This could be why you're depressed or anxious
-
0:01 - 0:03For a really long time,
-
0:03 - 0:06I had two mysteries
that were hanging over me. -
0:07 - 0:09I didn't understand them
-
0:09 - 0:12and, to be honest, I was quite afraid
to look into them. -
0:12 - 0:16The first mystery was, I'm 40 years old,
-
0:16 - 0:19and all throughout my lifetime,
year after year, -
0:19 - 0:22serious depression and anxiety have risen,
-
0:22 - 0:25in the United States, in Britain,
-
0:25 - 0:27and across the Western world.
-
0:27 - 0:30And I wanted to understand why.
-
0:31 - 0:33Why is this happening to us?
-
0:33 - 0:36Why is it that with each year that passes,
-
0:36 - 0:39more and more of us are finding it harder
to get through the day? -
0:40 - 0:43And I wanted to understand this
because of a more personal mystery. -
0:43 - 0:45When I was a teenager,
-
0:45 - 0:46I remember going to my doctor
-
0:46 - 0:51and explaining that I had this feeling,
like pain was leaking out of me. -
0:51 - 0:53I couldn't control it,
-
0:53 - 0:55I didn't understand why it was happening,
-
0:55 - 0:57I felt quite ashamed of it.
-
0:57 - 0:59And my doctor told me a story
-
0:59 - 1:01that I now realize was well-intentioned,
-
1:01 - 1:02but quite oversimplified.
-
1:02 - 1:04Not totally wrong.
-
1:04 - 1:06My doctor said, "We know
why people get like this. -
1:06 - 1:11Some people just naturally get
a chemical imbalance in their heads -- -
1:11 - 1:12you're clearly one of them.
-
1:12 - 1:14All we need to do is give you some drugs,
-
1:14 - 1:16it will get your chemical
balance back to normal." -
1:17 - 1:19So I started taking a drug
called Paxil or Seroxat, -
1:19 - 1:22it's the same thing with different names
in different countries. -
1:22 - 1:24And I felt much better,
I got a real boost. -
1:25 - 1:26But not very long afterwards,
-
1:26 - 1:28this feeling of pain started to come back.
-
1:28 - 1:30So I was given higher and higher doses
-
1:30 - 1:33until, for 13 years, I was taking
the maximum possible dose -
1:33 - 1:35that you're legally allowed to take.
-
1:35 - 1:39And for a lot of those 13 years,
and pretty much all the time by the end, -
1:39 - 1:40I was still in a lot of pain.
-
1:40 - 1:43And I started asking myself,
"What's going on here? -
1:43 - 1:45Because you're doing everything
-
1:45 - 1:48you're told to do by the story
that's dominating the culture -- -
1:48 - 1:50why do you still feel like this?"
-
1:50 - 1:53So to get to the bottom
of these two mysteries, -
1:53 - 1:55for a book that I've written
-
1:55 - 1:57I ended up going on a big journey
all over the world, -
1:57 - 1:59I traveled over 40,000 miles.
-
1:59 - 2:01I wanted to sit with the leading
experts in the world -
2:01 - 2:03about what causes depression and anxiety
-
2:03 - 2:05and crucially, what solves them,
-
2:05 - 2:08and people who have come through
depression and anxiety -
2:08 - 2:10and out the other side
in all sorts of ways. -
2:10 - 2:11And I learned a huge amount
-
2:11 - 2:14from the amazing people
I got to know along the way. -
2:14 - 2:17But I think at the heart
of what I learned is, -
2:17 - 2:20so far, we have scientific evidence
-
2:20 - 2:24for nine different causes
of depression and anxiety. -
2:24 - 2:27Two of them are indeed in our biology.
-
2:27 - 2:29Your genes can make you
more sensitive to these problems, -
2:29 - 2:31though they don't write your destiny.
-
2:31 - 2:35And there are real brain changes
that can happen when you become depressed -
2:35 - 2:37that can make it harder to get out.
-
2:37 - 2:39But most of the factors
that have been proven -
2:39 - 2:41to cause depression and anxiety
-
2:41 - 2:43are not in our biology.
-
2:44 - 2:46They are factors in the way we live.
