Why are Americans so depressed?

Seriously? Have you been awake for the past eight years?

I think liberals tend to be the depressed ones, especially the farther left they are, because they are atheists, thus they see themselves all alone in the universe and it terrifies them and makes them see life as pointless.

On the other hand, conservatives are religious who believe in a higher being that's out there looking out for them, so they generally tend to feel safer and happier in the world if they abide by God's rules.

I thought seeing Trump elected was the worst, but seeing the way that people I knew and cared about reacted to COVID was the most depressing thing I've yet experienced. Knowing so many of them were actually so selfish and craven was depressing as fuck. It's a lot to know that the people you held in high regard actually don't care about you, themselves, or humanity in general.

Moving on from them and all of the Trumpers in my life has been freeing but it was still a painful wake up call.

When you see the hatred, bigotry, misogyny, entitlement, ignorance, and greed being proudly displayed by your fellow man you will understand. The people who should be the best examples of humanity are the worst and people follow them like sheep. Those with the worst traits seem to reap the most worldly success that people covet. These people also like to label "us" and "them". There is no "we" anymore. Not sure what can be done.

Hawgwarsh!^^^

R5 was for r2.

R3 is an example of a depressed far left whacko

[quote]I think liberals tend to be the depressed ones, especially the farther left they are, because they see the country turning to fascism while the general public and the media fiddle a la Nero.

FIFY, R2.

@r2, "I think liberals tend to be the depressed ones"

Well, people who think and understand the world around them sometimes get a little depressed, but they also know they can change things for the better which gives them hope 🙂

I think a lot of it is that people expect to be feeling good all the time when that just isn't how most humans are set up to be - we're set up to be dissatisfied because that pushes us to do things and change things. Probably sedentary lifestyles and a processed food diet contributes. And there's more awareness of 'depression' which probably leads to over-diagnosis of the condition - see the same phenomenon going on with high diagnosis of ADHD, autism spectrum, narcissism and other mental health conditions.

R2, that’s possibly the dumbest comment I have seen in a long, long time. Everything is not liberal vs conservative, dummy. Plenty of pastors have to counsel depressed members of their congregation. During Covid, millions of Christians started to question their own beliefs. The decline in church attendance is not a coincidence (although it was on the steady decline before Covid).

Donald Trump and his fascist behavior, mishandling Covid-19 and the resulting deaths. Something people don’t talk about so delayed grief all bottled up. Lastly, social media escalates the have and have not cultural zeitgeist.

Whatever the individual's political stripe, Americans tend to want their variety of progress to be happening at full throttle right now, be it at home, be it in the country generally, and second best is miscellaneous fun thrills right now. When neither is happening, we get depressed because we think we're being deprived of what is due us by Natural Law--and then we want to find someone or something to blame and punish for this cruel and unjust outrage.

Think of America as really hot guy in his thirties.

Now he's pushing sixty.

R10 Plus office jobs with artificial light and a sedentary lifestyle. I sometimes think my ancestors weren’t depressed and they didn’t have insomnia either - they were too tired at the end of each day.

Why are some gays on the DL incredibly stupid???

@r13, First off America has 330 million very diverse people, we are not all a single block of thought and belief. Europeans try to pigeon hole us as being this or that when we have a full spectrum of ideas and motivation. We are not Hollywood's version of America

Because everyone tries to tell you it is your mind and not your life that is the problem.

In no other country anywhere in the world are people even half so obsessed with 24-hour news as Americans are. That's a huge part of the depression and anxiety problem. It's like an opioid addiction.

^ I haven't watched network/cable news in 10 years... I'm a freak

Why are straight me so stupid?

The majority of Americans are overweight. Being overweight often comes with other health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. Why wouldn't they be depressed? I certainly find obese people depressing.

R2 is utterly full of shit.

You know what would really make people in this country happier? If religion was kept out of government and public schools where it has no business being, if Republicans were kept out of power EVERYWHERE, if the news media was required to report the truth (not horse race false equivalencies and not click-bait sensationalist headlines), and if the wealthy were taxed reasonably and appropriately. You'd be AMAZED how much happier people would be.

