prevalence of depression

[applepietime]

Do you think people from the 17th century, 18th century, during the world wars, were more prone to depression than people today? Did they have a greater desire to survive? Surely their social pressures and environment made it more difficult for them. I'm asking because I feel like I am so lucky in my life but I can't appreciate it. 

[geoff]

dear APT, a good question to start you off, so welcome.

Perhaps back in those days 'depression' might not be known as such and only labelled as a sadness or being in a melancholia state, or that people suffering from it need to be locked away, there were many people believing that they knew what they believe was happening to a person, and I suppose it gained momentum when Sigmend Freud came onto the screen.

It's rather interesting if you google it.

I had an old friend I looked after but has now passed away, and he fought in the war, been through the depression years and had moved from England over to Aus., but he has no conception of what depression was, he said that someone would just get a kick up the rear and told to get on with their work/life, so he asked me to explain it to him.

No matter what I said on how I felt in depression it never would click for him, even documentation on depression I gave to him meant nothing, until eventually I had to take him hospital and then a nursing home, where it was obvious he was depressed, so I asked him how he felt, and then I said to him that's what depression feels like and that he was suffering badly from it.

He then told me how horrible he felt, poor chap, I would see him everyday as before this he wanted me to be his power of attorney, and on the morning I saw him, he was just the same but always pleased to see me, but that night I got a phone call from the nursing home that he had gone into a coma and then he passed away.

He was a lovely old chap, but he had to experience depression himself before he could understand what it felt like.

People who go to war and have a wife left at home I would think that they were also very badly depressed, to the point that they didn't care about any risk they took. Geoff.

[Neil_1]

Hi there applepietime (with a side order of double whipped cream – and so yes, I do enjoy your name)

Also, welcome to Beyond Blue and what a great question you’ve posed.

“More prone to depression than people today?” – obviously we can only really reveal our own personal thoughts on this because I certainly don’t know what it would have been like to live back in that era and as a result, wouldn’t have a clue about what things were like then.

BUT on a lighter side to this, every photo I’ve seen of my relations, my ancestry of way back in the day, and I’m talking in the early 1900’s, so actually not all that far back, every photo, no-one (not one person) smiles in a photo.  They are all serious faces (almost like the faces you see in newspapers where someone is complaining about something to do with, say a local road or a local shopping centre and the photographer has asked them to put on your best upset, angry or face with a scowl on it – so people who read the article can see by your facial expression that YOU aren’t happy) and so did whoever was taking the picture ask them to be stern or was it just in their nature.  I honestly believe it was the latter.

And so from that, we think about, why, just why are they so stern and non-smiling – surely they all couldn’t have disliked the photographer, so was it looking like that cause they didn’t know what a camera was or did?   Or was it because times were tough, or was it because some of them were suffering from a kind mental illness?

I’m not sure, and I have rambled here a bit, but I sure hope others come along and respond, as I’ve love to hear their thoughts also.

Kind regards

Neil

[White_Rose]

Hello Neil and APT

Welcome Apple Pie to the forum.

Neil, about your old black and white family photos. No one smiled because it was not done. Invariably the poses were stiff and formal and usually marked occasions such as weddings, funerals, birthdays etc. No one took photos for the hell of it. But it was also a complicated business and expensive so everyone was supposed to look impressed, dress in their best and stand still for much longer than we do when posing for a picture. No wonder they all looked very bored. Can you imagine standing with a smile on your face for five minutes without the smile starting to look a tad forced. Now it's me rambling.

To answer APT's post, I'm not sure if people were happier in the past. Life was tough. Poor housing, no sanitation or clean water, disease was common and medical knowledge almost non-existent, unless you count remedies such as sniffing posies to counteract airborne illnesses. A huge gap between the haves and the have-nots, high infant mortality, much shorter life span than today AND NO INTERNET.

Well OK, the internet is probably the cause of many of our current problems so maybe the old-timers were better off without it.

The justice system was quite rudimentary but I'm not sure it's much better today.

So yes we are much better off in many respects today. On the down side for today we do not have functioning communities because we travel around so much, so no local support when disasters happen. Far more wars today and heaps more pollution, except during the Industrial Revolution when the air was extremely polluted.

With respect to depression and other mental illnesses, I have no idea if they were more prevalent then or now. I know that treatments for the more severe illnesses were horrendous and in my opinion were more like torture than medical care. It's hardly surprising that people in general are scared of mental illness because of the dreadful treatment in the past.

People have always had a strong desire to survive. If this were not so we would have died out, as a race, a long time ago. We actually have more than a survival need. We want to explore and to know who and what we are. Our knowledge has come at a cost so often but this has not deterred the human race from constant striving for knowledge. So I believe we are blessed in this age and I believe people felt blessed in their various ages because life was so much better in each successive generation.

Mary

[applepietime]

thanks for answering and taking the time and the energy to be so thoughtful. i was just walking around the super market feeling drained and empty, finding there was absolutely nothing there i wanted, and thinking of that question. so, thanks. im finding that the fact that people answered actually matters more than the answer 🙂

[Neil_1]

Hi there applepietime

Really awesome to hear back from you.  Nice and short, to the point and even succinct.  🙂  🙂   But being that, it’s still great that you were able to come back and post again.  As with everyone, we encourage posters to post again and again, for as long as they feel like it – for a lot of us, there’s no support elsewhere and so by coming here, to this little community, we are able to be supported this way and you know what, that feels kinda nice.  🙂

That’s quite an amazing experience – that you went to the supermarket, and yet couldn’t find anything.  You must have went on a full stomach (always a very good idea, otherwise you see all these things and when you’re hungry, it is so easy to pick up so much extra, cause you reckon you’ll tuck into it) and you may have left your list at home.  I always create a list of things cause my memory is a shocker and I’d forget 3 or 4 items easily – and it’s when you get home and unpacking that you think, “D’oh, I forgot the toothpaste or I forgot the green tea, etc”.

Mary, thank you so much for you reply to myself and applepietime – and in regard to my bit about the olden day photos – it all makes sense what you wrote and thanx so much for sharing that.

Kind regards

Neil