-
2:46 - 2:48And once you understand them,
-
2:48 - 2:51it opens up a very different
set of solutions -
2:51 - 2:52that should be offered to people
-
2:52 - 2:55alongside the option
of chemical antidepressants. -
2:55 - 2:57For example,
-
2:57 - 3:01if you're lonely, you're more likely
to become depressed. -
3:01 - 3:04If, when you go to work,
you don't have any control over your job, -
3:04 - 3:06you've just got to do what you're told,
-
3:06 - 3:08you're more likely to become depressed.
-
3:08 - 3:10If you very rarely get out
into the natural world, -
3:10 - 3:12you're more likely to become depressed.
-
3:12 - 3:15And one thing unites a lot of the causes
of depression and anxiety -
3:15 - 3:16that I learned about.
-
3:16 - 3:18Not all of them, but a lot of them.
-
3:18 - 3:20Everyone here knows
-
3:20 - 3:23you've all got natural
physical needs, right? -
3:23 - 3:24Obviously.
-
3:24 - 3:27You need food, you need water,
-
3:27 - 3:29you need shelter, you need clean air.
-
3:29 - 3:31If I took those things away from you,
-
3:31 - 3:33you'd all be in real trouble, real fast.
-
3:33 - 3:35But at the same time,
-
3:35 - 3:38every human being
has natural psychological needs. -
3:38 - 3:40You need to feel you belong.
-
3:40 - 3:43You need to feel your life
has meaning and purpose. -
3:43 - 3:46You need to feel that people
see you and value you. -
3:46 - 3:48You need to feel you've got
a future that makes sense. -
3:48 - 3:51And this culture we built
is good at lots of things. -
3:52 - 3:54And many things are better
than in the past -- -
3:54 - 3:55I'm glad to be alive today.
-
3:55 - 3:57But we've been getting less and less good
-
3:57 - 4:01at meeting these deep,
underlying psychological needs. -
4:02 - 4:04And it's not the only thing
that's going on, -
4:04 - 4:08but I think it's the key reason
why this crisis keeps rising and rising. -
4:09 - 4:12And I found this really hard to absorb.
-
4:12 - 4:15I really wrestled with the idea
-
4:15 - 4:19of shifting from thinking of my depression
as just a problem in my brain, -
4:19 - 4:20to one with many causes,
-
4:21 - 4:23including many in the way we're living.
-
4:23 - 4:25And it only really began
to fall into place for me -
4:25 - 4:28when one day, I went to interview
a South African psychiatrist -
4:28 - 4:30named Dr. Derek Summerfield.
-
4:30 - 4:31He's a great guy.
-
4:31 - 4:35And Dr. Summerfield
happened to be in Cambodia in 2001, -
4:35 - 4:38when they first introduced
chemical antidepressants -
4:38 - 4:40for people in that country.
-
4:40 - 4:43And the local doctors, the Cambodians,
had never heard of these drugs, -
4:43 - 4:45so they were like, what are they?
-
4:45 - 4:46And he explained.
-
4:46 - 4:48And they said to him,
-
4:48 - 4:50"We don't need them,
we've already got antidepressants." -
4:50 - 4:52And he was like, "What do you mean?"
-
4:52 - 4:55He thought they were going to talk about
some kind of herbal remedy, -
4:55 - 4:59like St. John's Wort, ginkgo biloba,
something like that. -
5:00 - 5:02Instead, they told him a story.
-
5:03 - 5:06There was a farmer in their community
who worked in the rice fields. -
5:06 - 5:08And one day, he stood on a land mine
-
5:08 - 5:10left over from the war
with the United States, -
5:10 - 5:12and he got his leg blown off.
-
5:12 - 5:13So they him an artificial leg,
-
5:13 - 5:16and after a while, he went back
to work in the rice fields. -
5:16 - 5:19But apparently, it's super painful
to work under water -
5:19 - 5:20when you've got an artificial limb,
-
5:20 - 5:22and I'm guessing it was pretty traumatic
-
5:22 - 5:25to go back and work in the field
where he got blown up. -
5:25 - 5:27The guy started to cry all day,
-
5:27 - 5:29he refused to get out of bed,
-
5:29 - 5:32he developed all the symptoms
of classic depression. -
5:32 - 5:33The Cambodian doctor said,
-
5:33 - 5:36"This is when we gave him
an antidepressant." -
5:36 - 5:38And Dr. Summerfield said,
"What was it?" -
5:38 - 5:41They explained that they went
and sat with him. -
5:42 - 5:43They listened to him.
