is depression a first world problem?

Can we please, please, PLEASE STOP talking about depression like it is something character-based, or something self-inflicted, or something otherwise through sufficient willpower, controllable...the stigma needs to GO.

Absent the disappearance of the stigma, people we know and love will continue to suffer in silence. Alone.

Every time someone or some group creates a label, comes up with a definition (first a concept, and then anchored by empirical markers), and then says how that phenomenon should be dealt with, not only defines an institution but also creates a set of “problems” and “solutions” (here reinforced materially and economically by the health and insurance systems).

He also challenged psychiatric diagnosis itself, arguing that diagnosis of a mental disorder contradicted accepted medical procedure: diagnosis was made on the basis of behavior or conduct, and examination and ancillary tests that traditionally precede the diagnosis of viable pathologies (like broken bones or pneumonia) occurred after the diagnosis of mental disorder (if at all). Hence, according to Laing, psychiatry was founded on a false epistemology: illness diagnosed by conduct, but treated biologically.

Jingy don't bother trying to engage mikel. From what i've read, he doesn't believe in anything he can't see or measure. He doesn't even believe i suffer chronic back pain even though my spine was in three pieces 19 months ago. Not to mention the 8 screws and 2 rods agitating things....

I've heard this tune too many times. It's all in your head. Bullsh!t!!

It's all in your head. Bullsh!t!!

Mainstream cognitive behavioral therapy assumes that changing maladaptive thinking leads to change in affect and behavior,[4] but recent variants emphasize changes in one's relationship to maladaptive thinking rather than changes in thinking itself.[5] Therapists or computer-based programs use CBT techniques to help individuals challenge their patterns and beliefs and replace "errors in thinking such as overgeneralizing, magnifying negatives, minimizing positives and catastrophizing" with "more realistic and effective thoughts, thus decreasing emotional distress and self-defeating behavior."

While 'simply not giving a damn' remains an option for us all, anyone who has had depression touch their lives - in themselves or in those they love, find this approach somewhat difficult to swallow.

First of all we can't compare two extremely different situations like a back condition requiring screws --- and depression--- at least not in the way we have been discussing depression.

Therapists or computer-based programs use CBT techniques to help individuals challenge their patterns and beliefs and replace "errors in thinking such as overgeneralizing, magnifying negatives, minimizing positives and catastrophizing" with "more realistic and effective thoughts, thus decreasing emotional distress and self-defeating behavior."

our understanding of depression and the tools we possess to treat it are, as yet, limited.

The things that bring me joy in life, have no attraction to me when i'm really depressed, and if i push myself to go do them anyway, they bring me no peace.

When I'm not depressed, but I'm lazy or bummed, if I push myself to get outside, then I always end up having fun.

Could they be padding their paychecks on the backs of depression sufferers? Could their methodology as regards the treatment and even diagnosis of depression be empirically suspect and therefore self-serving?
Some psychiatrists in the past and present have certainly thought so---Thomas Szasz ,and I mentioned RD Laing. There are others.
Personally I have a sister who was once hospitalized for pneumonia and she was fine within a week or two---at a definite cost---but when she walked out she was symptom free.
That same sister of mine had been on antidepressant meds for 10 yrs. before being hospitalized in a 'mental' facility. Countless therapies later, and 15 more years of antidepressants and other therapies and she is no better or no worse, except for a lighter wallet. And at a much greater cost, in other ways.

Personally I have a sister who was once hospitalized for pneumonia and she was fine within a week or two---at a definite cost---but when she walked out she was symptom free.
That same sister of mine had been on antidepressant meds for 10 yrs. before being hospitalized in a 'mental' facility. Countless therapies later, and 15 more years of antidepressants and other therapies and she is no better or no worse, except for a lighter wallet. And at a much greater cost, in other ways.

The resources are there, the research is there, the skilled therapists and psychiatrists are there. Sometimes it takes some looking around to find one. Plus, a person just may not like their therapist and resist opening up. I can't force my clients to open up and work through their issues. They have to come to that on their own. I'm a guide, not a mule. That's just the reality of being human.

and some just don't want to confront the pain that they have been suffering from for the past several decades. Often because they carry so much guilt and shame. They often internalize it thinking that it's their fault and they're going to be judged.

For those who have such a simple endemic problem that a pill and a pill alone can help them, I am so grateful for medical science. I am deeply happy for you that it just took one prescription.

But for the rest of us, we will have to stumble on, as the walking wounded, using every tool in our box and working hard to accumulate more tools.