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Comment by chrischattin | Hacker News Reader

All you have to do to see that depression is a disease of the bourgeoisie (I feel dirty using that word) is travel around the world a bit.

Some of the poorest people out there are the happiest and living hand-to-mouth doesn't leave much time for feeling melancholy. In fact, it seems to give satisfaction, purpose, and fulfillment.

To put things in perspective for the HN crowd, if you make over $30k/year, you're in the the top 1% worldwide. And at that level, all your basic needs are met by a large margin.

You are free to pursue the kinds of wildest aspirations of your heart and mind – if you chose.

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This parroted advice is unhelpful and almost always incorrect - simple caricatures of the "travel the world" and "you don't have it so bad" and "just follow your dream" are just empty platitudes. Depression can not only affect people from all socioeconomic backgrounds, but is often highly correlated with economic distress, especially if you look in areas like the upper midwest. Depression often negates your life's sense of purpose. Saying that the "poorest people are the happiest" and poverty somehow alleviates depression because they're too busy working for their next meal feels condescending and tone-deaf.

Depression knows no class, race, creed, gender, or anything else related to the human experience. Any human brain is susceptible to it. Now, whether people of a certain group are willing to admit it, share it, and seek help without feeling stigmatized, is a different story.

I think in poorer societies people care more for one another even if they barely have any food. The community is stronger. That may aleviate some forms of depression but not all. Remember, depression is sometimes invisible so travelling around poor parts of the world and people smiling at you doesn’t mean it’s all dandy.

But I feel that your point is somewhat related to the obliteration of the community in general and the tendecy to care for oneself first and foremost in the western world. Money and wealtg is not everything. And then how that is distributed also is another thing. People feel worthless if they don’t attain a certain definition of success

I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying. If living hand-to-mouth gives people satisfaction, purpose and fulfillment, then why are you offering some vague advice about choosing to pursue the wildest aspirations of heart and mind? Why would that work instead of the proven route of struggle for basic needs? (I also doubt those poor people are pursuing their wildest aspirations, they're probably just trying to not die).

Ah yes all the poor alcoholics who are barely alive must be really enjoying their life. And all the poor who just killed themselves have accomplished everything and decided to call it a day.

Please, if you're lucky enough to not know depression, you can't really decide that it's just the affluent who never worked the fields. I know this is most of HN, but Depression being an affliction of the bourgeoisie is just a bad conclusion.

I think partly true. But, the melancholic temprament is recognized throughout ancient literature.

While it can help some people, statements like this can also add to the guilt that some people already feel due to not being happy, especially when they already know that they're "really lucky" and have "everything they need".

> travel around the world a bit.

Like the bourgeois?

You don't need much money to grab a backpack and go someplace, or do volunteer work abroad. You could even get paid for some of it.

That comes from a position of privilege.

Round trip plane tickets across the ocean or hemispheres, and factoring cost of food lodging and travel while there, is plainly expensive. Travel by land has less of an upfront cost, but depending on how far you want go can take ample time. That's time spent not earning, burning through vacation days just to get somewhere, which from where I am, can scarcely be described as traveling the world.

Working abroad for say TESL (teaching english in the second language) is a contract, commonly up to a year, though shorter options exist. That's a complete displacement, it may be suitable for a young graduate but isn't short-term travel.

> Some of the poorest people out there are the happiest

yes, because the depressed do not live long there.

i feel you haven't travel enough to spot people who are poor ( financially ) and suffering from depression. travel more, my friend.

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