-
5:44 - 5:47They realized that his pain made sense --
-
5:47 - 5:50it was hard for him to see it
in the throes of his depression, -
5:50 - 5:54but actually, it had perfectly
understandable causes in his life. -
5:54 - 5:57One of the doctors, talking to the people
in the community, figured, -
5:57 - 5:59"You know, if we bought this guy a cow,
-
5:59 - 6:01he could become a dairy farmer,
-
6:01 - 6:04he wouldn't be in this position
that was screwing him up so much, -
6:04 - 6:07he wouldn't have to go
and work in the rice fields." -
6:07 - 6:08So they bought him a cow.
-
6:08 - 6:10Within a couple of weeks,
his crying stopped, -
6:10 - 6:12within a month, his depression was gone.
-
6:12 - 6:14They said to doctor Summerfield,
-
6:14 - 6:17"So you see, doctor, that cow,
that was an antidepressant, -
6:17 - 6:18that's what you mean, right?"
-
6:18 - 6:19(Laughter)
-
6:19 - 6:22(Applause)
-
6:22 - 6:25If you'd been raised to think
about depression the way I was, -
6:25 - 6:27and most of the people here were,
-
6:27 - 6:29that sounds like a bad joke, right?
-
6:29 - 6:31"I went to my doctor
for an antidepressant, -
6:31 - 6:32she gave me a cow."
-
6:32 - 6:35But what those Cambodian
doctors knew intuitively, -
6:35 - 6:38based on this individual,
unscientific anecdote, -
6:38 - 6:41is what the leading
medical body in the world, -
6:41 - 6:43the World Health Organization,
-
6:43 - 6:45has been trying to tell us for years,
-
6:45 - 6:48based on the best scientific evidence.
-
6:49 - 6:51If you're depressed,
-
6:51 - 6:52if you're anxious,
-
6:53 - 6:56you're not weak, you're not crazy,
-
6:56 - 7:00you're not, in the main,
a machine with broken parts. -
7:01 - 7:03You're a human being with unmet needs.
-
7:04 - 7:07And it's just as important to think here
about what those Cambodian doctors -
7:07 - 7:10and the World Health Organization
are not saying. -
7:10 - 7:11They did not say to this farmer,
-
7:11 - 7:14"Hey, buddy, you need
to pull yourself together. -
7:14 - 7:17It's your job to figure out
and fix this problem on your own." -
7:18 - 7:20On the contrary, what they said is,
-
7:20 - 7:23"We're here as a group
to pull together with you, -
7:23 - 7:28so together, we can figure out
and fix this problem." -
7:29 - 7:33This is what every depressed person needs,
-
7:33 - 7:36and it's what every
depressed person deserves. -
7:36 - 7:39This is why one of the leading
doctors at the United Nations, -
7:39 - 7:41in their official statement
for World Health Day, -
7:41 - 7:43couple of years back in 2017,
-
7:43 - 7:46said we need to talk less
about chemical imbalances -
7:46 - 7:49and more about the imbalances
in the way we live. -
7:49 - 7:51Drugs give real relief to some people --
-
7:51 - 7:53they gave relief to me for a while --
-
7:53 - 7:57but precisely because this problem
goes deeper than their biology, -
7:58 - 8:01the solutions need to go much deeper, too.
-
8:01 - 8:03But when I first learned that,
-
8:03 - 8:05I remember thinking,
-
8:05 - 8:07"OK, I could see
all the scientific evidence, -
8:07 - 8:09I read a huge number of studies,
-
8:09 - 8:12I interviewed a huge number of the experts
who were explaining this," -
8:12 - 8:14but I kept thinking, "How can we
possibly do that?" -
8:14 - 8:16The things that are making us depressed
-
8:16 - 8:19are in most cases more complex
than what was going on -
8:19 - 8:20with this Cambodian farmer.
-
8:20 - 8:23Where do we even begin with that insight?
-
8:23 - 8:26But then, in the long journey for my book,
-
8:26 - 8:28all over the world,
-
8:28 - 8:30I kept meeting people
who were doing exactly that, -
8:30 - 8:33from Sydney, to San Francisco,
-
8:33 - 8:34to São Paulo.
-
8:34 - 8:36I kept meeting people
who were understanding -
8:36 - 8:38the deeper causes
of depression and anxiety -
8:38 - 8:41and, as groups, fixing them.
