Medical Authorities representing the sovereign governments of the World appear to be agreed in the identification of
untreated DEPRESSION as being the main cause of suicide.
Untreated because it is Undiagnosed
This is extremely disturbing especially as the World Health Organisation has warned the World that major depression
will become the planet's second most debilitating disease by the year 2020.
However, according to the New York based NARSAD: 'Major depression is already the
leading cause of disability worldwide'. NARSAD could be right...
The assertion that depression will become the world’s second most debilitating disease
(following heart disease) by the year 2020 is questionable.
Studies on depression have produced alarming figures. A depressed person, for example, is four
times more likely to suffer a heart attack than a non-depressed person is.
If a depressed person does have a heart attack, he or she is four times more likely to die. Indeed
research over the past two decades has
shown that depression and heart disease are common companions and, what is worse, one can lead to the other.
Notwithstanding this crucial piece of information, it is also self evident that; the higher the level of depression -
the higher the level of suicide.
This ongoing rise in depression would certainly explain the ongoing rise in suicide rates.
The 'Hellish' prospect of an ever increasing growth
of depression, prompts the question: "What will actually happen after 2020?"
What will happen when depression is officially the
second biggest life-threatening disease on our planet?
Obviously depression will not simply end at this point. Nor will it become a thing consigned to a dark and distant
past. It will continue to rise and suicide rates will continue to rise with it.
Following 2020, the next health 'milestone' in global mental health will be the year in which depression
'officially' replaces heart disease as the World's Number One Health problem.
And then what.......?
Unless checked. Suicide rates will continue to rise, claiming the lives of countless millions.
As these rates continue to grow we could eventually be confronted by a nightmare scenario in which depression-related-suicide has become the primary cause of death of the human race.
Rather like dealing with the 'unknowable' number of suicides. It should be noted that the main
cause of suicide is "undiagnosed" depression.
Being "undiagnosed", the actual number of sufferers is also unknown
and unknowable. This being so, depression could easily become our World's second most debilitating disease long
before the year 2020.
We simply don't know.
Reassuring isn't it
