Why does America have the highest incidence of depression?

Answer 1

There are many reasons for this fact. Here are some of the most common reasons:

• Americans are goal-driven and perfectionist. It's part of our way of life - we believe that if you work hard enough, you can do anything you want. Unfortunately, some of us never learn how to turn that drive off, and end up over-doing it and stressing ourselves right into anxiety and depression.
• Americans are more educated than people in poorer countries. People who are barely making enough to live on in the middle of nowhere are not likely to understand that their symptoms are from depression - they quite logically think that they feel bad because they have such a hard life.
• Americans are more educated than people in poorer countries, Part 2. Americans understand that mental illness is a treatable condition that does not mean you are "bad" or "crazy." People without a good education still feel ashamed to seek help from a doctor, even if they do realize that something is wrong.
• Cultural differences might mess up the test results. In many countries, the way of life is not to complain, but to pick yourself up and keep right on working. These people are not going to tell some anonymous interviewer that they feel depression symptoms!
• Translations might be faulty. Often, when trying to do a worldwide study, questions which get one type of answer in one language result in totally different answers when asked in another language, just because of translation differences.