-
8:41 - 8:44Obviously, I can't tell you
about all the amazing people -
8:44 - 8:45I got to know and wrote about,
-
8:45 - 8:49or all of the nine causes of depression
and anxiety that I learned about, -
8:49 - 8:51because they won't let me give
a 10-hour TED Talk -- -
8:51 - 8:53you can complain about that to them.
-
8:53 - 8:55But I want to focus on two of the causes
-
8:55 - 8:58and two of the solutions
that emerge from them, if that's alright. -
8:59 - 9:00Here's the first.
-
9:00 - 9:03We are the loneliest society
in human history. -
9:03 - 9:06There was a recent study
that asked Americans, -
9:06 - 9:09"Do you feel like you're no longer
close to anyone?" -
9:09 - 9:13And 39 percent of people
said that described them. -
9:13 - 9:14"No longer close to anyone."
-
9:14 - 9:17In the international
measurements of loneliness, -
9:17 - 9:19Britain and the rest of Europe
are just behind the US, -
9:20 - 9:21in case anyone here is feeling smug.
-
9:21 - 9:22(Laughter)
-
9:22 - 9:24I spent a lot of time discussing this
-
9:24 - 9:27with the leading expert
in the world on loneliness, -
9:27 - 9:29an incredible man
named professor John Cacioppo, -
9:29 - 9:30who was at Chicago,
-
9:30 - 9:33and I thought a lot about one question
his work poses to us. -
9:33 - 9:35Professor Cacioppo asked,
-
9:35 - 9:37"Why do we exist?
-
9:37 - 9:39Why are we here, why are we alive?"
-
9:39 - 9:41One key reason
-
9:41 - 9:44is that our ancestors
on the savannas of Africa -
9:44 - 9:46were really good at one thing.
-
9:46 - 9:50They weren't bigger than the animals
they took down a lot of the time, -
9:50 - 9:53they weren't faster than the animals
they took down a lot of the time, -
9:53 - 9:56but they were much better
at banding together into groups -
9:56 - 9:57and cooperating.
-
9:57 - 10:00This was our superpower as a species --
-
10:00 - 10:01we band together,
-
10:01 - 10:03just like bees evolved to live in a hive,
-
10:04 - 10:06humans evolved to live in a tribe.
-
10:06 - 10:10And we are the first humans ever
-
10:10 - 10:12to disband our tribes.
-
10:12 - 10:15And it is making us feel awful.
-
10:15 - 10:17But it doesn't have to be this way.
-
10:17 - 10:20One of the heroes in my book,
and in fact, in my life, -
10:20 - 10:22is a doctor named Sam Everington.
-
10:22 - 10:25He's a general practitioner
in a poor part of East London, -
10:25 - 10:26where I lived for many years.
-
10:26 - 10:28And Sam was really uncomfortable,
-
10:28 - 10:30because he had loads of patients
-
10:30 - 10:32coming to him with terrible
depression and anxiety. -
10:32 - 10:35And like me, he's not opposed
to chemical antidepressants, -
10:35 - 10:37he thinks they give
some relief to some people. -
10:37 - 10:38But he could see two things.
-
10:39 - 10:42Firstly, his patients were depressed
and anxious a lot of the time -
10:42 - 10:46for totally understandable
reasons, like loneliness. -
10:46 - 10:49And secondly, although the drugs
were giving some relief to some people, -
10:49 - 10:52for many people,
they didn't solve the problem. -
10:52 - 10:53The underlying problem.
-
10:54 - 10:57One day, Sam decided
to pioneer a different approach. -
10:57 - 10:59A woman came to his center,
his medical center, -
10:59 - 11:00called Lisa Cunningham.
-
11:01 - 11:02I got to know Lisa later.
-
11:02 - 11:06And Lisa had been shut away in her home
with crippling depression and anxiety -
11:07 - 11:08for seven years.
-
11:09 - 11:12And when she came to Sam's center,
she was told, "Don't worry, -
11:12 - 11:14we'll carry on giving you these drugs,
-
11:14 - 11:16but we're also going to prescribe
something else. -
11:17 - 11:20We're going to prescribe for you
to come here to this center twice a week -
11:20 - 11:23to meet with a group of other
depressed and anxious people, -
11:23 - 11:26not to talk about how miserable you are,
-
11:26 - 11:29but to figure out something
meaningful you can all do together -
11:29 - 11:32so you won't be lonely and you won't feel
like life is pointless." -
11:32 - 11:35The first time this group met,
-
11:35 - 11:37Lisa literally started
vomiting with anxiety, -
11:37 - 11:39it was so overwhelming for her.
