Posted by Cathy Taggart I have suffered from depression since I was a teenager, and so, from my perspective, let me give four alternative reasons which may help explain why depression is so prevalent in our society: Of course, Sr Clare makes some good suggestions for spiritual disciplines which we can all follow during Lent, and in any case I realize that she may have been thinking more about people who frequently feel “down” rather than people who suffer from depression as an illness (although there can be a very fine line between the two). Even so, if the Church is to have any credibility in modern society, I think we need to take a more sympathetic attitude towards people and to dig more deeply for the causes of modern malaises.
on March 30, 2006, 3:23 pm
I admit I was a bit slow off the mark, but I’ve just finally got around to reading Sr Clare Condon’s reflection for Ash Wednesday. I must say I was disappointed and, in fact, quite alarmed that she seems to accept without question the (to me) rather superficial and moralistic reasons given by an American psychologist for the rise of depression in western society.
- In today’s world there’s a lot to be depressed about! (terrorism, the environmental crisis, massive injustices, national and personal tragedies, etc.) The modern media makes us much more aware of all this, in a very vivid and immediate way, than ever before;
-Many people, especially those with family responsibilities, find it genuinely hard to juggle all the demands and expectations placed on them. Of course, we are often advised to reorganize and simplify our lives to lessen the stress, but one way and another it is NOT necessarily possible for individual people to do this, and the expectation that you can solve the dilemma on your own, when in fact you can’t, can just add to the burden;
-Likewise, the fast pace of change can leave us feeling somewhat bewildered!
-Perhaps most significantly, I often wonder whether depression is really on the rise as much as it seems to be, or whether we’re just finally giving recognition to something that was always there. In the past, it was often hidden as people tended to think of it as a moral weakness rather than as an illness. This brings me back to where I started from. In my own case, a few years ago my depression was finally diagnosed as being caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and it is now being more-or-less successfully treated by medication. Once again, medication can sometimes be seen as the “weak” way out, but we would not take this attitude towards medication for any other illness, so why should we with regard to depression?
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