life is bringing about these feelings, but we aren't identifying them as the causes of the feelings themselves, meaning that we don't "have a reason" for them, so we assume that we are depressed. It could be for instance, that since we have weaker relationships, value approval from strangers, spend time obsessing about our looks, have smaller circles of close friends, do not commit to building stable careers and spend our time as consumers who avoid dealing with our issues, that we are getting lifestyle depression symptoms, without actually being depressed.
There are many more factors that would impact on this too, and they mount up and compound with all the other factors that affect us, like the state of the world, our finances, the social problems etc - but these existed before. Of course, bring this up with people who believe they are depressed, and they will argue against it, but that doesn't mean it isn't true, or plays a role.
The fundamentals of what we face in life haven't changed, but what has dramatically shifted in the last few decades is our ability to avoid our problems by ourselves. If you look at the ways to beat addictions, it is largely done through the lens of support groups and friends and family who care - people. But these days, we are addicted to the avoidance and this very addiction isolates us further from others as it can be done alone in the privacy of our homes. Loneliness and isolation are two of the main reasons cited for feelings of depression, yet we are self-medicating with activities that isolate us further.
I am sure that a lot of people are going to call me full of shit on this one, but for those who have experienced depression, I wonder how many could actually tick the boxes on some of these (and the many not mentioned). Talking with a few of my friends recently on the topic, at first they were quite skeptical, but afterward, a few of them came to me and said that I might be at least partially right, they have isolated themselves.
Isolation is a common symptom of depression, but in the past it was very difficult to isolate and survive a life, which meant people were forced into the world, forced into interaction, forced into random. Which reminds me of a story of a friend of my mother's.
A successful man in his sixties got on a ship and headed to the most isolated part of the world - Antarctica. He went with one intention - to jump into the icy sea - knowing there would be no hope for his rescue. Once he was there, he was awestruck by how beautiful the landscape was and he was glad he would see it before he died. However, what he didn't count on, was meeting a woman in the dining room and through daily conversations, falling in love. He didn't jump.
Depression might be a symptom of circumstances for most people, where the conditions they have built into their lives is evoking the same indicators, without it being the same at all. This is not to lessen the feelings of those who are depressed, but it does make me wonder, if instead of continuing on a path of isolation, what would happen if we instead started to build real-world social connections again, commit to a job for a longer period of time, invest ourselves in falling in love, not just having sex - would depression decrease? Would the rates of addiction and violence be affected too? I don't know, but through observation, happy people are generally not spending all of their time alone.
Yet, that is what our life has largely become, where even when we are in the same room with people, even when we are sitting next to them on the couch, we are staring at a screen alone, not actually sharing the moment together.
That is depressing.
Hitting the right keys writes the story, and our story is a byproduct of our actions.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