-
11:39 - 11:42But people rubbed her back,
the group started talking, -
11:42 - 11:44they were like, "What could we do?"
-
11:44 - 11:46These are inner-city,
East London people like me, -
11:46 - 11:48they didn't know anything about gardening.
-
11:48 - 11:50They were like, "Why don't we
learn gardening?" -
11:50 - 11:53There was an area
behind the doctors' offices -
11:53 - 11:54that was just scrubland.
-
11:54 - 11:56"Why don't we make this into a garden?"
-
11:56 - 11:58They started to take books
out of the library, -
11:58 - 11:59started to watch YouTube clips.
-
11:59 - 12:02They started to get
their fingers in the soil. -
12:02 - 12:05They started to learn
the rhythms of the seasons. -
12:05 - 12:06There's a lot of evidence
-
12:06 - 12:08that exposure to the natural world
-
12:08 - 12:10is a really powerful antidepressant.
-
12:10 - 12:13But they started to do something
even more important. -
12:13 - 12:15They started to form a tribe.
-
12:15 - 12:17They started to form a group.
-
12:17 - 12:19They started to care about each other.
-
12:19 - 12:21If one of them didn't show up,
-
12:21 - 12:24the others would go
looking for them -- "Are you OK?" -
12:24 - 12:26Help them figure out
what was troubling them that day. -
12:26 - 12:28The way Lisa put it to me,
-
12:28 - 12:31"As the garden began to bloom,
-
12:31 - 12:32we began to bloom."
-
12:32 - 12:35This approach is called
social prescribing, -
12:35 - 12:36it's spreading all over Europe.
-
12:36 - 12:38And there's a small,
but growing body of evidence -
12:38 - 12:41suggesting it can produce real
and meaningful falls -
12:41 - 12:43in depression and anxiety.
-
12:43 - 12:47And one day, I remember
standing in the garden -
12:47 - 12:50that Lisa and her once-depressed
friends had built -- -
12:50 - 12:51it's a really beautiful garden --
-
12:51 - 12:52and having this thought,
-
12:52 - 12:56it's very much inspired by a guy
called professor Hugh Mackay in Australia. -
12:56 - 13:01I was thinking, so often
when people feel down in this culture, -
13:01 - 13:04what we say to them -- I'm sure
everyone here said it, I have -- -
13:04 - 13:07we say, "You just need
to be you, be yourself." -
13:08 - 13:11And I've realized, actually,
what we should say to people is, -
13:11 - 13:12"Don't be you.
-
13:12 - 13:14Don't be yourself.
-
13:14 - 13:16Be us, be we.
-
13:17 - 13:18Be part of a group."
-
13:18 - 13:22(Applause)
-
13:22 - 13:24The solution to these problems
-
13:24 - 13:28does not lie in drawing
more and more on your resources -
13:28 - 13:29as an isolated individual --
-
13:29 - 13:31that's partly what got us in this crisis.
-
13:31 - 13:34It lies on reconnecting
with something bigger than you. -
13:34 - 13:36And that really connects
to one of the other causes -
13:36 - 13:39of depression and anxiety
that I wanted to talk to you about. -
13:39 - 13:41So everyone knows
-
13:41 - 13:45junk food has taken over our diets
and made us physically sick. -
13:45 - 13:47I don't say that
with any sense of superiority, -
13:47 - 13:49I literally came to give
this talk from McDonald's. -
13:49 - 13:53I saw all of you eating that
healthy TED breakfast, I was like no way. -
13:53 - 13:58But just like junk food has taken over
our diets and made us physically sick, -
13:58 - 14:02a kind of junk values
have taken over our minds -
14:02 - 14:04and made us mentally sick.
-
14:04 - 14:07For thousands of years,
philosophers have said, -
14:07 - 14:12if you think life is about money,
and status and showing off, -
14:12 - 14:13you're going to feel like crap.
-
14:13 - 14:16That's not an exact quote
from Schopenhauer, -
14:16 - 14:17but that is the gist of what he said.
