1 in 5 people are taking antidepressants?

It is because of too much of desire and expectations in life. One should know his limits and remain contended. Also the huge accumulation of negatives, impurities and imperfections in our body and mind has to be removed. Then only one can be bold, courageous and confident.

For years I never had a problem getting up when I felt down.

About 2 1/2 years ago I had a lot of problems come up that I had no way of dealing with.

I had 21 years with the same employer, but a few changes in management messed me up real good.

I'll put it as concisely as I can. Bonus cuts + pension cuts = at the very least $500,000 they stole from me if I continued to work there till I retired and lived to be 77.

Add that to inept management of employees (the boss was an engineer, I know engineers and I'm related to a few...they are terrible trying to manage people)

So insomnia, crying, and suicidal thoughts came along.

The drugs I take are keeping me alive so counseling can help me plan my future.

I wonder why a lot of people think depression is sadness or being unfulfilled?

When a person would die rather than go on hurting that means they aren't thinking right. It's not selfish, in fact I thought it was cruel and sadistic when people would tell me not to do it. Why would they want me to suffer?

America is a complicated place to live in these days. Society puts pressure on teenagers to be thin, good looking and have a socially perfect world. There is also pressure to make enough money to support a family, layoffs, abuse in someone's childhood, guilt, loneliness, failure to live up to ones expectations, the list goes on. For some people haveing these imperfections could make someone depressed because not being perfect like everyone else around them or close to the 'american dream' can make someone's daily life miserable. If you look at alliances such as NAMI.org, you can see what statistics show about how much mental illness affects people today. People also through around the word Depression or Bi-polar because the pharmaceutical companies these days don't care who is right or wrong anymore as long as they are making money. Everyone today knows that if there is a problem mentally there is always a pill to fix it. It's hard to look in the future for some people and see that their lives will be fine with this economic crisis. When you are about to lose your house for example, this could depress someone because of the pressure put on that one person knowing that they might lose their house the next day. Depression causes sleep disturbances which really doesn't help performance at work the next day. The lack of sleep can cause stress in the work place and make depression worse.

honestly the list is endless why people are depressed and the cause but the economic crisis and people who are less fortunate are a good example of a depression epidemic. (Remember the Great Depression? We might have one again.)

I think the only difference is that there are anti-depressants now and there weren't in previous generations.

I don't buy that more people are depressed than ever before. It might be correct to say that more people are diagnosed with depression than ever before, but how long have we had a name for it?

Life is difficult for everyone, but if there's a place on the planet where it's less difficult than elsewhere, it's here in the U.S. I don't say that to ridicule people struggling with depression; it is very real. Just consider for a moment how difficult life is in third world countries for poor folks, especially women and children. How often can they even count on being able to eat? How often do they fear for their safety, living in an open-air hut? Even if some money or valuable tangible resource dropped onto their laps, who could guarantee its safety from theft?

Think how tough life was here just a few generations ago. Many folks in rural areas grew up having to pump their own water and with no indoor plumbing or electricity or phone. How many women died in childbirth, and how many babies didn't survive past 1 year due to illnesses like diarrhea? Women couldn't pursue their dreams and talents at institutions of upper learning, and even when they could, they were frequently ridiculed by their male peers and had difficulty finding work (Sandra Day O'Connor had this problem after graduating from Stanford Law School.)

I really think that if you watch the news too much you'll begin to feel sorry for yourself or at least kind of scared and overwhelmed by fear. I think it plays to the notion that life is really terrible everywhere and that there is doom and gloom and only bad things happen out there.

I also believe that anti-depressants alone don't aid depression, they just make people have to rely on them in order to cope. It might be more telling to ask how long people take these anti-depressants, on average. Most people that I know who are willing to talk about anti-depressant use are former takers of anti-depressants who didn't want to have to have a pill in order to cope, or at least think of themselves that way.

Life is hard on a lot of people.

Dunno... I think i just have a chemical imbalance... or maybe I'm just bored :) i dont take meds tho..