As the days are getting longer and all the birds of summer are returning to court the mates, one cannot really think of depression as a concern.
A few days ago however, I had heard CBC say that the World Health Organization (WHO) had just released data saying that depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.
Recently, there has been a bit of a movement to shed light on mental health and remove the stigma as, for a long time, it just wasn't something people talked about and it was hidden.
A broken arm is easy to see and many will show empathy toward someone with a broken arm, but when someone has depression or another form of mental health issues, it is not easily seen nor understood.
I, like many people, have a few family members who suffer from depression and anxiety and when I heard the numbers behind the WHO's statement, it struck a chord.
No one likes to admit when they are struggling, let alone have a doctor tell them they need medication to help ease the ups and downs of their roller coaster.
Admitting there is something wrong is the first step and it can be a difficult one for the person suffering and for the family members of that person.
After one of my family members talked with their physician about the issues they were having, the doctor replied that nearly 50 per cent of the population is suffering with anxiety or depression though most don't get diagnosed. Those numbers blew my mind and I began to look at everyone different after that.
A deep feeling of empathy washed over me from then on for everyone I knew that were having rough times. Everyone has battles in their lives with depression in one form or another, but for some , it doesn't really go away.
Imagine the worst time in your life, maybe a loved one left you or maybe a very close person to you passed away. Now imagine that feeling every day.
As children, we all knew someone that had this feeling every day, like Eyeore, the depressed donkey from Winnie the Pooh that always had a rain cloud overhead, but for us as children this was just a character.
I recall, in an environmental ethics class, we were discussing the happiness index which peaked in the 1950s. Many believed that perhaps the peak was because in the 1950s because there was a rambunctious economy, but the numbers don't really hold that to be true.
With inflation accounted for, the average income was about $22,000 in today's equivalent. A third of American homes in the 1950s still didn't have complete indoor plumbing. One in five households didn't have a phone.
During this class in university we speculated perhaps there is something void in many people's life and to compensate, consumption of stuff during the 1950's was increasing and so did the average work week in terms of hours, creating a type of feedback loop in terms of time devoted to one's self and family.
The more you worked, the more of a void was created and so in turn you consume some product to try to fill a natural void and thus you must work more to afford the increase in consumption.
Who knows what is causing these staggering statistics but a change is certainly needed or I am positive we will continue to see youth in the U.S. and Canada committing mass violence as their bottled issues expands beyond the container and spills into the schools and streets.
Stanford researchers found something that may be one of the best cures for mental health: nature.
In today's faceless interactions via social media and growing number of "screen time" hours, it is very easy to speculate that we are all suffering from nature deficit disorder.
The published study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found that people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural area, as opposed to participants who walked in a high-traffic urban setting, showed decreased activity in a region of the brain associated with a key factor in depression, according to Stanford University.
According to the online edition of the journal Neuroscience, U.K. scientists found that there are bacteria in soil that act as anti-depressant medication.
Now, do you understand why I say spring is the best drug?
Cold temperatures often keep us inside, so get outside and get muddy, it's happy time!