-
14:17 - 14:20But weirdly, hardy anyone
had scientifically investigated this, -
14:20 - 14:24until a truly extraordinary person
I got to know, named professor Tim Kasser, -
14:24 - 14:26who's at Knox College in Illinois,
-
14:26 - 14:29and he's been researching this
for about 30 years now. -
14:29 - 14:32And his research suggests
several really important things. -
14:32 - 14:35Firstly, the more you believe
-
14:35 - 14:40you can buy and display
your way out of sadness, -
14:40 - 14:42and into a good life,
-
14:42 - 14:45the more likely you are to become
depressed and anxious. -
14:45 - 14:46And secondly,
-
14:46 - 14:51as a society, we have become
much more driven by these beliefs. -
14:51 - 14:52All throughout my lifetime,
-
14:52 - 14:56under the weight of advertising
and Instagram and everything like them. -
14:57 - 14:58And as I thought about this,
-
14:58 - 15:04I realized it's like we've all been fed
since birth, a kind of KFC for the soul. -
15:04 - 15:08We've been trained to look for happiness
in all the wrong places, -
15:08 - 15:11and just like junk food
doesn't meet your nutritional needs -
15:11 - 15:13and actually makes you feel terrible,
-
15:13 - 15:16junk values don't meet
your psychological needs, -
15:16 - 15:19and they take you away from a good life.
-
15:19 - 15:22But when I first spent time
with professor Kasser -
15:22 - 15:23and I was learning all this,
-
15:23 - 15:26I felt a really weird mixture of emotions.
-
15:26 - 15:28Because on the one hand,
I found this really challenging. -
15:28 - 15:32I could see how often
in my own life, when I felt down, -
15:32 - 15:37I tried to remedy it with some kind of
show-offy, grand external solution. -
15:37 - 15:40And I could see why that
did not work well for me. -
15:41 - 15:44I also thought,
isn't this kind of obvious? -
15:44 - 15:46Isn't this almost like banal, right?
-
15:46 - 15:47If I said to everyone here,
-
15:47 - 15:49none of you are going to lie
on your deathbed -
15:49 - 15:52and think about all the shoes you bought
and all the retweets you got, -
15:52 - 15:54you're going to think about moments
-
15:54 - 15:56of love, meaning
and connection in your life. -
15:56 - 15:58I think that seems almost like a cliché.
-
15:58 - 16:01But I kept talking
to professor Kasser and saying, -
16:01 - 16:03"Why am I feeling
this strange doubleness?" -
16:03 - 16:07And he said, "At some level,
we all know these things. -
16:07 - 16:09But in this culture,
we don't live by them." -
16:09 - 16:11We know them so well
they've become clichés, -
16:11 - 16:13but we don't live by them.
-
16:13 - 16:16I kept asking why, why would we know
something so profound, -
16:16 - 16:17but not live by it?
-
16:17 - 16:21And after a while,
professor Kasser said to me, -
16:21 - 16:23"Because we live in a machine
-
16:23 - 16:27that is designed to get us to neglect
what is important about life." -
16:27 - 16:29I had to really think about that.
-
16:29 - 16:30"Because we live in a machine
-
16:30 - 16:34that is designed to get us
to neglect what is important about life." -
16:34 - 16:38And professor Kasser wanted to figure out
if we can disrupt that machine. -
16:38 - 16:40He's done loads of research into this;
-
16:40 - 16:42I'll tell you about one example,
-
16:42 - 16:45and I really urge everyone here
to try this with their friends and family. -
16:45 - 16:48With a guy called Nathan Dungan,
he got a group of teenagers and adults -
16:48 - 16:53to come together for a series of sessions
over a period of time, to meet up. -
16:53 - 16:54And part of the point of the group
-
16:54 - 16:58was to get people to think
about a moment in their life -
16:58 - 17:01they had actually found
meaning and purpose. -
17:01 - 17:03For different people,
it was different things. -
17:03 - 17:06For some people, it was playing music,
writing, helping someone -- -
17:06 - 17:09I'm sure everyone here
can picture something, right? -
17:09 - 17:12And part of the point of the group
was to get people to ask, -
17:12 - 17:15"OK, how could you dedicate
more of your life -
17:15 - 17:18to pursuing these moments
of meaning and purpose, -
17:18 - 17:21and less to, I don't know,
buying crap you don't need, -
17:21 - 17:23putting it on social media
and trying to get people to go, -
17:23 - 17:25'OMG, so jealous!'"
