It’s World Mental Health Day. Depression & anxiety seem endemic.
Working in a gym and closely with athletes it’s a conversation that comes up.
I see a lot of disclosure by men in their 30’s and 40’s the depression we often suffer is different from those in their 20’s or teens.
Millennials as children were bombarded with the message we could all be successful and follow our dreams. The casualties of the emerging affirming education style. Aspiration devoid of meaning.
The world however as we learned does not give freely, work, circumstance and luck all have their part to play in success.
It’s why stoicism became so popular it taught us the counter message that the world is indifferent we can only steel ourselves against it’s indifference and focus on ourselves. @jordanbpeterson message was that by starting with ourselves can we then become a force in the world.
Men struggle with purpose, powerlessness/loss of responsibility and loss of meaning. I’ve found that targeting these things help.
We can be biologically predisposed towards depression as I’ve personally found. But these things often tip us sometimes fatally towards it.