Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey You brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here just a heads up. Our episode today
Speaker 1: deals with mental health and depression. So if you're not
Speaker 1: up for that right now, take care of yourself, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: One of these symptoms of depression is feeling singularly lonely,
Speaker 1: as though no one could understand how low you're feeling,
Speaker 1: or that you're alone, even among friends or family. And
Speaker 1: to be fair, everyone's experiences on this planet are singular
Speaker 1: and individual. But depression is really pretty common. But answering
Speaker 1: the question of how common is it is really complicated.
Speaker 1: First off, by depression, I mean feelings of sadness, emptiness,
Speaker 1: or irritability that affect one's capacity to function. On a
Speaker 1: global scale. It's estimated that somewhere between three point eight
Speaker 1: percent and four point four percent of human beings experience depression,
Speaker 1: something like three hundred million people, give or take a
Speaker 1: few dozen million. And I know that is an infuriatingly
Speaker 1: imprecise statistic, but depression can be difficult to put a
Speaker 1: finger on, and nonetheless, it is a serious issue. The
Speaker 1: World Health Organization ranks it as the single largest contributor
Speaker 1: to disability on the planet. Of course, depressive conditions aren't
Speaker 1: evenly and randomly distributed throughout the world. A depression can
Speaker 1: affect anyone regardless of who you are and where you
Speaker 1: are in life, but it is more common in certain populations. Globally,
Speaker 1: it's most common in older adults ages fifty five to
Speaker 1: seventy four. Ish Women are about fifty percent more likely
Speaker 1: than men to experience it. It's most prevalent in people's
Speaker 1: with the incomes, but those in zones of active conflict
Speaker 1: and those living with chronic physical illnesses, which really only
Speaker 1: makes sense. When you start getting a little more granular,
Speaker 1: the statistics start getting weirder. Rates of depressive disorders are
Speaker 1: higher in North America than anywhere else in the world
Speaker 1: because of Greenland, which is the most depressed country or territory. Technically,
Speaker 1: there's more depression in high income countries than in middle
Speaker 1: income countries. In different cultures, factors like never having been
Speaker 1: married or having a low level of education might make
Speaker 1: you more likely to have depression or way less. All
Speaker 1: of this speaks to how complex depression is. Science still
Speaker 1: doesn't know exactly how it works, though, as we have
Speaker 1: said on the show before, researchers think it's a combination
Speaker 1: of genetics, biochemistry, psychology, and environmental factors like stressors, which
Speaker 1: can vary from culture to culture. And part of the
Speaker 1: issue is how we trap depression. You can look at
Speaker 1: actual medical diagnoses, but that doesn't cover people who never
Speaker 1: see a doctor if a doctor is even available. Around
Speaker 1: the world, it's estimated that less than twenty five percent
Speaker 1: of people with depression have access to proper care. You
Speaker 1: can look at surveys, but you have to take into
Speaker 1: consideration what questions were being asked based on which diagnostic criteria.
Speaker 1: A science is updating its considerations about depression all the time.
Speaker 1: You also have to trust that the people who were
Speaker 1: surveyed were being honest. Researchers make best guess estimates based
Speaker 1: on available data. But okay, what if we narrow our
Speaker 1: question of how common depression is down to the United States,
Speaker 1: because that's where brain stuff is based. One great source
Speaker 1: of data here is the National Survey on Drug Use
Speaker 1: and Health, which is a large annual survey of tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of Americans conducted by the US Substance Abuse
Speaker 1: and Mental Health Services Administration. They then use that data
Speaker 1: to extrapolate out to the general American population. As of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, they found that eight point five percent
Speaker 1: of adults ages eighteen and older had experienced at least
Speaker 1: one episode of major depression in the past year. And okay,
Speaker 1: I want to break that down by age group because
Speaker 1: it is dark. In people ages fifteen older, only four
Speaker 1: point five percent had had a major depressive episode. In
Speaker 1: ages twenty six to forty nine years, it was ten
Speaker 1: point two percent, and in ages eighteen to twenty five
Speaker 1: years it was seventeen point five percent. And then they
Speaker 1: also survey at adolescence. In adolescence ages twelve to seventeen years,
Speaker 1: the rate was even higher, eighteen point one percent had
Speaker 1: had at least one major depressive episode. That's a grand
Speaker 1: estimated total of twenty six point one million people who
Speaker 1: experienced clinical depression in the US in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: But even this excellent survey may not be telling the
Speaker 1: full story because it excludes people who are houseless, active
Speaker 1: duty military personnel, and residents of institutions like jails and
Speaker 1: nursing homes, people for whom depression is probably even more common. Also,
Speaker 1: the survey is still relying on self reported symptoms and
Speaker 1: humans are historically bad at self reporting symptoms of depression
Speaker 1: because of the societal stigma against mental illnesses. For a
Speaker 1: quick example of how this can play out, let's go
Speaker 1: back to that statistic about the prevalence of depression in
Speaker 1: women versus men. So women are about twice as likely
Speaker 1: to experience depression, but we don't know why. Researchers are
Speaker 1: studying a myriad of possible links, including hormones, genetics, and
Speaker 1: other biological factors, but there are also psychosocial factors to consider.
Speaker 1: One theory is that men are less likely to be
Speaker 1: counted because they're less likely to seek help. While men
Speaker 1: tend to be willing to admit to fatigue, irritability, changes
Speaker 1: in sleep patterns, and a loss of interest in activities,
Speaker 1: they typically don't share about feelings of sadness or worthlessness.
Speaker 1: They're more likely than women to use alcohol or other
Speaker 1: drugs to mask their feelings. Women, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: are more likely to acknowledge feelings of sadness, guilt, and worthlessness.
Speaker 1: Stigma that is prejudice against mental illness is real. It
Speaker 1: carries across cultures and has been going on for millennia.
Speaker 1: Despite the fact that we now know that factors like
Speaker 1: brain chemistry are at work in depression, there are still
Speaker 1: prejudices that paint depression as weakness or shameful, and therefore
Speaker 1: paint depressive behaviors as lazy or some kind of moral failure.
Speaker 1: When people internalize the stigma, it can feed into those
Speaker 1: feelings of sadness, emptiness, and irritability that mark depression in
Speaker 1: the first place. This could make it even harder for
Speaker 1: people with depression to seek help and to follow through
Speaker 1: treatment and mental health maintenance. And although depression is highly treatable,
Speaker 1: it's also not something that can be cured like a
Speaker 1: simple infection. About fifty percent of people who experience one
Speaker 1: episode of depression will experience a recurrence at some point
Speaker 1: in their lives, and the more often they relapse, the
Speaker 1: more likely they are to continue to do so. All
Speaker 1: of these statistics and the question marks around them sound
Speaker 1: a little depressing. Is there a measure of how completely
Speaker 1: usual depression really is? If you're concerned about yourself for
Speaker 1: a loved one, the first step is always to talk
Speaker 1: to a healthcare professional, even a family doctor or online service,
Speaker 1: to rule out other physical issues and get started with
Speaker 1: a diagnosis and a treatment plan. Because symptoms and severity
Speaker 1: are singular and individual that might involve medication, talk, therapy,
Speaker 1: or a combination of both, with an eye on building
Speaker 1: a sort of toolkit of awareness and management and lifestyle
Speaker 1: strategies to carry with you into the future, no matter
Speaker 1: how complicated it seems. Today's episode was written by me
Speaker 1: with additional material from the article how depression Works on
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot Com, written by Maria TREMARKI brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Kuang. Four more
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