Depression In Western Culture

According to research published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, major depression rates for American adults increased from 3.33 percent to 7.06 from 1991 to 2002. “Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act”(Parekh). Although some may believe that depression is stagnant, more Americans are in fact dealing with depression than in years prior. I heard this and was unsettled. In a time of openness and greater opportunity than ever before, why is depression increasing in Americans? My research has lead to the conclusion that social media, the modernization of western culture, and the average American diet has been leading factors in

In Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” he has a discussion with Dr. Laurence Kirmayer regarding Kirmayer’s invitation to the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety. In their discussion Kirmayer talks about how the basis of his invitation was on the notion that he as the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill could add to the answer the large pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline was looking for. The question at hand was how culture influences the illness experience, but more specifically how depression is influenced by culture in Japan. If the conference was a success, the company would be able to enter and expand into a market worth billions of dollars. The reason that the cultural aspect of depression was very important was because in countries like Japan, the American conception of depression was taken as a more serious illness, rivaling heights of diseases like schizophrenia. The company hoped that by somehow changing the Japan’s perception of the illness from being something social or moral to the American conception where expressing the illness to others is considered being strong person rather than being a weak one, that their drug Paxil would be able to sell to the market, which is where the scientific and economic aspects of depression come into effect. The scientific and economic aspects take place due to the intentions of the company to sell the drug, and the drug’s ability to help

In order to break through to Japan, GlaxoSmithKline had to understand how their drug might fit into Japanese culture by understanding their concept of depression. Although the diagnosis of depression became more widely employed around the world during the 1980’s, “...the experience of deep sadness and distress in Japan retained the characteristics of the premodern conception of the mid-twentieth century idealization typus melancholicus, the idea that overwhelming sadness was natural, quintessentially Japanese, and, in some ways, an enlightened state”(522). These feelings of overwhelming sadness were positively looked upon through the media since people held high regard for personal hardships that build character. Watters’ article discusses how drug companies like GlaxoSmithKline reshape the Japanese culture through “mega-marketing” and proves that the pharmaceutical company’s expanding globalization of Paxil in Japan alters the Japanese individual’s concept of depression by changing the native culture and beliefs of the country through the process of approaching recent concerns and utilizing important people in Japan. Through advertisements, the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline rearranges the Japanese idea of depression such that it differs from society’s existing standard of

In Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” he has a discussion with Dr. Laurence Kirmayer regarding Kirmayer’s invitation to the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety. In their discussion, Kirmayer talks about how the basis of his invitation was on the notion that he as the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill could add to the answer the large pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline was looking for. The question at hand was how culture influences an illness experience, but more specifically how depression is influenced by culture in Japan. A similar notion of influence can be seen in Karen Ho’s essay, “Biographies of Hegemony”, in which the idea of being a part

To gather research on Japanese mental illness culture, the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety invited psychiatrists to attend a conference, sponsored by the drug maker GlaxoSmithKline. Companies were seeking to market Paxil, a popular antidepressant in Western culture, to Japan. Knowing the difference in cultures, pharmaceutical companies called the conference to gain insight on how to affectively market an antidepressant to a country that had drastically different views on mental illness than Western society. Cultures were discussed as if they were at predetermined stages of evolution (Watters 528). Instead of seeing individual culture, drug companies viewed their target

According to the interview, the reason for Asian-American women related to a suicide rate that the Asian culture one of the reasons to put pressure how to depression. The Asian cultural is a very high expectation of achievement, but never have an encouragement to support when becoming failure. When it come stress, they never speak out to seek help for available services. Moreover, the struggle of the second generation of Asian-American adjusts the environment of the two culture of how they trained in traditional culture. Last, the experience of the guests gets help with mental service of therapy in curing depression.

Culture often has large differences in a society in terms of common interest, belief and sense of the real word. Definition of culture is the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time. The majority of world population, even some uncivilized, primitive villages in Africa, has owned culture that member of the society comply and give them guidelines for the way to live a life. In Ethan Watters’ text “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan”, he talks about how different culture brought difference view about the same incident, depression, mental illness and its medication. He explains that Japanese culture has a different understanding and definition of depression and mental illness as compared with American culture. In Japanese culture, doctors distinguish depression and mental illness as very rare and crucial matters that makes patients going to the mental hospital for over a year. In contrast, in American culture, everyone can get instant medical services about depression and mental illness whenever people need it. As a member of a culture, an individual’s life is affected by the culture since that culture is what he is living in, which causes people of each culture have their way to handle a matter. Unfortunately, when it comes to an opportunity about seeking profit, people or organizations who have power, like pharmaceutical companies, will try to bring a method that globalizes culture differences to

