I find it frustrating and demeaning that those of us who suffer from mental illness have to constantly 'justify' our treatment, while those who have physical problems - even those caused by poor life choices get sympathy and unqestioned concern. Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Lung Cancer are diseases with high rates right now, and there is a lot of coverage about how lifestyles and society has contributed to them, but no one is screaming, "Are our physicians playing fast and loose with insulin? perscriptions are up x%!" Yes, depression and other mental illnesses seem to be increasing (although I'm not even sure that's true, we may just be getting better at diagnosing and treating them), but instead of stigmatizing those who seek treatment, perhaps some discussion of contributing factors is in order.

We are living in a world where many of us have lost faith in the institutions that once sustained us; religion, schools, government, community. Many people work in jobs that no longer seem to fulfil us, then go spend the money we earn, in an 'anywhere USA' shopping center, and buy crappy products made in China. Many of our families have disintegrated, our elderly sit alone in nursing homes, our children sit in daycare, and we sit in traffic, going to or from a poorly-built house, that looks like everyone elses, that takes 80% of our paycheck to afford. Most of the landscapes and communities we live in have been stripped of virtually everything that might have made it unique or special. We've traded that for pre-fab, divided highway, traffic light, subdivided, franchised, and corporatized homogenaity, where the closest thing we come to community interaction is giving someone the bird when they steal your parking space. We have more but own less, and worry with each economic report when the house of cards will fall. Meanwhile our kids are on drugs and failing school, which is a real problem, because we desperately want to get them into a college that will put both of us in debt so they can enter a job market that just outsourced their profession to malaysia.

And we wonder why we're depressed? We are making ourselves depressed! Of course for one person to try and change all of the above is, well, crazy, especially when you're so beat down you can barely get up in the morning. So bring on the pills! Eventually people will notice that a lot of us are taking medication, and want to fix this problem. Of course, the way to do this, is to criticize the people administering, and recieving this medication. No need to address society's problems, just put down those driven mad by them, and the problem is solved.