Depressed? We are all in it together.

Denial and Doubt - Life we silently and secretly lead

Suddenly I see people around me depressed?

I was cruising around on Facebook recently and noticed something different. Usually, I felt inundated by exciting pictures of friends holidaying in exotic locations, girls partying like “Zindagi Na Milege Dobara”, best of food on the tables of real life fukras, and husbands loving their own wives. But not today. There were no pictures of the beach or not-so-humble brags about their latest promotions. The No. 1 status update of the day: depression.

It suddenly seemed like most my friends were suddenly crippled by depression and anxiety. And this wasn’t just Facebook friends, either. Real people in my real life started talking to me about their mental health issues. And honestly, it was happening very close to me too: two of my close friends shared they have been on anxiet .25 mg (btw, it is a prescription drug for anxiety, which my friends were advised). What had happened? Why does it suddenly seem like so many of us are dealing with depression?

I’m far from the first person to notice this trend. There are multiple reports that capture reasons for the rise of depression and anxiety in millennials. According to researchers, only 1-2 percent of people born before 1915 experienced a major depression during their lives. Now that number’s up to 15-20 percent of the population. Startling!

People today are far more likely to experience depression and anxiety than ever before. We experience trouble remembering things, likely to have sleeping issues, relationship anxieties, employment blues, impression pressures and what not.

Why is this happening? Sure, the world is a little crazy at the moment, but we also live in a time of extreme privilege or the problem of plenty. We have unrivalled access to technology that has opened the world to us. The world that we yet do not understand fully. The statement “Take it or leave it” is no longer a phrase. Happiness on demand (like Video on demand) is the buzz word. From Uber, Netflix, Tinder, Amazon, we have it all and we have it now.

So how could we be so unhappy then?

There are several reasons.

Rise of Social Media: A recent study published (please don’t ask me to cite the report) found that going on popular social media sites made users feel less satisfied with their daily lives and less happy from moment to moment. Basically, logging onto the site made them pretty immediately sad. The more people used social media, the more depressed they became.

It’s not shocking to think that constantly looking at pictures of other people having fun while you’re sitting in a crappy apartment (speaking from experience) would have an adverse effect on your mental health.

Lack of deep and meaningful relationships: Another cause and a significant factor in rise of depression: Since people are often hopping from one relationship to the other, the likelihood of loneliness and isolation has increased. We are always looking for better options and we have started practicing this on our relationships too. The pressure to work on improving our torn and stressed relationship has suddenly been released in the guise of “Freedom”. We no longer have to work on broken things. “Use and throw” seems to be the Chinese mantra that is well being adopted in every aspects of life, including relationships.

Obsession with material things: "Materialism is a straight path to feeling empty,”. Since many of us are obsessed with getting the latest iPhone or literally keeping up with the weekly fashion fads, it’s made us ungrounded and unfulfilled. Super-competitive gig economy isn’t helping things either. In the name of consumerism, we have to literally scrape and claw our way out of difficult financial situations just because our girlfriend/ boyfriend isn’t impressed with routine dates. Where are the exotic locations like the Bollywood’s and Hollywood’s?? There goes your financial planning and credit card limit. With obsessions for possessions, we are working around the clock to afford "the good life." Either way, it’s not a great situation.

Quick Money-making opportunities: Though the rise of quick-pseudo-employment apps may seem like a boon to young ones who just want to make an extra buck, it’s actually a sign of difficult economic times. We aren’t making enough from a single job. So, we have to spend our spare moments driving people around as taxi drivers, selling our old clothes on websites (which we use to generously exchange earlier for utensils), writing presentations for others in our spare time.

OK, that might be a bit much, but if seemingly everything about modern life is contributing to a rise in depression, what are we supposed to do?

Nobody really knows.

My personal opinion is taking frequent breaks from social media, stressing less about work, and finding more human connections can help relieve sadness. But that’s not always possible and might not help people currently struggling.

Another personal opinion, in case everything fails, is to introspect and seek self-awareness and truly find a purpose of your life and align with people who can help you achieve it.

Hope you live a depression free life. So long….

Live Aware.