Basically... conservatives are the problem.

yeah i only live because i fear death and i don't believe that i can ever have a comfortable or financially secure life, not ever.

R23 is the problem

No, R25. Republicans and conservatives.

How much happier would people be if we actually had Universal Healthcare, LIKE EVERY OTHER FUCKING MODERN COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (and many not-so-modern)? No more medical debt. No more anxiety over health issues. No more mental calculus on if you can afford to call an ambulance or 9-1-1 if you're feeling like you're having a heart attack on the remote chance maybe it's just stress or a muscle spasm?

Fuck. Republicans and Conservatives make everything worse, and prevent anyone else from even TRYING to make it better.

R2 if that were true the highest rates of opoid addiction wouldn't be in backwards Trump country.

Oh god why me?

@r23 I think I love you 😍

@r26, I love you too 🥰

Marijuana

Social media leads to compare and despair

[quote]if Republicans were kept out of power EVERYWHERE, if the news media was required to report the truth

R23, I realize you think these are roughly equivalent, but they're not. You're co-opting one of the right wingers' most toxic arguments: that the "East Coast media elite" cannot be "trusted," but kind, gentle souls like Fucker Carlson and Alex "Bankrupted by Sandy Hook" Jones who tell them the "MSM" is "toxic" are obviously correct, and if they say Donald J. Trump is a savior sent from God and the victim of an evil criminal justice system that's doled out 91 separate counts against him, they must be CRUSHED.

Yes, I get your point about excessive sensationalism & false equivalencies, and I actually agree with it. OTOH the legacy media world is on its last legs, and clickbait / sensationalism are two of the ONLY remaining ways to attract eyeballs in our massively oversaturated culture. Despite all of it, the non-right-wing media reports accurately 99% of the time.

Not a single Republican in the last 50 years has voted to make your life easier, less stressful, more affordable, or safer.

The Religion of America is HATE

[quote]Despite all of it, the non-right-wing media reports accurately 99% of the time.

This isn't really true. See pretty much all coverage of the 2016, 2020, and now 2024 elections. See coverage of Hunter Bide, Tara Reade, Hillary's emails, etc, etc... and compare to coverage of Republicans and their ACTUAL (not completely made up) crimes.

Sorry, that 99% figure is pure wishful thinking, and is simply untrue. The media reporting on the economy is similar: it's not reporting the facts, and it actually spent years practically CHEERLEADING for a recession (which never happened and was never going to).

The media IS A HUGE PART OF THE PROBLEM, and that's not right-wing framing at all. Most of the media IS right wing, having been bought by right-wing & Right-Libertarian billionaires, their editorial content shaped by them. See: The Sinclair Group for how local news has been utterly corrupted and is completely untrustworthy in much of the country, just pushing out right-wing propaganda and messaging.

My genuine belief is that everyone was traumatized by the pandemic, & the combination of Trump + coup + pandemic... and a lot of people are still stuck in depression/anxiety & need to learn to heal.

R2 also, liberals love to wallow in their misery, whereas conservatives prefer escapism.

R38, conservatives are the cause of nearly every one's misery.

Fuck all politics and fuck all political commenters

Microplastics.

[quote]This isn't really true. See pretty much all coverage of the 2016, 2020, and now 2024 elections. See coverage of Hunter Bide, Tara Reade, Hillary's emails, etc, etc... and compare to coverage of Republicans and their ACTUAL (not completely made up) crimes.

I think you just explained the problem: you watch cable TV news (presumably Fox). I watch zero TV news. I read the Times, Post & Guardian daily, and aside from passing mentions of Hunter Biden and erroneous election polling, I've had no issues with them generally.

The "normal" media (meaning the one you're *not* watching/reading) hasn't mentioned "Hillary's emails" since 2016, aside from quoting our idiot previous president about them, and since I give zero fucks about Hunter Biden's laptop, I skip right on by the few pieces I get about it. But yes, TV news is the most sensationalistic of all, and anchors say way too much ridiculous bullshit solely to fill their required 16 hours of live airtime.

