Why Are We All So Depressed?
Posted
September 28, 2006 at
11:47 am by
Redsy
Is it just me or does it seem like every woman you know is either on medication, thinking about being on medication, or wondering if she’s depressed? What is going on around here?
Is depression just “out of the closet” as a shameful thing now that little Brooke wrote that book about post-partum depression and Mr. Cruise suggested vitamins? Is it in vogue? Or is it that the experience of being a mother and a woman in today’s society is intrinsically troubling?
I truly don’t have an answer, I just think it’s fascinating to consider possible reasons. Those of you in the “get over it and buck up” school probably would fall into the take vitamins and exercise and stop feeling sorry for yourself camp. Others of you might believe it’s truly an illness… something for which the depressed person is not responsible.
All I know is that so many fabulous, funny, beautiful women I know seem to be struggling with these issues.
I think it’s time to just add Prozac to our water supply. Remember Brave New World?
Spooky.
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3 Responses to “Why Are We All So Depressed?”
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1. Jessica Carlson said:
September 29, 2006 @ 7:00 am | Quote
I think there are two kinds of post-partum depression, one is a hormonal shift and the other is classic depression brought on by sudden lifestyle changes. Having a new baby is much like uprooting and moving to the North Pole.
What I don’t believe to be post-partum depression is what Andrea Yates was supposedly diagnosed with after she murdered her children. She was psychotic, deranged and chemically imbalanced. Post partum depression does not make you kill your kids. You might have a fleeting moment where you kid yourself (but aren’t serious), but to actually act upon is a serious, serious disease and I’m kinda pissed that it has been lumped into post-partum depression. PPD is different than being deranged or ill before you even have kids.
2. Holly Schwendiman said:
September 29, 2006 @ 1:28 pm | Quote
Interesting isn’t it? I’m finding a lot of ties to undiagnosed attention deficit issues specific to women. I used to think this was a big easy slap-on diagnosis that was overused and an easy out, now that I’ve got a daughter with it I’m seeing how real it is. The fascinating thing is what they’re just learning about women and the disorder - without fail, every woman that has it, although wasn’t diagnosed young, has grown up to with depression issues. Until now there’s been no awareness of the difference in the sexes and thus the difference in the symptoms and coping mechanisms for women with the disorder. Suffice to say they’ve grown up being slapped down for their inability to organize, finish tasks, etc., etc., etc. No wonder so many are depressed. The one time the disorder comes to light with hormone shifts we brush it off as moody teen girls, moody PMS women or heaven forbid “the change”. LOL More we don’t know than we do I suspect. ;o)
Hugs,
Holly
Holly’s Corner
3. fern said:
October 1, 2006 @ 5:50 am | Quote
First of all–Andrea Yates was diagnosed with post-partum psychosis. That is very different from post-partum depression which is also different from the new baby blues.
Depression is much more complicated than just two kinds-hormonal shift and lifestyle changes. Lifestyle change depression is called situational depression. With treatment it can go away in a short or longer period of time and may never come back. For some, depression may take a much more serious form– just happens, comes out of nowhere and is pervasive. This may require a lifetime of treatment (meds and therapy). And sometimes it happens to children (which can then bring it on in a parent). In this case, what may happen is that the child has depressive illness and the parent has situational depression.
There is also a big difference between what some call being depressed– as in “I’m bummed out for a few days” and having depression–as in “everything is cloudy and I am not functioning in life.” Sometimes you don’t know how sick you were until you are treated and it begins to get better.