Originally Posted by Rutz
Depression is a privilege of the "rich" world we're living in.
People who are trying to find enough food to survive usually don't have it, because they have real problems.
I seriously doubt that there is a medical condition to it. Maybe the Pharma industry would like us to believe just that, in the same way that sleeplessness or attention deficit syndrome are medical conditions now. Its a problem that we create ourselves, by having way to much of pretty much everything..so we just make shit up to feel bad about ourselves.
Privilege is obviously the wrong word, but I see what you are saying.
However, your provoking statement is somewhat off. The world we live in is very different from the 3rd world. Our world is highly emotional, you may think that first world problems are 'trivial', but in this world they are very much life or death (as the suicide rates will most certainly teach you). Don't make statements along the lines of "if it doesn't affect the poor then it is just a rich bitch problem", mental health is a very real issue.
Your joking dismissal of the legitimacy of mental illnesses is worrying rather than humorous, I would expect this is because you have little to no knowledge or experience in the area.
Mental disorders and illnesses are very real and very deadly, they are no more prevalent in 1st world than they are in 3rd world, the difference is we report and treat it. How would you even be able to tell if someone who struggles to eat every day is suffering from insomnia? All the symptoms would be masked and could be passed off, and the exhaustion would probably overwhelm the disorder.
As for attention deficit disorder, which you mentioned, it remains one of the most over-diagnosed disorders in today's society. That said, just because some people are told they have it and don't doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. In the time that it took you to read this post, you have probably been staring at the monitor for 30 seconds or more. A monitor flashes more than 50 times per second, it is essentially a strobe light. You can't consciously register this (well, some people can), but do you really think that has no effect on a person's brain?
tl;dr: mental disorders are real, we should not feel guilty about treating illness.
Learn to give a shit, there is so much to strive towards. Set goals, complete them. Life is good. The sooner you realize, the better you'll be.
