Americans seem more miserable than ever, but they don’t have to be.
A new Gallup poll out Wednesday shows rates of depression have reached record highs, with nearly 1 in 3 U.S. adults reporting a depression diagnosis at least once in their lifetimes. Nearly 18 percent reported treatment.
“Both rates are the highest recorded by Gallup since it began measuring depression using the current form of data collection in 2015,” the pollster reported.
The findings came from a survey of 5,167 adults between Feb. 21-28 this year as part of Gallup’s National Health and Well-Being Index. The number of Americans who reported ever receiving a diagnosis of depression climbed nearly 10 percentage points compared to just eight years ago (from 19.6 percent to 29 percent). Why is that? Americans are being prescribed more psychiatric drugs than ever, with white women most likely to be on them. According to Gallup, women surveyed were five points more likely than men to report depression. Big Pharma’s lucrative medical solutions don’t appear to be solving anything.
A groundbreaking study published in Molecular Psychiatry journal last summer exposed antidepressants as having scarcely more effect than placebos. The findings led some psychologists to reject the long-held belief that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance.
Instead, it’s possible the problem lies in our circumstances, and in our approach to those circumstances. One study from researchers in Saudi Arabia published last year found antidepressants don’t even raise the quality of life over time.
“Most people on antidepressants don’t