As for covering their various crimes, you must've missed Texas's severely corrupt attorney general, Ken Paxton – who fucked a campaign donor's wife and bribed a shitload of people to cover it up, prompting the resignation en masse of his entire handpicked "chief assistant" crew – being tried in the Texas House a couple of months ago. Even before its endgame became clear, it made national news headlines – and the endgame turned out to be "total GOP sham," given that the House acquitted him in all of 10 minutes despite a truly absurd amount of evidence. I received four breaking news alerts about this miscarriage of justice almost immediately.

People who are obsessed with politics are depressing and lack personality. What a sad life, to be angry about the "other side" all the time.

T———R———U———M———P

[quote]In no other country anywhere in the world are people even half so obsessed with 24-hour news as Americans are. That's a huge part of the depression and anxiety problem.

24-hour news channels CNN, MSNBC and Fox News together pulled in 4.1 million viewers (on average) for its prime time lineup in October. That doesn't seem like a lot in a country of 330 million people.

And how many of those are children?

[quote]you watch cable TV news (presumably Fox).

No, dumbass. I don't watch FOX. WTF is wrong with you?

You seem completely -- and I mean COMPLETELY -- out of touch.

R19, and the commercials on those 24 hour news channels are all 90-second pharmaceutical antidepressant ads, or meds to counteract the bad side effects of your antidepressants!

I miss the first thirty years of my life, the 1960s thru the 1980s. People were civil and helpful. Politicians really looked out for the interests of their constituents. Consensus was reached, including among hippies and the corporate world. We respected the President, even if we didn't like him. My Mom, a hardcore Republican, cried during JFK's funeral. I bit my tongue regarding Reagan, but I shook his hand when granted the opportunity.

Kids played outdoors. Children's sports were not so competitive that parents fought in the stands, setting an example. Minorities, including gay me, gradually received better treatment and understanding. We interacted personally, developing deep, lasting friendships. I would find out about a party in college by word-of-mouth; I never felt I was left out.

Six hours of cartoons on Saturday mornings, giving education a breather for the weekend.

Steve Garvey, Joe Namath, Robert Redford stirred my loins. I courageously bought Playgirl magazine monthly, too.

r17 didn't read the first five words of r13 , and didn't comprehend the meaning of "we" towards the end. This is why Americans are so depressed.

One of the things I've heard non-americans who have moved here is their shock at how many pharmaceutical ads are shown with "ask your doctor about....". Drugs are really pushed here. How about just going back to letting doctors decide what drugs might be best?

I love r36. Conservatives are boring, dull, destructive, defensive when called out, selfish, narrow minded and greedy. They should be shunned by society until they learn to function in society.

First of all, if you don’t vote Republican or Democrat, you’re labeled as a freak or ruining the outcome of the election. Look at the last election Trump or Biden. What a choice. Don’t get me started…

Well, that's true, R53. If you're dumb enough to waste your vote on a 3rd party, you're a fucking idiot who isn't helping anyone.

And the choice between Biden and Trump is like the EASIEST choice ever made. It's like "What you do you want for dinner... Pizza, or hippo shit with ground glass in it?"

I’m not sure people in the US are more depressed than people elsewhere. Of course, there are rankings and such but levels/comparisons of depression are not terribly valid.

What’s probably more prevalent in the U.S. is conversations about depression. Many here talk quite openly about their own depression/anxiety/therapy/psych meds in a way that would be considered unseemly in other countries.

I’ve lived in a handful of countries and traveled in many more. My impression is that depression is ubiquitous. But mental health in much of the world is such a private topic that it isn’t even discussed with close friends or family members.

Three of the most frequently mentioned ways to keep depression at bay are regular exercise, proper nutrition, and good sleep hygiene. Most Americans are missing two of those three.

