Posted by BobYuma on January 28, 2004, at 19:51:10
In reply to Re: dosages? » sexylexy, posted by LynneDa on January 28, 2004, at 16:23:42
Food for thought & I welcome responses:
I wonder if I'll ever be happy like I used to be. I think part of my happiness was naivety and a complete lack of cynicism about the world. After going through some things in the past 2 or 3 years, I think I'm changed forever. Part of my depression stems from mourning my old self and old state of mind and accepting a new reality, a new order to my world. Hey, do you think I just grew up at the ripe old age of 40????? ha!> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
Very thought provoking, Lynne. And very wise.
Actually a lot of research has been conducted on this subject, and the fact is that depression levels rise after middle adulthood for nearly all participants in the research programs. Of course, we can't overlook the fact that illness breeds depression, and the older we get, the more likely we are to become ill. The other fact we can't overlook is similar to what you talked about in your message, and that is that the longer we live, the more pain, suffering, and sadness we see and experience.
But then there're other statistics to look at when you're talking about depression. For example, in the late 90's the suicide (clearly related to depression) rate for people living in rural areas was 54.5% higher than people living in a city. Obviously this had nothing at all to do with age.
But back to the age-related depression: Statistics show that the suicide rates for men are relatively the same from ages 20-64, but increase significantly after the age of 65. The suicide rates for women peak between the ages of 40-54, stay about the same between 55 and 74, but peak again after age 75. The highest suicide rates are among white men over 50, representing 10% of that population. They're responsible for 33% of all suicides.
Ok, all of this is too depressing. (laugh - hey, we gotta laugh don't we?)
If anyone asked me (and I know no one did), I'd say that the most important thing to know about depression is to know why we're depressed. If we know that, then as far as I'm concerned, we have the battle won. Because if we know that, then we have the best weapon we can have to fight our depression, and it's ok if we need medical help in the form of an antidepressant to help get us through the fight. The human body is a delicate, "living machine" -- and of all the things God promised us, the one thing He didn't promise was a perfect body in which to exist while we're attending the School of Earth. And that's what it's all about, even depression, it's about learning in this school called Earth. Because we all came to Earth for the same reason, to learn, and if we experience depression while we're on Earth, then it's because we need a lesson that depression can teach us.
But we can accept depression as something we were meant to experience on Earth while, at the same time, attempting to defeat it. In fact, maybe that's a lesson, learning to defeat depression.Opps, sorry I got carried away (again).
Take care - BobYuma
poster:BobYuma
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040127/msgs/306640.html