Clinical depression and its impact on today's society

Clinical depression is well known for being one of the most common psychological disorders in the most industrialized or western culture countries.

However, this does not mean that human beings have more biological predispositions to "make ourselves sad" without more. In fact, if this alteration of the mood has become so widespread in the most industrialized countries, it is because our way of life, although it is capable of provide us with much well-being and a better ability to avoid death for many years, it also exposes us to certain situations that make us vulnerable to death. depression.

• Related article: "Types of depression: its symptoms, causes and characteristics"

Major depression: a phenomenon linked to the current way of life

The fact that depressive disorder exists linked to the way of life of societies is nothing new, nor is it something that occurs only with alterations in mood. Virtually all psychological problems can be promoted or weakened by how we get used to interacting with the environment

and with ourselves, which depends both on the culture in which we grow and learn, and on the material reality of the countries we inhabit.

And it is that the differences between living in the Spain of the XXI century and living in Ancient Greece are not only reflected in our way of thinking and interpreting reality; they also have an effect on the predisposition to develop one or another psychological disorder. And in our case, it seems that we are especially exposed to clinical depression simply by living in "today's society."

A disorder linked to sedentary lifestyle

It is believed that if there are currently many people who will develop clinical depression in their lifetime, this is in part because, We simply reach older ages and have our basic needs covered (or, at least, more covered than several years ago). centuries).

Thus, depression would be a typical disorder of societies in which not having autonomy or being able to fend for oneself does not imply dying in a short time, since behind each individual there are health institutions and social support networks that provide the necessary resources to continue living. Thus, clinical depression is defined as a disorder of those who limit themselves to surviving, despite encountering serious problems to justify their existence as individuals.

This makes the typical symptoms of clinical depression associated with passivity and sedentary habits. Those who suffer from this psychological phenomenon are not capable of feeling excited about almost anything, and they do not get involved in hobbies or projects that they would have loved at another time in their lives. In addition, on many occasions their ability to experience pleasure is diminished, something known as anhedonia.

It is true that it is known from ancient and even prehistoric societies in which it was not uncommon to care for people with disorders chronic throughout their lives, but it is difficult to imagine an archaic model of social organization in which it was possible to sustain for months or years to most people with depression, which in many countries today amounts to around 7% of grown ups.

But beyond the simple fact that in contemporary societies life expectancy has risen a lot, also there are other frequent cultural factors in the West that seem to facilitate the onset of clinical depression. Let's see how they do it.

• You may be interested: "The 6 types of mood disorders"

Factors of daily life that reinforce depressive disorder

These are different habits and routines that feed into clinical depression and that our current way of life encourages.

1. Rumination

Our lifestyle fills us with opportunities to spend a good part of the day thinking over and over again about things that concern us. This vicious cycle of unpleasant and intrusive thoughts is called psychological rumination., and it is one of the factors that maintains depression (a fact for which, in psychotherapy, we place great importance on helping patients fight it).

Rumination is not only fueled by free time in which we have no plans and we let our mind wander through a series of negative thoughts; Furthermore, tools such as the Internet can cause us to constantly expose ourselves to content that fuels our worry and hopelessness. Let's think for a moment about the teenager who feels bad about her body and looks for hours at photographs of models, on the one hand, and tickets of blog or social networks of other young women who share their most pessimistic thoughts or even their wishes to end their life somewhere moment.

2. Social isolation

Nowadays it is perfectly possible to spend several weeks without talking to practically anyone, or directly without leaving home. This kind of extreme social isolation reinforces the possibility of depression arising and continuing, for various reasons: the deterioration of physical health, the lack of references about how to deal with sadness or melancholy, the lack of reasons to think that someone cares about us, etc.

3. Lack of sleep

Poor sleep is also surprisingly common today, and is another phenomenon that increases the risk of clinical depression. The unstructured work schedules typical of the life of the self-employed, overwork, or loneliness or lack of plans, for example, enhance the possibility of that we do not sleep enough hours or at the right time.

4. Competitiveness

The competitive mentality taken to the extreme, so typical of the job market today, makes us tend to constantly compare ourselves with others. This creates many opportunities for us to feel bad about our way of life and to become frustrated by not reaching unreasonable goals, despite the fact that we objectively have the physiological needs covers.

Looking for help to generate new habits?

If you think that your way of living is causing you to wear down your psychological well-being, The best thing you can do is go to psychotherapy. Psychologists are professionals with experience in helping to generate new daily habits that allow us to aspire to greater happiness.

To see the contact details of the Begoña Fernández Psychology Center, the place where I attend in Madrid, Click here.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fifth Edition, American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington. D.C.
• Viegas, J. (2010). Earliest traces of disabled, aged human found. NBC News.