{"id":60,"date":"2010-10-13T13:34:46","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T18:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wholeperson.com\/wordpress\/?p=60"},"modified":"2015-11-30T10:52:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T16:52:12","slug":"depression-more-common-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholeperson.com\/blog\/depression-more-common-now","title":{"rendered":"Depression more common now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Effort-driven rewards are more meaningful than short-term pleasures
\nBy Jacquelyn Ferguson, MS<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Isn\u2019t it odd that depression in America increased along with our affluence? Shouldn\u2019t it work the other way around? Is there something in our relatively prosperous lifestyle that\u2019s an actual cause of depression?<\/p>\n

The pioneer of Positive Psychology, Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of PA, described two studies conducted in the 1970s in which people of different generations reported on their lifetime episodes of depression.<\/p>\n

One might assume that the older generation would have more incidents of depression because of experiencing far more hardships from the Great Depression and two world wars, not to mention having lived longer.<\/p>\n

But the opposite was true. Younger people were much more likely to have experienced depression. In fact, one study found that those born in the middle third of the 20th century were ten times more likely to suffer from major depression than those born in the first third of the century.<\/p>\n

Here are two reasons that may help explain.<\/p>\n

Lifestyle differences: older generations were far more physically active than younger ones. Think about some differences:<\/p>\n