Depression

I have read about the "great depression". To me, there has been a great depression in the practice since coming back from the boards. Monday and yesterday it seems like almost every patient I had was having depression. Neurology is not one of the easier fields. People are very sick. The illnesses I help patients with are serious ones. They are often disabling. So I am used to having to play the cheerleader role. It can get to anyone to have stroke, neuropathy, parkinson's disease, chronic pain, Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis, weakness or whatever I'm seeing people for. This is not the depression I'm seeing, though.
I'm seeing a systemic depression. The "practice" is depressed. I think the whole town is depressed. Perhaps the country is depressed. I don't mean financially depressed. I mean that it's taking a toll on people. There is just a decrease in the happiness level.
It seems to me that too many people are far too attached to the economic well being in order to have happiness.
The internet dating sites are experiencing huge growth. People can't go out and spend money, so they're turning to having relationships. I think relationships with people are probably far more likely to produce deep and longstanding happiness than wealth. So to me, this is a great benefit of the economic downturn.
There is a G-20 summit, and there is talk about having global regulation for the large mega-coorporations that run the world. This seems like a good idea to me also. These companies are bigger than countries. They have our country under their control because they basically pay off the legislators. So maybe this is another part of the silver lining.
The thing about the difficult times is that the silver lining in the clouds is never clear at the time. So there has to be faith.
I spoke recently to a patient's daughter who was very hostile towards me. She expected me to call her after every visit with the patient to update her so that she could ensure that her mother was getting "the best medical care". It is a manifestation of the lack of faith we have in each other.
People are not doing well with these economic difficulties. It is causing too much depression because there is no faith and people lack deep relationships. It is going to create disease. Stress leads to disease.