Also research supports that ongoing stress impairs the growth of the nerve cell in the hippocampus. The amygdala is associated with emotions mainly fear and anger. With depressed individuals, a variety of scans show the amygdala to be very active and there is an increase in activity when the person is saddened or depressed. Even after affected people recovery, the increased activity in the amygdala is still present for a period of time. Another area of the body that research has determined plays a role with the development of depression is the endocrine system. The endocrine system is made up of small glands which are responsible for producing hormones and to release them into the bloodstream. The hormonal levels are keep constant and avoid

On the topic of mental health, Amy Chua said that “there are all kinds of psychological disorders in the West that don’t exist in Asia.” While it is assumable that Chua is meaning this lightheartedly, many truly believe this. However, anxiety and depression are both listed in the DSM, the most commonly used book for mental health diagnoses in America, and the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders, the Chinese equivalent, so it is safe to say that they are not “Western disorders”, so to speak. With that said,

A number of large-scale studies indicate that depression rates have increased worldwide over the past several decades. Furthermore, younger generations are experiencing depression at an earlier age than did previous generations. Social scientists have proposed many explanations, including changes in family structure, urbanization, and reduced cultural and religious influences.

By making depression seem ambiguous and less severe than it really is, the general population became more inclined to use the antidepressants. By depicting depression as kokoro no kaze, “it implied that [depression] was not the severe condition it was once thought to be and therefore should carry no social stigma…[and] suggested that the choice of taking a medication for depression should be as simple and worry-free as buying a cough syrup or an antihistamine” (Watters 524). The last message portrayed to the general public is the phrase “depression [is] ubiquitous” (Watters 525). By using the analogy to connect the common cold to depression, GlaxoSmithKline downplayed the severity of the mental illness and as a result, made the general population more open to acknowledging the possibility of having a mental illness and thus making depression a social and societal norm. “Depression was so broadly defined by the marketers that it clearly encompassed classic emotions and behaviors formerly attributed to the melancholic personality type” (Watters 525). Depression became “intentionally ambiguous and ill-defined, applicable to the widest possible population and to the widest possible range of discomforts…. The only feature that distinguishes depression as a ‘disease’ from an ordinary depressed mood seems to be the length of time…” (Watters

Behaviors that are deemed as socially acceptable or formal in one country can be viewed as the complete opposite in another. Watters’ asserts that “...other cultures find social and moral meaning in internal distress” (518). Depression does not necessarily always have to have a negative connotation, as perceived by Western cultures. In cultures, such as the Japanese, feelings of sadness and lowliness are viewed as inevitable characteristics of life. Although sadness is reckoned as a symptom of depression in western cultures, it is regarded as a constituent for

Depression have become a major problem in our society today. People who haven’t experience depression will not understand how it feel and what it can do to a person. Many people also doesn’t understand what depression is, or how it can related to suicidal ideation. In fact, studies have documented that the majority of young suicide victims had depression at the time of death and most suicide survivors were diagnosed with symptoms of clinical depression at the time of their attempt (Mojs, Biederman, Głowacka, Strzelecki, Ziemska, Samborski 2015). It can affect anyone, from young adolescents to college students to the elderly people. There are many reasons that can make someone have major depression. Such as financial problems, family problems, social problems, school, work, etc. These stressors in our daily life can cause anxiety which can increase our stress level significantly, which then can lead to depression. A research said that anxiety disorder have a high comorbidity with depression and that anxiety occur prior to the onset of depressive disorders in many individuals (Batterham, Christensen, Calear 2013). People who experience depression must find way to cope with depression and know how to get help in order to prevent suicidal ideation. The people surroundings, friends and family, must also find ways to recognize the symptoms of depression, and show understandings in order to help those suffering. This research project will help people understand more about

Sadness is how the human being reacts to the loss of a loved one, the struggles of life, the disappointments, and the frustrations. Although it is a normal feeling in all these situations, there is a broad difference between being sad and being depressed. Unlike normal feelings of sadness, depression overwhelms a person, last a long time, and interferes with his or her day-to-day life. According to the World Health Organization in 2010, depression was reported as the most common mental disorder; it affects 120 million people globally and is among the leading causes of disability. The person that suffers from depression has to deal with being misunderstood and under-diagnosed on a daily basis, which leaves the patient with physical,

Depression is more than just a feeling of sadness; it can easily gain control of an individual’s life if these feelings continue.