The Global Great Depression
The United States was a central part of the international economic system, and its national economic disaster could not be contained. It spread across the globe. It hit particularly hard in Europe where multiple nations were indebted to the United States. During World War I, the Allies had bought a great deal of military weapons and products using loans from the United States. When the United States called for those loans to be repaid to stabilize its own economy, it threw foreign economies into economic depression as well.
In Germany, depression hit in a different but no less powerful way. The new Weimar Republic had weathered a period of intense inflation in the 1920s due to reparations required by the Versailles Treaty. Rather than tax German citizens to pay the reparations, Germany borrowed millions of dollars from the United States and went further into debt. American demands for loan repayment had disastrous repercussions for an already fragile German economy, with banks failing and unemployment rising. As in the United States, the Weimar Republic decided to cut spending rather than increase it to spur the economy, further worsening the situation.
The Age Of Enlightenment
During the 18th and 19th centuries, also called the Age of Enlightenment, depression came to be viewed as a weakness in temperament that was inherited and could not be changed. The result of these beliefs was that people with this condition should be shunned or locked up.
During the latter part of the Age of Enlightenment, doctors began to suggest the idea that aggression was at the root of the condition.
Treatments such as exercise, diet, music, and drugs were now advocated and doctors suggested that it was important to talk about your problems with your friends or a doctor.
Other doctors of the time spoke of depression as resulting from internal conflicts between what you want and what you know is right. And yet others sought to identify the physical causes of this condition.
Treatments during this period included water immersion and using a spinning stool to put the brain contents back into their correct positions. Additional treatments included:
- Diet changes
- Horseback riding
- Vomiting
Benjamin Franklin is also reported to have developed an early form of electroshock therapy during this time.
Treatment For Depression In Young People
Encourage young people to talk about how they feel with someone they know and trust, such as a parent, teacher, school counsellor, family member or friend.An important next step is for the young person to visit their doctor to learn whether they have depression and what can be done to treat it. Support for people with depression can include psychological therapy that focuses on building skills to deal with life stresses and to change negative thinking patterns.Your doctor may also add antidepressant medication to the treatment plan. It can take up to six weeks to feel better after treatment with medication begins, but most young people will notice an improvement. Encourage them to speak with their doctor about any changes in their moods.Self-help tips for improving mental health include:
- exercising regularly
- practising relaxation techniques
- doing something enjoyable.
Many people find it hard to ask for professional help and sometimes young people do not want to go to a healthcare professional. If this is the case, you could let them know that depression is common and that you are concerned. Try giving them some information about depression and also point out some of the comprehensive websites (such as youthbeyondblue
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Biological And Medical Explanations
Where older conceptualizations of depression stressed the role of early experiences, more recent approaches increasingly stress the biopsychosocial model that looks at the biological, psychological, and social factors that play a role in depression.
During the 1970s, the medical model of mental disorders emerged and suggested that all mental disorders are primarily caused by physiological factors. The medical model views mental health conditions in the same way as other physical illnesses, which means that such conditions can also be treated with medication.
Biological explanations for depression focus on factors such as genetics, brain chemistry, hormones, and brain anatomy. This view played an important role in the development and increased use of antidepressants in the treatment of depression.
New Global Burden Of Disease Analyses Show Depression And Anxiety Among The Top Causes Of Health Loss Worldwide And A Significant Increase Due To The Covid
**Content Warning**
This post discusses suicide and some people might find it disturbing. If you or someone you know is suicidal, please, contact your physician, visit your local ER, or call the suicide prevention hotline in your location.
For the US, the numbers are as follows: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK , or message the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
Both numbers are free, confidential, and available 24/7.
As we near the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a noticeable and disproportionate increase in the global burden of depressive and anxiety disorders has impacted the mental health of women and children worldwide. According to a new analysis published in The Lancet showing that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a stark rise in depressive and anxiety disorders globally in 2020, the overall number of cases of mental disorders rose dramatically, with an additional 53.2 million and 76.2 million cases of anxiety and major depressive disorders , respectively.
Self-harm deaths in women globally in 2019, GBD 2019
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health disorders posed a significant burden worldwide. In 2019, depression was the second-leading cause of disability globally, and anxiety ranked eighth, both being the most common types of mental health disorders.
