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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Big disclaimer of course. Life is what you make of it, depends on the individual.etc, yes of course you can be happy or depressed in any country, but suicidal rates vary quite dramatically between some countries, and seem highest in the wealthiest countries like Norway or Japan. I'm restricting my discussion mostly to well-off countries. Life in say, the Congo or Bangladesh is bound to be a struggle. Perhaps they don't have time to be depressed there? lol
I think countries tend to encourage depression for different reasons. Those where there's not a lot of human contact, where the suburban landscape/way of life combines with a very individualistic life philosophy to alienate people, make it hard to make friends, foster loneliness. The US and Australia come into play.
Then there's generally reserved cultures. Japan, the UK, Scandinavia, Germany, where strangers seldom interact, where privacy is no. 1. Again, this causes social alienation.
Also countries where they work you hard, like South Korea, Japan, the US again.
Then there's the weather. Yes, SAD DOES have a major impact on our moods. Places with not a lot of sunshine like the UK, Iceland or southern New Zealand, or long, dark winters like Finland, Norway, northern Canada. Isn't the suicide rate among Native Canadians high?
I think countries with dense concentrations of people might increase stress but in a way they discourage depression, since you're bombarded with stimuli and I think being alone etc encourages depression, although you can easily be alone and depressed in a place like NYC if you don't have any friends.
The ideal countries? It's hard to say, but I'd say a country with a healthy work/life balance, not a too rigorous climate, strong support from family/friends.etc. I do wonder if societies like the US, with it's emphasis on individuality, also breeds a lot of resentment/detachment from society which leads to more serious things like violent criminals.
...suicidal rates vary quite dramatically between some countries, and seem highest in the wealthiest countries like Norway or Japan. I'm restricting my discussion mostly to well-off countries.
Then there's the weather. Yes, SAD DOES have a major impact on our moods. Places with not a lot of sunshine like the UK, Iceland or southern New Zealand, or long, dark winters like Finland, Norway, northern Canada. Isn't the suicide rate among Native Canadians high?
Um...what? Suicide rates in Norway are about the same as in the US. Adjusted for daylight, they are far, far lower than the rates in places in the US that are equally far north. The UK has low rates, Canadas rates are lower than the more southern US.
Eastern Europe seems to dominate among developed countries with far higher rates than the west.
The higher the economic expectations and aspirations, the higher the risk of depression for not achieving them, so I would expect depression to be of lower incidence in countries with lower levels of economic prosperity.
Suicide rates themselves are not primarily driven by depression. More often, people are driven toward suicide by other single issues, like health, loss of a loved one, etc., and the number of people who actually choose suicide as a resolution depends a great deal more on the prevailing culture, than on the depth of the misery of the decedent.
In the USA, at any given time, 10-million people are taking Rx medications for depression, at least that many more diagnosed but not taking meds, and still more are depressed but undiagnosed and untreated. If 35-millon Americans are depressed and account for our 35,000 suicides, that means that for every 1,000 depressed people, only one commits suicide. So the one that does is way too insignificant a number to attribute a suicide rate to clinical depression.
Where does this myth that Scandinavian countries have higher suicide rates than other developed countries come from? It's completely unsupported by statistics.
Rather than life in certain countries fostering depression, I think there are far more obvious reasons for why developed countries have a higher number of reported suicides:
1) Developed countries have better resources to keep reliable statistics on their population.
2) In some cultures, mainly in developing countries, suicide is considered to be a shameful act so it is more likely not to be reported as such.
Then there's the weather. Yes, SAD DOES have a major impact on our moods. Places with not a lot of sunshine like the UK, Iceland or southern New Zealand, or long, dark winters like Finland, Norway, northern Canada. Isn't the suicide rate among Native Canadians high?
The high suicide rate among Native Canadians isn't due to weather, as non-natives in neighbouring towns don't have the same high rate. Rather, it is due to complicated social problems.
I don't think the suicide rates have much to do with the amount of daylight hours or the level of prosperity of a country. A good example of a country that doesn't fits into any of those two categories, but suffers one of the highest rates of suicide in the world is Cuba. Also, most of Australia, and all of Sri Lanka, has a warm to hot and sunny weather year round and these countries have a serious problem with suicides.
^ That map is flawed. If you click on the link and check the data on which the map is supposedly based, you'll see that there are far more countries in the 6.5-13 category (yellow) rather than the >13 category (red) than the map shows. Not to mention that the data itself is questionable as it ranges from 1978 to 2005 and there's no citation of where the statistics come from. The Wikipedia article (which is highly disputed itself) quotes very different numbers.
I don't think the suicide rates have much to do with the amount of daylight hours or the level of prosperity of a country. A good example of a country that doesn't fits into any of those two categories, but suffers one of the highest rates of suicide in the world is Cuba. Also, most of Australia, and all of Sri Lanka, has a warm to hot and sunny weather year round and these countries have a serious problem with suicides.
Australia seems like such a laid back country yet it as high suicidal rates. Most of Europe is really back also, surprised that the Uk is low compared to Europe - at least were good for something.
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