-
17:25 - 17:27And what they found was,
-
17:27 - 17:28just having these meetings,
-
17:28 - 17:31it was like a kind of Alcoholics Anonymous
for consumerism, right? -
17:32 - 17:35Getting people to have these meetings,
articulate these values, -
17:35 - 17:37determine to act on them
and check in with each other, -
17:37 - 17:40led to a marked shift in people's values.
-
17:40 - 17:45It took them away from this hurricane
of depression-generating messages -
17:45 - 17:47training us to seek happiness
in the wrong places, -
17:47 - 17:51and towards more meaningful
and nourishing values -
17:51 - 17:53that lift us out of depression.
-
17:53 - 17:57But with all the solutions that I saw
and have written about, -
17:57 - 17:59and many I can't talk about here,
-
17:59 - 18:01I kept thinking,
-
18:01 - 18:05you know: Why did it take me so long
to see these insights? -
18:05 - 18:07Because when you explain them to people --
-
18:07 - 18:09some of them are more
complicated, but not all -- -
18:09 - 18:12when you explain this to people,
it's not like rocket science, right? -
18:12 - 18:14At some level, we already
know these things. -
18:14 - 18:17Why do we find it so hard to understand?
-
18:17 - 18:19I think there's many reasons.
-
18:19 - 18:24But I think one reason is
that we have to change our understanding -
18:24 - 18:27of what depression
and anxiety actually are. -
18:28 - 18:30There are very real
biological contributions -
18:30 - 18:32to depression and anxiety.
-
18:32 - 18:36But if we allow the biology
to become the whole picture, -
18:36 - 18:37as I did for so long,
-
18:37 - 18:41as I would argue our culture
has done pretty much most of my life, -
18:41 - 18:45what we're implicitly saying to people
is, and this isn't anyone's intention, -
18:45 - 18:48but what we're implicitly
saying to people is, -
18:48 - 18:50"Your pain doesn't mean anything.
-
18:51 - 18:52It's just a malfunction.
-
18:52 - 18:54It's like a glitch in a computer program,
-
18:54 - 18:57it's just a wiring problem in your head."
-
18:58 - 19:01But I was only able to start
changing my life -
19:01 - 19:05when I realized your depression
is not a malfunction. -
19:07 - 19:08It's a signal.
-
19:09 - 19:11Your depression is a signal.
-
19:11 - 19:13It's telling you something.
-
19:13 - 19:18(Applause)
-
19:18 - 19:20We feel this way for reasons,
-
19:20 - 19:23and they can be hard to see
in the throes of depression -- -
19:23 - 19:25I understand that really well
from personal experience. -
19:25 - 19:29But with the right help,
we can understand these problems -
19:29 - 19:31and we can fix these problems together.
-
19:31 - 19:33But to do that,
-
19:33 - 19:34the very first step
-
19:34 - 19:37is we have to stop insulting these signals
-
19:37 - 19:41by saying they're a sign of weakness,
or madness or purely biological, -
19:41 - 19:43except for a tiny number of people.
-
19:43 - 19:47We need to start
listening to these signals, -
19:47 - 19:50because they're telling us
something we really need to hear. -
19:51 - 19:56It's only when we truly
listen to these signals, -
19:56 - 20:00and we honor these signals
and respect these signals, -
20:00 - 20:02that we're going to begin to see
-
20:02 - 20:06the liberating, nourishing,
deeper solutions. -
20:07 - 20:11The cows that are waiting all around us.
-
20:12 - 20:13Thank you.
-
20:13 - 20:16(Applause)
- Title:
- This could be why you're depressed or anxious
- Speaker:
- Johann Hari
- Description:
-
In a moving, actionable talk, journalist Johann Hari shares fresh insights on the causes of depression and anxiety from experts around the world -- as well as some exciting emerging solutions. "If you're depressed or anxious, you're not weak and you're not crazy -- you're a human being with unmet needs," Hari says.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 20:31
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This could be why you're depressed or anxious | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This could be why you're depressed or anxious | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This could be why you're depressed or anxious | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for This could be why you're depressed or anxious | ||
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Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for This could be why you're depressed or anxious |