Why Does Depression Hurt

Recession 2.0 would hurt worse

Another recession could be even worse than the last one for a few reasons.

For starters, the economy is more vulnerable than it was in 2007 when the Great Recession began. In fact, the economy would enter the new recession much weaker than the start of any other downturn since the end of World War II.

Unemployment currently stands at 9.1%. In November 2007, the month before the start of the Great Recession, it was just 4.7%.

And the large number of Americans who have stopped looking for work in the last few years has left the percentage of the population with a job at a 28-year low.

Various parts of the economy also have yet to recover from the last recession and would be at serious risk of lasting damage in a new downturn.

Home values continue to lose ground and are projected to continue their fall. While manufacturing has had a nice rebound in the last two years, industrial production is still 18% below pre-recession levels.

There are nearly 900 banks on the FDIC's list of troubled institutions , the highest number since 1993. Only 76 banks were at risk as the Great Recession took hold.

But what has economists particularly worried is that the tools generally used to try to jumpstart an economy teetering on the edge of recession aren't available this time around.

"The reason we didn't go into a depression three years ago is the policy response by Congress and the Fed," said Dan Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State University. "We won't see that this time."

Three times between 2008 and 2010, Congress approved massive spending or temporary tax cuts to try to stimulate the economy. But fresh from the bruising debt ceiling battle and credit rating downgrade, and with elections looming, the federal government has shown little inclination to move in that direction.

So this new recession would likely have virtually no policy effort to counteract it.

Why Does Depression Hurt? Mental Health | Depression

That television advertisement that asks; ‘Where does depression hurt?’ And the answer, ‘Everywhere,’ is painfully true, (no pun intended).

But why does depression hurt? After all, it is a mental illness, isn’t it? So why do I keep having aches and pains for no apparent reason? Well, yes, it’s mental, but it marches in lockstep to your physical make-up. By marching in lockstep, I mean that although depression is partly mental , and this is evidenced by, and in the way that, depressives dream, it has a direct bearing on our physical well-being.

Some years ago, when I suffered major, or clinical, depression, I used to have the most peculiar and vivid dreams. Until I learned more about depression, I had no idea at all that these dreams were actually the cause of my feeling aches and pains all over my body during my waking hours. The point is that people with depression dream three times as much as those who do not suffer from the condition.

The depression-free person dreams about 2 hours a night, 2 hours in 20 four, if you like. The depressive, on the other hand. Dreams 3 times that amount. 6 hours in 20 four, so he or she spends no less than a quarter of their life dreaming!

The unfortunate part is, though, that while they are dreaming, they are not having the deep, restful sleep that their bodies need to repair themselves. They are in the Rapid Eye Movement, or REM, sleep stage, which is when you dream. To put it very basically, you dream in order that the brain can flush away all the old rubbish that is been built up by your thinking during the previous day. Hardly a medical description, but since the question is; ‘Why does depression hurt?’ and not the causes of depression, this description will suffice for the moment.

The important point is that the depressive goes through the night in the REM sleep stage for 6 hours, and a mere 2 hours in deep sleep. With the non-depressive, this is reversed. Then finally, because the person with depression is only having 2 hours, (if they are lucky), of good, deep sleep, their bodies are simply not receiving the rest that they so desperately need. There’s nothing restful about the REM sleep stage. It is called Rapid Eye Movement because your eyeballs are constantly moving very quickly from side to side as you dream.

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