Andrew Weil's Spontaneous Happiness: Our Nature-Deficit Disorder

[katty]

more:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/30/andrew-weil-s-spontaneous-happiness-our-nature-deficit-disorder.html

You aren’t depressed; our brains just aren’t equipped for 21st-century life.


In my experience, the more people have, the less likely they are to be contented. Indeed, there is abundant evidence that depression is a “disease of affluence,” a disorder of modern life in the industrialized world. People who live in poorer countries have a lower risk of depression than those in industrialized nations. In general, countries with lifestyles that are furthest removed from modern standards have the lowest rates of depression.

Within the U.S., the rate of depression of members of the Old Order Amish—a religious sect that shuns modernity in favor of lifestyles roughly emulating those of rural Americans a century ago—is as low as one 10th that of other Americans.

[kestrel91316]

1. They say money can't buy happiness. It's more correct to say STUFF can't buy happiness.

I am trying to possess LESS stuff every year rather than more, now that I am over 50.

[State the Obvious]

2. Or.....The best things in life AREN'T "things". nt

[get the red out]

3. While I agree with much of his premise

I also believe that people who are in less developed countries and in rural populations are underserved in mental health care and that there are probably depressed people who are not being counted, if they even have the necessary terminology or trust to tell someone what is going on with them.

I also believe that our brains and bodies have not had time to evolve to fit modern life and deal with the constant over-stimulation of information.