The More Developed, The More Depressed?
The truth about “First World Problems.”
We have all made a joke here and there about “First World Problems” — your favorite coffee place ran out of soy milk? (First World Problems). You have “too much choice” at the supermarket and it’s overwhelming? (First World Problems). “Boring” day?— yes, this is also a “First World Problem”…
However embarrassing and shameful we find such irks to complain about — when there is war, starvation, and a pandemic, going on right now in the world — we still do it.
But since it seems the whole developed world is plunging into a mental health crisis, are these so-called “first world problems” at least partially to blame?
Depression: Disease of the Rich?
A growing amount of research suggests that people who live in wealthy countries are more likely to be depressed than those in low to middle-income countries. In one particular study, around 15% of people in developed countries claimed to have experienced depression at some point in their lives. That compares with 11% in less developed countries.
That being said, across nations of various stages of development, women were still reported twice as likely as men to suffer from depression— a matter I dipped into in an earlier…