Global disability-adjusted life-years by mental disorder, sex, and age in 2019
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An Epidemic Of Depression
All diseases of modernity exhibit the sine qua non characteristic of an increasing incidence over time, because the environment continues to deviate further from the human EEA and individuals live longer within these novel environments. Depression is certainly not new, though its prevalence throughout human history is unknown. The affliction of sorrow, fright, and despondency exhibits remarkable historical continuity from ancient to modern times . Evidence for or against the possibility of changing rates over millennia and centuries is wanting. In his encyclopedic account of the subtypes, causes, and treatments of melancholy, from the 17th century, Richard Burton notes its ubiquity:
Being then a disease so grievous, so common, I know not wherein to do a more general service, and to spend my time better, than to prescribe means how to prevent and cure so universal a malady, an epidemical disease, that so often, so much crucifies the body and minds
Did Crime Rise During The Great Depression
Despite the scarcity of crime records from the time period, most historians believe that crime rates did not rise during the Great Depression. Some even claim that crime has decreased. This might be because so many individuals were struggling that they were less likely to steal from one another. Also, police departments across the country were reduced in size during this time, which could have led to more frequent arrests but not necessarily more crimes.
Some scholars have suggested that greater use of incarceration may have served to curb crime rather than just punish those who committed it. The number of prisons nationwide increased by more than 500 percent between 1970 and 2003. This may have been done to reduce crime by removing potential offenders from the population. However, research has shown that imprisonment does not decrease subsequent offending rates.
Additionally, some have argued that poverty was the main driver behind increasing crime during this time. There are several studies that show a correlation between decreasing income and rising crime rates. These researchers believe that if poverty had not existed, crime would have dropped too. They also point out that crime rates returned to pre-Depression levels once economic conditions improved.
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Why Are So Many Teens Depressed
Here are some disturbing statistics about teen depression. According to suicide.org, teen and adolescent suicides have continued to rise dramatically in recent years. Consider these alarming figures:
- Every 100 minutes a teen takes their own life.
- Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24.
- About 20 percent of all teens experience depression before they reach adulthood.
- Between 10 to 15 percent suffer from symptoms at any one time.
- Only 30 percent of depressed teens are being treated for it.
Some teens are more at risk for depression and suicide than others. These are known factors:
- Female teens develop depression twice as often than males.
- Abused and neglected teens are especially at risk.
- Adolescents who suffer from chronic illnesses or other physical conditions are at risk.
- Teens with a family history of depression or mental illness: between 20 to 50 percent of teens suffering from depression have a family member with depression or some other mental disorder.
- Teens with untreated mental or substance-abuse problems: approximately two-thirds of teens with major depression also battle another mood disorder like dysthymia, anxiety, antisocial behaviors, or substance abuse.
- Young people who experienced trauma or disruptions at home, including divorce and deaths of parents.
Does Depression Medicine Work For Teen Depression
Yes. A large number of research trials have shown the effectiveness of depression medications in relieving the symptoms of teen depression. One key recent study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, reviewed three different approaches to treating adolescents with moderate to severe depression:
- One approach was using the antidepressant medication Prozac, which is approved by the FDA for use with pediatric patients ages 8-18.
- The second treatment was using cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, to help the teen recognize and change negative patterns of thinking that may increase symptoms of depression.
- The third approach was a combination of medication and CBT.
At the end of the 12-week study, researchers found that nearly three out of every four patients who received the combination treatment — depression medication and psychotherapy — significantly improved. More than 60% of the kids who took Prozac alone improved. But the study confirmed that combination treatment was nearly twice as effective in relieving depression as psychotherapy alone.
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Why Are There Such Wide Variations
The stark contrasts between countries have led some to dub depression as a first world problem or a luxury. The logic is that if you are staring down the barrel of a gun or you dont know where the next meal is coming from, you have no time for such introspection.
Recent research points to myriad reasons, many overlapping: in particular less developed countries often lack the infrastructure to collect data on depression, and are less likely to recognise it as an illness. Also, people in these countries are more likely to feel a social stigma against talking about how they feel, and are reluctant to ask for professional help.
Statistics are also less simplistic than rich = depressed and poor = not depressed.
A paper in the journal Plos Medicine argues that, extremes aside, the majority of countries have similar rates of depression. It also found that the most depressed regions are eastern Europe, and north Africa and the Middle East and that, by country, the highest rate of years lost to disability for depression is in Afghanistan, and the lowest in Japan.
Similarities Between Stalin And Hitler
Stalin and Hitler: Similarities and DifferencesPolitical and economic instability had crippled the USSR and Germany in the 1920s . Stalin and Hitler then emerged at the time of distress. They began making improvements which encouraged their people to believe that prosperous times await them. This notion would unfortunately turn out as an illusion. Both figures would eventually rule by decree.
