wrote the same in the comment section under your blog

To me the reasons seem clear, having what society tells you you want won't nessicarily make you happy (happiness isn't a short term thing to me its long term). At the same timne looking at what you want or feel you should want isn't going to help. I sort of understand the religous thing but i think that is more about finding meaning rather than a god, Then again many of find the smaller things in life sufficent. Lets face it in the west people are genrally wealthy or atleast have more than the average person in africa for example, money doesn't lead to happiness infact i can think of little more depressing than having money but still feeling depressed. I find myself in agreement with those saying there is a problem  with the underlying "western" culture, sure rationally you can have everything you want but humans are not rational all the time. No one wants struggles in there life, but what is a life without them? You can watch as many movies as you like kiss as many girls as you like but eventually you will find you have had enough then what is there?

As a personal opinion i think the problem is people in the west have to much freedom, to much to lose and not enough to gain and not enough real problems. a huge generalisation i know but lets face it if you are out of a job in america there is welfare, there isn't a high rate of unemployment so chances are you can find another job in a reasonable amount of time, crime while presant isn't a huge problem where the "haves" live. If the most you have to worry about is who you are going to marry one day ofcourse your life is gona suck, we all need a feeling of accomplishment.

That's a very good point though.

To some extent, I find the discipline of counterfactual history to be interesting. For instance, where would we be today if medicine had been at today's level one hundred years ago? From whatever pattern of probabilities you can extract from that image, you may with some justification make projections for what's probable in the future (assuming, of course, that human nature remains unchanged).

Specifically, in this case, we would have had different initial conditions upon entering the complicated pattern of events that constitutes the 1900's. Which arguably is the worst century in the entire history of humankind, speaking in terms of general violence and nastiness. If psychiatric disorders had been acknowledged as such much earlier, we might have had different leaders during those times. Perhaps no clearly bipolar type such as Hitler or a sociopath such as Stalin.

oh man, this is some uneducated BS here. and while I agree that there are people who, no matter how hard they try, are just unable to cope with their problems, the more you educate yourself and devote yourself to being a calm and mentally adept person, the more likely you are to not develop mental handicaps like dementia, Alzheimers, and religious belief.

and to loosely quote Milton, as I am drunk as a skunk right now.

"and hell hath found it's newest possessor

a mind not to be changed by place or time

the mind is it's own place

and in itself can make a hell of heaven

a heaven of hell"

Unlike appendicitis or having the diagnosis of a wrist fracture, disorders like major depression have no objective correlate. It is a diagnosis made based on a patient's introspective account. Yes it has something to do with low neurotransmitter levels (ie. serotonin, catecholamines, etc..) but to date, a clear cut pathophysiology of mood disorders remains elusive. Until a comprehensive neuroscientific account of depression has been discovered, the diagnosis and treatment will be solely based on patient histories. And even in the hands of the best physician, this management ends up being more an art rather than a science. And artists are far from perfect. And I would make the same argument for bipolar illness, ADHD, anxiety, chronic fatigue, chronic pain and fibromyalgia.