Definitely in the “tell me something I don’t already know” category. Of course, with science, it’s a case of “empirical, reproducible, data, or it didn’t happen.” The odds are, there will be far too many of opportunities to reproduce the data.
Not surprising, at all. Being unemployed sucks.
You are assigning the unemployment as the cause. What may be occurring is that depression causes the loss of employment or prevents a person from gaining employment. Or it may be both a cause and an effect. So while people are saying “tell me something I don’t already know”, there is a lot of value in doing research here. It may also turn out that unemployment impacts health insurance and the ability of a person to treat depression. Obviously, there are a lot of issues at stake. I’d be curious to see how the US values compare to places that have had universal healthcare.
I’d be really depressed too if somebody photoshopped out all the ports on my MacBook Pro. (note the reflection. how can shutterstock not even notice?)
I became unemployed because of depression - my bipolar boss went bat guano crazy after the death of their parent, and before that my codependent supervisor went off the deep end when their mom died from Alzheimer’s. So yes, job loss due to depression - other people’s depression. .
Twice as likely? I’m shocked, SHOCKED!
Now, if you mind, I have to take my medication.
A major cause of our last national financial crisis was healthcare costs, and people losing homes to foreclosure trying to keep up with mortgages and medical bills. Extended illnesses (going beyond insurance caps) or major surgeries without insurance were common causes of bankruptcy.
“Medical expenses account for 62 percent of bankruptcies in the United States.” - 2007 Harvard study
As people lost homes, they lost the secure housing near jobs. They also began paying rent, and paying off bankruptcies. People sometime lost jobs in these cycles trying to move into cheaper housing that was farther from their old home while also having to sell cars.
yes, and beeing depressed, one easily lacks the confidence, self esteem and energy to gain a new one.
Being unemployed wasn’t the source of my depression nearly as much as the lack of money.
I mean if I happened to win the lottery I’m not going back to a “job”. There’s plenty to do without wasting 10+ hours a day doing stuff for others to make money to live.
Well, who woulda thunk it?
I’m with those who consider it a lack of money… more than no “job” out there in cubicleland. For all the palaver about “new rules” etc, we’re still in orbit around the tired, dysfunctional idea of work that emerged from Frederick Taylor’s corporate model more than a century ago. It was a leap forward at the time…but it’s long past its expiration date. That world and its economic drivers started to tank in the 60s, got noticeably outdated in the 70s, and essentially rolled off the rails in the 80’s. Yet, here we are 30 years later … expecting the soul-less corporate interests to make us happy.
Some of the most depressed people I know are those with jobs in traditional companies. A disconcerting percentage of them are in jobs they hate.
Success and satisfaction today are all about your professional skills and your evolving portfolio of work…not some sad, pathetic concept of “job security.” At least it is in the real world where most of us live.
Yeah, I bet if you compare 1%ers with the rest of us, the results are rather different.
Been out of work for 7 months now but rather than seeing a professional, I’m dealing with it the old fashioned way: denial and stuffing my feelings into tight little ball in my gut.
As someone who has been laid off three times (!), and fired once for reasons that were not my doing, nope, being unemployed fucking sucks. I don’t do well when I’m not working. Now, there may be other reasons involved as well for many people – it’s not a simple, black and white issue – but being unemployed in this society REALLY SUCKS. You feel like a loser. Trust. I know the feeling well. Our society does not look kindly on unemployed people. That’s a BIG part of it.
I’m not a depressed individual until I’m unemployed, really. Which is a reason why I tend to volunteer even when I’m unemployed (otherwise I spend too much time thinking, which just leads to getting even more depressed about my situation).
So while people are saying “tell me something I don’t already know”,
I didn’t say that, btw, or even imply that. I just know very well how much being unemployed can suck.
And I think a LOT of it is the stigma of not working. Don’t have a job? Or a car? You’re a lazy bum. That’s how our society works.
I moved to a different state due to being laid off again – and my car decided to die the day before I got laid off, to boot, because I have all the luck. This means I’m unemployed, although I’m still getting plenty in unemployment insurance to keep me fine and dandy now that I’m not paying rent (I am living with family), but I ALSO don’t have a car. And I’m living with family (after 14+ years of living on my own).
Try dating without a car. Or a job. That’s fun.
And btw, getting laid off so much does not make me confident in myself. That is part of it as well.
I’m fine right now, but eventually it WILL catch up to me, and I WILL being to feel like a loser, which then will start the depression… Even though the reality is that I work my ass off, even when I don’t get paid for it. And yet, that feeling of being a loser is still there. Ugh. It’s the worst.
I think that would depend on which type of 1%er you are looking it. I doubt the first generation 1%er, or those who “made it” would fall into depression at any more of a rate than the rest of society. If anything they may be less prone due to a tendency of being more driven (that’s just opinion, not citing anything specific).
While I think their offspring, or the inheritors, could actually have a higher rate due to the fact they have never had to do anything in life. While the rest of society has figured out what they would like out of life, be it a career, family, travel, riches, they have had no external pressure to make them see what is important to themselves. I go back to not wanting a job I posted above. That’s not to imply I am not a dedicated employee, I simply have other priorities and things I’d like to do with my time if it was financially possible. For myself home and family would trump punching a clock any day, however my wife would go insane without some place to go and something structured to do a few days a week.
Is that frowned upon for a woman? It wouldn’t feel strange for me to pick up a date at her home. A woman willing to pick me up at home if I didn’t have a vehicle though? That would be a bit more rare I think (and probably someone to keep around).
Yep, nowadays it is. Things have changed. Also, I don’t like strange men picking me up (I’d rather meet them the first date or two). And I also date women as well as men. AND I’m very independent and not looking for someone to take care of me, which means I look for men that prefer independent women, etc.
I’ve dated men without cars. As long as they aren’t schlubs, I don’t care – because I’ve been there.
Your post is completely disjointed as a response from what I wrote. I don’t understand why you replied in the way that you did. My point was that we need to look more carefully at causes and effects instead of just saying “you are depressed because you are unemployed and that sucks”.
And just to be clear here, we’re talking about clinical depression, a 6-12 month condition that causes substantial psychological and physiological changes that significantly impair work and social life, not just general sadness or suckiness.
Part of my points is that people in our society look down on those without jobs (and/or money). The stigma of unemployment is real. I said stigma, quite directly. Did you read my comment at all?
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