Depression In The United States

What’s the Deal With Depression in the United States? At the start of this research paper I sought to answer the question: Why is the United States becoming more depressed? However, as i started to research, it didn’t take long before I decided to redirect my efforts. I chose to investigate a new question: What’s the deal with depression in the US? I found that the US isn't suffering from an epidemic of depression, but instead the disease itself is being over diagnosed as a whole. In a sense, the United States is gaining a higher population of depressed individuals, but depression as a mental illness is not spreading at high rates. Misdiagnosis of depression occur when a person experiences a handful of the symptoms, such as prolonged and intense …show more content…
In their quest for the American Dream people will spread themselves much too thin, attempting to balance family, work, social activities and self-indulgence all at once. I myself am just finding out that it really is impossible to do everything whilst keeping your sanity. On several occasions I really did question my mental health. What if the fatigue and sadness I was feeling was something serious? It’s situations like mine that lead people to assume they are depressed. The “symptoms” they feel are simply self-induced. Stress, as defined by Harley Therapy, is “the feeling that you are under too much mental or emotional pressure. It is triggered by something in your life happening that feels too much for you personally to handle, regardless of whether others can or can’t. This might be a work issue, dealing with relationship conflict, or debt problems.” If people work themselves too hard, they’re just stressing themselves out, and a blunt (yet effective) solution to this problem is to just stop. It’s unrealistic to do everything in life, so taking some time to rest and self reflect is essential, especially to your physical and mental health. Though it is one variable for why someone will incorrectly assume they are depressed, stress is not the only factor. Psychology Today discussed several of these other factors in an online article and settled on three theories. One is that “Our relationships and community ties are weaker.” Isolation from others, whether it be emotionally or physically, can absolutely cause sadness to occur as well as low self-esteem or deterioration of positive self image. If an individual feels cut off from society or even from their friends or family, they can feel hopeless. The second theory is that “We’re more focused on goals such as money, fame, and image.” Media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. feed the human desire to create a reputation for ourselves. When people