Depression Diagnoses Are Skyrocketing With No End In Sight

Over 12 people die by suicide in Canada each day. That’s over 4500 people a year and that number doesn’t include drug-related deaths.

With that many people dying, how many suicide attempts per day can there be?

There have been over a million suicide attempts in Canada over the last year and approximately ten times as many instances of suicidal thoughts.

These numbers are staggering.

Sometimes you need to look at the data to understand how many people are suffering from this invisible illness.

Why is everyone depressed?

Everyone and their dog seems to be on antidepressants these days. Everyone I speak to is on an SSRI or SNRI or some type of medication for anxiety and depression.

It’s a paradox, it is technically the best time to be a human being ever in the history of time but we are more depressed than we have ever been. You would think the opposite to be true but that’s not the case.

Depression rates are steadily rising as the years pass and there are several reasons why:

We are bombarded with news all the time, usually negative or scary

We work 40 hours a week not including transportation

• Hustle culture has everyone working in their free time as well
• Social media makes us compare ourselves to everyone else
• Inflation has made us all struggle with survival
• Uncertainty about the future
• More isolation as we mostly interact online

We must also discuss the fact that it is now more acceptable to talk about mental health problems. So it’s much more likely that somebody would admit to having depression now than twenty years ago.

This means that the willingness to discuss one’s mental health is definitely a factor in why depression rates are increasing but it certainly isn’t the only factor.

The problem is that depression can be treated there just isn’t enough help available for those who need it. In Canada, there’s public medicine so we can get help as long as we survive long enough to get it.

I’ve been on the waitlist for a psychiatrist for a year and I will only end up with a one-time, 30-minute discussion and the notes will be sent to my family doctor. Regular psychiatric care doesn’t happen unless you are going to hurt yourself.

As openness to discuss struggles with depression continues to increase we have hope. The pandemic made people really take notice of how serious the mental health epidemic is.

Hopefully, this increases the amount of mental health resources available to those in need.

How many people experience depression in their lifetime?

Approximately fifteen percent of people in the world will experience depression at some point in their lifetime.

That’s just a little under three billion people. An insane amount of people will suffer from some form of depression in their lifetime to varying degrees.

Some people may have a major depressive episode described as an episode of depression lasting over two weeks and some people may suffer from chronic depression their entire lives.

Depression varies for every single person because our brains are all so unique.

Fortunately, not all depression is long-lasting and severe, there are multiple different types of depression. Some are tolerable while some are lethal.

Why are suicide rates three times higher among men compared to women?

The sad but simple truth here is that men are less likely to open up about mental health struggles than women.

That’s why women have more depression diagnoses but men are more likely to commit suicide. Depression is probably just as prevalent in men but they don’t tell their doctors or anyone else about it.

It’s a lot more acceptable to have a physical body injury as a man than it is to have a mental health injury. I know I will tell people that I just have the flu when I am in a depressive episode because they don’t understand that I can’t just stop it on my own.

With the flu, I am not expected to just get better because it’s in my head.

One of my good friends who I found after he had committed suicide never said a word about depression. I told him about my anxiety problems and he never mentioned anything about his depression or gave any hint that he was going to hurt himself. We had hung out a day before he did it.

The problem with the resistance to asking for help is that men suffering from depression don’t get any treatment to help with their problems. Only one-third of people who commit suicide were receiving treatment for mental health problems at the time.

This aversion to asking for help also leads to self-medication. It’s a lot more “manly” to go have six beers than to cry and talk about your problems. I know this is what I did.

When the police officers showed up to interview me after finding my friend they didn’t even offer me any help, they told me to go downtown and have a beer to calm my nerves.

What is the solution?

Unfortunately, a complex problem often requires a complex solution so there is no simple answer to this mental health epidemic.

We need to do whatever it takes to get rid of the stigma surrounding mental health and addictions.

I’m happy to see the way mental health stigma is changing in the world. Mental health is discussed so much more now than it was when I growing up as a kid twenty years ago.

I’ve seen this shift on a smaller scale in my dad, as he accepted my mental illness as a legitimate disease and learned as much as he could about it.

Instead of being an old-school man who never knew mental health was a thing, he now understands depression and addiction and how detrimental they can be.

The thing we can do is talk about it. We need to talk, yell, then talk some more!

Share your stories, talk to your friends, join support groups, or write about all your inner thoughts on the internet. Do whatever it takes.

We all just need to be more open about our mental health problems like we would if we had a broken arm. I do it through writing, expressing all my struggles and pain, hoping it helps somebody else.

Thanks to all those who do the same.