Portugal and Spain have high rates of depression. Same with the UK. And France. And the Scandinavian countries despite their bullshit about hygge.

People suffer from depression all over the western world. The most depressed people in my circle of friends are actually not American - it’s a French guy and an Argentinian frau.

Americans hide it better.

I'm not depressed.

I watched Sophie's Choice today.

Tht 1930s-40s shit. That, that was depressing. Still can't get over that actually happening. They thought that was a good idea? Crazy.

Because they’re fat.

I'm an American, I'm not depressed or fat 🤷‍♂️

The plight of no dramatic hill to die on. Avoiding culture war semantics has been a balm, I refuse to participate. Left, Right, whatever. I come from a confused family. In fact, my family is so confused that during the Civil War my great great grandfather fought for the “west.”

Russia is so depressed that the number one cause of death for men is suicide.

If I was Russian, I would also seriously consider suicide.

More evidence that R42 is just wrong and the media is in fact against Democrats & Biden: We had 4 national polls released showing Biden beating Trump + polling showing Biden with a double-digit lead among young voters.

Barely a peep from the same cable shows and newsrooms that give 24/7 coverage to polls that are negative for Biden.

Anything can be accomplished when people can act as one mind. The Internet has fractured us into many pieces and will keep us that way until we all get on the same page and act for the better. Of course there will be losers but when the pain becomes unbearable, otherwise ...

Conservatives are the same as they have always been. The average liberal is the same as they have always been. The far left has gotten even more leftist as the result of critical race theory and queer theory. There is a division among the left, as well as the left from the right now.

^ Wut? 🥴

To the left, to the left… 🎶

[quote] Why are Americans so depressed?

Our empire is in collapse and everything of value in the last 50-75 years is shrinking or disappearing.

^ Our what?... Oh, you must be talking about the British

R67 is delusional and isn't paying any attention at all.

Another Reminder: 90% of news media is controlled by six corporations headed by Trump-loving billionaire CEOs.

That is a big reason the news media fails to say anything positive about democrats or warn us about republicans' and Trump's plans to create a dictatorship.

I’m not depressed just dysthymic.

or warn us about republicans' and Trump's plans to create a dictatorship. Really R73?

I guess you don't read The Atlantic - they've been writing about Trump and dictatorship for years.

And I guess you didn't see The New York Times today (12/04/23). Their article about Trump and dictatorship (not their first) was top of the page.

If you don't receive Heather Cox Richardson's "Letter from an American" via email or through Facebook or through Substack, you wouldn't have seen her daily recap of the previous day's events...

Just a few samples. It is being reported, repeatedly... folks need to see the pieces, read them, and be moved by them.

Just a few examples, yes. Nice cherry-picking there. Way to ignore the preponderance of evidence that shows me to be correct. The bias is obvious and clear. They push falsehoods about Biden and Democrats on the front page and then the "corrections" below the fold on page B-23, if they run them at all. It's pretty damn consistent. Another thing you see way too much of is a decent story, but with a completely misleading headline with massive anti-Dem/Biden/Harris bias, so all those people who don't read past the headline or the first paragraph come away with exactly the wrong conclusions.

But keep on pretending it's otherwise. You're just showing your OWN bias. IT's not exactly news or controversial to state the fact that the news media has devolved dramatically into click-bait headlines and uncritical stenography of GOP politicians and think-tanks, and "horserace" journalism that cannot state when one side is correct and the other is wrong, because of fake "balance" requirements.

R2 That doesn’t make sense because a lot of the happiest countries in Europe have a huge atheist population, like Sweden.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

I think humans would be happier if we spent the majority of our days outside, doing manual labor (but not too much labor). We are too far removed from our natural habitats.

People with depression back in the old days (it was called melancholia) had no hope of effective treatment, and many killed themselves to end their suffering.

^ Or they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, dusted themselves off and got on with it. /s 🙄

I'm not depressed or anxious despite all the shit in the world. I shrug and carry on and enjoy the little things in life.

