On depression, loneliness, judgment and trust

We increasingly live in a world of political correctness. It all starts with judging other people: your colleagues, subordinates and bosses, friends and sometimes even your own relatives. When one starts judging other people then he/she becomes fearful of others being judgmental on him/her too, and starts treading extremely cautiously everywhere. Trust and Faith in other humans is getting lost at both individual and family/group/community level.

The world is no longer the ideal of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam (वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम) that it once was. And as the world shifts away from that ideal, the curse of depression starts making an entry.

In circa early 1990s started the era of nuclear families in India. These days, it has gotten much worse, its the era of loneliness and depression. People are more and more trying to live in their own eco-chambers instead of having a dialogue with others. Few renowned people including a famous actor committed suicide recently, these are just symptoms of something deeply wrong within the human psyche.

If only we could start loving and appreciating all the other human beings despite all their faults, if only we could start having a more positive outlook towards life, if only we could start seeing good in everyone, then life would be so nice, isn't it?

But that's easier said than done. Firstly, we need to start believing that the world is a very good place consisting of kind and lovable individuals. But this may not be true at all, the world could be a very terrible place for all we know! But even so, having faith in the good can actually start bringing us good from everywhere just like those placebo pills!

But again, easier said than done. When one faces hardship after hardship in life, seeing good in others is a next to impossible thing to do, falling in depression is much much easier. Falling into depression becomes thousand times easier if one also faces the curse of loneliness during such crisis. That's the most vulnerable time when you need a buddy or friend to share your misery, listen to your tale, give you a hug. Wish each one of us manages to have that buddy during the depressive times. But clearly, that isn't the case considering the increasing number of suicide cases.

The judgement and trust problems mentioned earlier spread like a virus like most other human emotions. And just like COVID-19, the viral load effect is also there - one or two happy individuals cannot hold their happiness against a herd of depressive ones, they often get drowned in the latter's depression!

Unlike the COVID, the depression problem has already spread its way across the length and breadth of this country, it is too entrenched and too chronic now. Reversing it is almost like reversing the wheel of dharma itself. Nothing short of a revolution is needed, and the revolution itself can span several years, decades or even centuries depending on how humans behave and cooperative going forward.