I'm surprised it's as high as 50%. People have seriously suggested pumping lithium into the water supply. The UK issued 64.7 million prescriptions for antidepre

I'm surprised it's as high as 50%. People have seriously suggested pumping lithium into the water supply. The UK issued 64.7 million prescriptions for antidepressants in a single year - I don't know the breakdown per person but that is a lot. I suspect that interpersonal relationships are systematically weaker - that is the cause of this phenomena and also the cause of Peter Thiel's complaints about institutions getting worse at complex coordination. I think that interpersonal relationships are weaker because people can depend on each other less, there's a technology replacement factor. People need repeated face to face interactions to form the strongest bonds and this is happening less. It could be why entrepreneurial activity rates are down and hikikomori exist. Most hikikomori wouldn't be useless at all but they lost confidence because the peer group that would have boosted them onto the initial stages of something doesn't exist. The network of "I know somebody who" is not as strong as it used to be and we all know recruitment agencies are a horrific mess even in the extremely limited niche version of "I know a guy/girl" they represent. tldr; If we were nicer everything would be nice.