Do y'all think we live in some kind of depressed world?

[kidfortoday]

According to WHO statistics, only 3.8% of the global population suffers from a depressive disorder.

What I don't understand is why us human beings actively seek to escape from everyday life. From banal entertainment like a movie to something as extreme as hard drugs, with every recreational activity we perform the goal is to distract ourselves from the shit that is present in the world instead of facing it or at best making a collective attempt to change it.

Is the modern world that depressing that we've become so accustomed to it and consequently we constantly resort to escapism? Or am I just blindly overthinking just because I belong to that "3.8% of the population"?

I'm not a sociologist or a psychologist to pinpoint problems accurately, but imo there's definitely something collective that isn't being talked about at all.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I absolutely agree. If life is so great, why are so many people self medicating just to get through it? Maybe they'll argue that entertainment, games, films, music are a part of life but I agree- the level to which we consume them, they seem more to be a distraction or escape from life rather than a part of it. I suppose they're both but, I think our reliance on them might not be all that healthy.

I suppose ultimately, I think we have all become more isolated as a species. But- maybe like you, that's my own bias coming through because I'm isolated. So much of our lives are unnatural though. Our diets, our lifestyles, our lack of exercise (for many,) the pollutants in our environment. I'm not sure we're designed for the lives we live.

 

[Nobodi]

According to WHO statistics, only 3.8% of the global population suffers from a depressive disorder.

What I don't understand is why us human beings actively seek to escape from everyday life. From banal entertainment like a movie to something as extreme as hard drugs, with every recreational activity we perform the goal is to distract ourselves from the shit that is present in the world instead of facing it or at best making a collective attempt to change it.

Is the modern world that depressing that we've become so accustomed to it and consequently we constantly resort to escapism? Or am I just blindly overthinking just because I belong to that "3.8% of the population"?

I'm not a sociologist or a psychologist to pinpoint problems accurately, but imo there's definitely something collective that isn't being talked about at all.

Perhaps more then 3.8% who knows how many are undiagnosed or who never seek help because the bottle or whatever stimulant is their anti-depressant

 

[avalokitesvara]

Yeah I have a lot of thoughts about this. The society most of us live in is depressed because it lacks meaning and futurity. In previous eras people had, for example in my country, christianity. Christianity tells you you are important, god loves you, anything bad that happens to you is for a reason, you are here for a purpose, when people you love die it's ok because you'll be reunited in heaven, there is something you can call on to intervene in your life if things are going bad, and if you follow these rules and partake in these rituals you will be spared from death and given an ultimate reward. It also imposed very strong social rules and hierarchies which governed people's behaviours and expectations out of life to a very great extent. In other words, your life had meaning even if it was shitty and you suffered.

Now, people do not have these comforts. They are aware their life has no intrinsic meaning, they are lost without a social and moral code, and they are left to struggle through life's difficulties on their own, and left to cope with the fact of their mortality on their own. The thing that has arisen to fill the gap is individualism and consumerism, but these are not ultimately satisfying because humans cannot be ultimately satisfied by only pleasing themselves. Capitalism has also destroyed traditions and communities, which I think humans really need to be healthy and whole. So a lot of people have a kind of pain they don't even know they have, and spend their lives trying to assuage this pain through whatever addiction they get their hands on, whether it's excessive consumerism, drugs, alcohol, gambling, complex self-pleasing behaviours such as serial dating and casual sex, on and on.

They are also told that they are free to make their own lives and meanings, while also being actually extremely limited by capitalism as to what they actually can do. Most people fall for the lie that they will be happy if they have more money, status, and success, but they don't realise that that is like a pyramid scheme where only a tiny fraction of those involved will actually "make it", so they remain poor and unsuccessful and think that that's why they're unhappy. The ones at the top of the pyramid are equally pray to unhappiness when they realise all the money and power in the world can't do anything to solve the problem of being mortal.

Furthermore even if you are fully brought in to individualist consumerist "success" you can't not be aware of the impact it is having on the world and for future generations. I think like a depressed individual can't imagine a future for themselves, a depressed society or species can't imagine a future for itself. And that's where we're at.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

The society most of us live in is depressed because it lacks meaning and futurity. In previous eras people had, for example in my country, christianity. Christianity tells you you are important, god loves you, anything bad that happens to you is for a reason, you are here for a purpose, when people you love die it's ok because you'll be reunited in heaven, there is something you can call on to intervene in your life if things are going bad, and if you follow these rules and partake in these rituals you will be spared from death and given an ultimate reward. It also imposed very strong social rules and hierarchies which governed people's behaviours and expectations out of life to a very great extent. In other words, your life had meaning even if it was shitty and you suffered.

Now, people do not have these comforts

You do realize that most people are religious, right? Those who identify as being non-affiliated with any religion are still the minority world-wide. Even in many Western countries, the vast majority of the population tends to have religious affiliations.