system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
Yes. My father's Mom was institutionalized with severe depression for almost a year, back in the days before WWII. Nothing seemed to help until the doctors tried ECT, which worked like a miracle cure. "Oh it wasn't a problem then, people milked cows and fed chickens" is puerile nonsense.
gpt
Respectfully, I think there is something to the idea that our current conditions worsen depression and make it more prevalent. I mean, something like a fifth or a quarter of U.S. adults are on an antidepressant, do we really think that crippling depression has always been that prevalent? It’s not about the simplicity of the lifestyle, it’s about expectations to work for peanuts and be happy in an exploitative and alienating system. Media messaging has a lot to do with it as well. I say this as someone with a long history of depression and it runs in my family as well… It gets worse and worse every generation. There are absolutely social factors making severe clinical depression more common these days.