Depression: "Around the World"?

Depression: Around the World?

When I write about depression, how it feels, how I respond, how others respond, it’s primarily based on my own personal experience.  However I truly believe and feel that others who suffer from depression experience much of what I speak about.  I know this from those who share with me and some things I've read.

Here in the USA we have seen how people with depression have been treated over the years. We have seen people labeled, shunned, out-casted, treated like second class citizens, over looked, ignored, put away in sanitariums and mistrusted. We have seen them considered “undesirable” in the work place, in leadership positions and the list goes on.  However I believe that we (in the USA) are beginning to recognize that depression is a serious “disease”, people are beginning to accept it as such… but we have a long way to go.

But let’s think about it, underneath our skin color, or ethnic heritage we look the same, we bleed red blood, we all have the same emotions, we all suffer from similar diseases etc.. The thing I wonder about is: “how do our various cultures treat people who are suffering from depression?” 

For example, here in the USA many tend to ignore the elderly, they are not treated with much respect, it’s like they have lived past their prime and now they are just in “waiting” until their time of death.  Where in other countries the elderly are treated with much respect and held in high regard (as it should be).

My question here for my readers is this: “How does your culture treat people who suffer from depression”?  Whether you are from the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Russia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Africa etc…  I would love to hear from you about this subject.  If you would like to share with us, click the “comment” button below, you don’t have to sign your name, you can submit the comment anonymously… but if you don’t mind I would like for you to put what country you live in. I hope you choose to participate in this blog.

May God bless you!