Rampant depression

ON A recent chat show, a psychiatrist maintained that “there is an enormous increase in depression (depressive illness) in South Africa”. Depression can be treated by a supplementation of deficient neurotransmitters.

Now, it would be very problematic if neurotransmitters suddenly became rarefied, for one or other reason, in the general population – a very unlikely situation.

Depressive illness used to be classified as being either “endogenous” (neurotransmitter deficiency) or “reactive” (depression as a reaction to some external factor – the loss of a loved one, loss of a job, loss of money or possessions, etc.

In South Africa, likely triggers could be the continual cycle of violence, impossible demands made by students and striking workers, hapless politicking, economic chaos, threats to property rights, unfulfilled promises about water, sanitation, education and housing, irrational appointments of senior staff, self-promotion and a host of other problems.

Depression is a very incapacitating mental state and it must impact very negatively – if it’s so rife and rising – on productivity, happiness and stability.

The minister of health should take note, analyse the causes and bring this serious symptom of a malfunctioning country to the attention of the politicians.

And please don’t blame it all on the drought, although it is very depressing to see the state of the near empty dams around Cape Town.

I recently made conversation with a yard marshal at a second-hand shop in George and complained to him about the drought, saying we are in serious need of rain.

His response was interesting: “No, we do not want rain. The water is killing us!” Ben Smit Melkbosstrand