Depression is a Symptom of Our Social Sickness

BY SOFO ARCHON

Our society thinks that there’s something wrong with depressed people. And it tries to fix them, mainly by using chemical drugs called antidepressants.

Why?

So they can fit into society and function as “normal” people.

But what if society itself is sick, and depression is a symptom of our social sickness?

Then it’s not the individuals that needs fixing, but society itself – and by that I mean the social systems and institutions in place, which, due to the way they are designed, inevitably create the conditions that produce depression on a mass scale.

For example, one of the strongest predictors of depression is poverty. That’s because of several reasons, one of them being that people born in poverty are way more likely to experience emotional abuse as children, which significantly increases the risk of them developing depression.

Other important causes of depression include engaging in meaningless work and feeling disconnected from other people, both of which, along with poverty, are outcomes of our debt-based economic system, which places us in a condition of artificial scarcity that results in forced labor, competition and economic inequality.

Picture society as a tree, and people as its leaves: If the tree is sick, then naturally it’s going to produce sick leaves. Now, we might think that there’s something wrong with the leaves, and try to fix them one by one without addressing the tree, but our efforts will be in vain, for the leaves are inseparable from the tree. And even if we could somehow fix a leaf here and there, the tree will still keep on producing new, sick leaves. Hence, we will be fighting an endless battle, while allowing the tree’s sickness to continue.

So, when it comes to depression, let’s stop blaming the leaves, and focus on healing the tree.