4 ms·

>Depression causes nearly half of all disability, it affects one in six, and explains more current unhappiness than poverty. Really now? So it's somehow more o

>Depression causes nearly half of all disability, it affects one in six, and explains more current unhappiness than poverty. Really now? So it's somehow more of a problem for happiness than over 1 billion people still living in grinding poverty worldwide, or for health than the numerous endemic diseases, many treatable, that kill millions each year and the of millions of hideously dangerous jobs still done daily by hundreds of millions of people, possibly billions? Color me dubious of what seems like a very bubbled analysis of specific causes for problems in the world. Not to take a single thing away from Aaron Schwartz or the problems he was put through, but in material ,circumstantial terms, there are literally billions of people in the world who live lives far worse than his ever was in material terms.

thejazzman 3y ago
It kind of is, yeah. Many people have many more hardships than I do, but it doesn't mean they feel anywhere near as unhappy as I do. I don't know where to begin trying to explain it so I'm not even gonna try. It's something you really shouldn't pretend to understand outloud. I've faced serious hardships and lived terrible events. I've also enjoyed periods of living in great locations with every material thing I desired. I felt MUCH happier during the society-accepted hardships than the latter.
- southernplaces7 3y ago
  No it's not. Again, im not shitting on the suffering that people with depression go through, but if we're talking about the context of the original comment, whic places it among the world's major problems, i'm sorry but it as a clinical condition just doesn't compare. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide live in grinding situations of misery that are caused by changeable conditions of their economic and social lives. These are people who would either be normally adjusted or at least not die early if their circumstances weren't the case. Thee mortality levels among them are much greater and objectively more of a problem than those caused by clinical depression, which in the last 23 years has directly killed nowhere near as many people [1] as say, malaria alone, or malnutrition do. >It's something you really shouldn't pretend to understand outloud. The only way by which you can get people to sympathize with your beliefs is by having them understand them, and the only way by which people might come to agree with you is if they do exactly that: ask questions out loud and debate the matter. Nothing should be outside that. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410604/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%2013%2C290%20individuals,individuals%20during%20the%20specified%20period https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410604/#:~:te....
cubefox 3y ago
People literally kill themselves for being depressed. Not because they want to, but because depression is so bad. It's like severe chronic pain. Poverty has many definitions, and some are quite compatible with being moderately happy.
- southernplaces7 3y ago
  >Poverty has many definitions, and some are quite compatible with being moderately happy. Yes, but whether millions of the people in poverty are unhappy or decently happy in their daily lives, the condition of being extremely poor itself still often kills, and in much greater numbers than depression does, regardless of how ugly the latter feels to the person suffering it.
  - cubefox 3y ago
    The question is then how many person life years are lost due to poverty, and how many person life years are spent suffering from depression, and how bad those are in comparison. Would you rather have a shorter, happier life, or a longer, depressed one?

thejazzman 3y ago

It kind of is, yeah. Many people have many more hardships than I do, but it doesn't mean they feel anywhere near as unhappy as I do. I don't know where to begin trying to explain it so I'm not even gonna try. It's something you really shouldn't pretend to understand outloud. I've faced serious hardships and lived terrible events. I've also enjoyed periods of living in great locations with every material thing I desired. I felt MUCH happier during the society-accepted hardships than the latter.

southernplaces7 3y ago
No it's not. Again, im not shitting on the suffering that people with depression go through, but if we're talking about the context of the original comment, whic places it among the world's major problems, i'm sorry but it as a clinical condition just doesn't compare. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide live in grinding situations of misery that are caused by changeable conditions of their economic and social lives. These are people who would either be normally adjusted or at least not die early if their circumstances weren't the case. Thee mortality levels among them are much greater and objectively more of a problem than those caused by clinical depression, which in the last 23 years has directly killed nowhere near as many people [1] as say, malaria alone, or malnutrition do. >It's something you really shouldn't pretend to understand outloud. The only way by which you can get people to sympathize with your beliefs is by having them understand them, and the only way by which people might come to agree with you is if they do exactly that: ask questions out loud and debate the matter. Nothing should be outside that. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410604/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%2013%2C290%20individuals,individuals%20during%20the%20specified%20period https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410604/#:~:te....

cubefox 3y ago

People literally kill themselves for being depressed. Not because they want to, but because depression is so bad. It's like severe chronic pain. Poverty has many definitions, and some are quite compatible with being moderately happy.

southernplaces7 3y ago
>Poverty has many definitions, and some are quite compatible with being moderately happy. Yes, but whether millions of the people in poverty are unhappy or decently happy in their daily lives, the condition of being extremely poor itself still often kills, and in much greater numbers than depression does, regardless of how ugly the latter feels to the person suffering it.
- cubefox 3y ago
  The question is then how many person life years are lost due to poverty, and how many person life years are spent suffering from depression, and how bad those are in comparison. Would you rather have a shorter, happier life, or a longer, depressed one?