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Millions Diagnosed With Depression Every Year
If we count and compare the number of people being diagnosed with depression, we should have the answer.
The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey found that the number of people diagnosed with depression has increased by 450% since 1987.
Number of People Diagnosed With Depression Each Year
For every person who took an anti-depressant in 1987, there are now more than five.
Depression is not merely on the rise its an epidemic, with an estimated cost of nearly $100 billion a year.
But that increase is deceptive. Yes, there are more people getting diagnosed with depression, but there are three explanations for that.
1) Depression has become more common.
2) Anti-depressants have gotten better. Anti-depressants sometimes cause fatigue, heart arrhythmias or cognitive impairment, but these side-effects are rare. In the 1980s they were common.
3) Seeing a shrink is no longer taboo. Im not going to tell someone on a first date, but I dont hide the fact that I had trouble with depression growing up. According to the NAMCS survey, less than 20% of people with depression in 1987 sought treatment.
Its obvious that theres an obesity epidemic. You cant pretend to be fit if youre actually 750 pounds.
The same cant be said of depression its possible to cover up sadness with a fake smile.
What portion of the increase is due to an increased incidence of depression? We need more data to answer that question.
Why Did It Take So Long For The Us Economy To Recover From The Great Crash
The recession worsened into a much more severe economic crisis called a depression. By early 1933, unemployment reached about 25 percent. These actions freed the Federal Reserve to expand the money supply, which slowed the downward spiral of price deflation and began a long slow crawl to economic recovery.
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The New Deal: Fdrs Interventionism
Soon after Herbert Hoover assumed the presidency in 1929, the economy began to decline, and between 1930 and 1933 the contraction assumed catastrophic proportions never experienced before or since in the United States. Disgusted by Hoovers inability to stem the collapse, in 1932 the voters elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt, along with a heavily Democratic Congress, and set in motion the radical restructuring of governments role in the economy known as the New Deal.
Roosevelt was undeterred by the failure of the Hoover programs to achieve their object. So far as they considered them in that light at all, the New Dealers thought the Hoover effort was too timid and much too piecemeal. In any case, they were much more convinced of the healing powers of monetary inflation than Hoover had been.
The most prominent of the New Deal programs were supposed to deal with economic problems arising from the Great Depression. Most of them were put forward as remedies for depression-related conditions, many of them in an emergency atmosphere. But rather than cure the depression, they plunged it to new depths.
Easy Money: A Series Of False Signals
The first phase of the Great Depression was a massive boom during the Roaring 20s, which inevitably burst in 1929. In order to understand this crash, we first have to understand the boom and how it happened.
For various reasons, the government in the 1920s created monetary policies that ballooned the quantity of money and credit in the economy. A great boom resulted, followed soon after by a painful day of reckoning. None of Americas depressions prior to 1929, however, lasted more than four years and most of them were over in two. The Great Depression lasted for a dozen years because the government compounded its monetary errors with a series of harmful interventions. But how exactly did the government inflate the economy, and how did that cause the boom and inevitable bust?
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Our Understanding Of Depression Today
The term major depressive disorder was first introduced by clinicians in the United States during the 1970s. The condition officially became part of the DSM-III in 1980. The current edition of the diagnostic manual is the DSM-5 and is one of the primary tools used in the diagnosis of depressive disorders.
While the condition is much better understood today than it was in the past, researchers are still working to learn more about the causes of depression. At the present time, doctors believe that depression arises from a combination of multiple causes including biological, psychological, and social factors.
Modern views of depression incorporate an understanding of the many symptoms of this condition as well as the often cyclical effect that the symptoms can have. For example, depression can cause disturbances in sleep, appetite, and activity levels in turn, poor sleep, diet, and exercise can exacerbate symptoms of depression.
In addition to considering the psychological factors that contribute to depression, doctors are also aware that certain medical conditions such as hypothyroidism may cause depressive symptoms. The diagnosis of depression includes ruling out other medical conditions and other possible causes such as alcohol or substance use.
Hitler’s Final Solution Dbq
Hitler was a demagogue that obtained power over the German people by promising them to create a future powerful Germany comprised of a perfect Aryan race and a unified people. To do this, Hitler had to put carry out the Final Solution, save the Germans from their dreadful economy of unemployment, and free them of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. In document six, we see that during the 1920s in Germany, there was a great economic failure which mainly affected the middle class. Throughout this economic recession, savings of a lifetime and small fortunes melted into a few .
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