[quote] The far left has gotten even more leftist as the result of critical race theory and queer theory. There is a division among the left, as well as the left from the right now.

and the right has not gotten any more extreme.

[quote] Conservatives are the same as they have always been.

24/7 Cable tv and blogs and social media

That is why people feel so bad even though our present time is so much easier and safer and quite prosperous compared to decades in the past.

@r84 That disgusting image was actually used as a postcard from Atlanta Georgia 🤮

[quote] conservatives are religious who believe in a higher being that's out there looking out for them, so they generally tend to feel safer and happier in the world if they abide by God's rules.

I'm getting troll vibes from OP

I believe humanity is in serious growing pains. With the advent of high technology, it has debunked so much about religion and belief systems; it busts illusions of "what we were told." We are in between the old world and the new one. Our current governments and political systems were developed long before this technology arose, so they're ill-fitted to cater to the will of ANYONE besides the oligarchy. Bullshit walk and money talks.

It's going to be a bumpy ride to digital, Godless Western civilization. Perhaps Western civilization is in its final throes, and the East will probably be enslaving us or at least challenging us. Let us enjoy the last drops of this post-WWII peace and then prepare for what could be the worst.

Aren’t the Scandinavian countries cursed with high suicide rates? More than America.

Isn't that the weather R90? There seems to be a correlation between lack of sunshine and depression.

[quote] I believe humanity is in serious growing pains. With the advent of high technology, it has debunked so much about religion and belief systems; it busts illusions of "what we were told."

Though empirical science can tell us HOW things came to be; it can never truly tell us WHY they came be. The inability to think metaphysically causes existential confusion, doubt and despair.

@r89, Well, aren't you Miss Sunshine and lollypops 🙄

[quote] digital, Godless Western civilization.

Technology had allowed my mom (and many others) to attend church services online during Covid.

I hope they sent in their checks though because REMEMBER, GOD ISN’T FREE !

Keep one thing in mind when you watch the MSNBC, CNN, NBC…or any of the others:

Their #1 priority…always…is to make as much profit as possible. (It’s a business)

Because of that, their next highest priority is to increase ratings/viewers. (They get more commercial revenue)

Because of that, they have two primary emotions they must frequently and consistently elicit in their viewers:

1. Fear

2. Anger

Fear is the driver. It’s the King.

However, they have to balance it with spurts of anger, as people who only feel fear when they watch will begin to feel hopeless.

People who are hopeless become numb.

When people become numb, they stop watching.

When people stop watching, ratings drop.

When ratings drop, commercial revenue starts drying up.

When commercial revenue starts drying up, the business starts losing money.

Losing money is not acceptable. When that happens, it’s sink or swim.

If you will keep this in mind…every time you watch, you will find your emotional footing stabilizing rapidly.

You’re welcome.

^ Why didn't you include FOX in that little lesson on TV news 🤔

Fox being the #1 offender. I swear everytime I have to see it, it's like listening to an altered reality.

[quote] I think liberals tend to be the depressed ones, especially the farther left they are, because they are atheists, thus they see themselves all alone in the universe and it terrifies them and makes them see life as pointless.

I disagree. The leftist liberal atheist is more likely to seek counseling and pharmaceutical help with his depression. The right so-called Christian believes God will provide for his tranquility, prosperity and peace of mind. I think this is why the Right is so angry and violent all the time, and obsessed with "owning the libs" -- unmedicated depression. This of course leads to mass shootings, alt-right rallies and other acts of evil, like voting for Trump.

R97, R96, did not type an exhaustive list. Since he/she/they/it wrote, "...or any of the others:", FOX was included.

Oh - and thank you R96, your post? Well said. and all, very depressingly true.

^ Yeah? No, Fox is a major contributor, if not the architect, to this type of TV News and should have headed the list instead of being assumed under, "or any others"

And since you didn't write it you have no idea what r96 intended or not to include

I find if I step away from the news and social media that my outlook usually vastly improves.

I always check in to Twitter (X) every now an then hoping to see news of Trump's death.