Depression outside the United States
By freecash
@freecash (81)
United States
December 16, 2006 11:32am CST
Reading some of the threads on depression got me thinking. It's such a wide spread disease in the United States; it affects thousands of people. Is depression as prevalent in other countries? I would be interested to know this, since I think that to some extent our lifestyle influences our body chemistry, which in turn can cause mood changes and even clinical depression.
What are your thoughts?
2 responses
@jade01 (803)
• Australia
17 Dec 06
Depression is huge in Australia too. My little sister constantaly battels with it
@marmalaide (470)
•
17 Dec 06
I'm in the UK, and depression is pretty common here as well. A lot of people I know are on medication for it. Fortunately the NHS makes this affordable!
I think the main difference between the US and the UK is that there is more of a stigma attached here to seeing a psychiatrist. It's thought of as being quite a self-indulgent, American spoiled rich person thing to do. Also, people are less likely to seek help from their GP unless things get really bad. Stiff upper lip and all that. They're more likely to self-medicate by getting ridiculously drunk every weekend.
Because of our damp grey winters and equally damp grey summers there is quite a number of people suffering with low-level SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) too.
@freecash (81)
• United States
30 Dec 06
That makes sense about the increased SAD numbers in the UK.
Interesting what you say about the stigma. I have a brother in law from Eastern Europe and he views any sort of mental help therapy as unnecessary and only for "crazy" people.
Thanks for commenting.
