The Pretenders

Culture today designates certain locations and time at which a variety of emotions are socially acceptable. There are the obvious ones, at or during a funeral one is expected to suppress laughter and keep the mood somber. At or during a wedding on is expected to share and contribute to the atmosphere of joy that is established by the happy couple. But then there is a far less obvious set of locations and times during which there are set socially acceptable norms by which those present are expected to abide. In public in general one is normal if they are happy or neutral, and even in the public environment there is such a thing as "too happy". When the question "How's life?" or "How are you?" is asked, the scripted, standard, acceptable response is "Good", nothing more, nothing less. If someone were to answer that question with a legitimate response that reflected their emotional state they would, in all likelihood, be shunned as an abnormal individual regardless of the positive or negative nature of their response.

Thus today in America we are faced with a nation of extremely skilled pretenders. Depression affects approximately 9.5% of the individuals in the United States, but you can be darn well sure that when you ask 100 people "How are you?" you aren't going to get nearly 10 that respond with "I dunno, I've been feeling kinda down lately" Why is this, it is because they are embarrassed, they are not supposed to be feeling that way, it's not normal. Their busy lives allow for the response "good" because it is what the other participant in the conversation expects and is prepared to respond to.

And so most of these 19 million Americans hide it, they put on their happy mask and go about their lives as if they were feeling as it is socially accepted to feel when if they just told someone and got hep they would find that more than 80% of the time if they just sought help they could be up and out of depression within two to three weeks. Different methods apply to different people, in some cases simply talking to a friend could make a world of difference. What is important is that the problem be addressed, not just the symptoms. So many people have become very skilled at disguising their depression for the sake of their social life.