Watters Explanatory Model

The term “depression” was derived from a Latin verb deprimere, "to press down." Dated as far back to the 14th century, the term "to depress" meant to bring down in spirits or to conquer (AllDisease.org, 2011). Even though melancholia continued to be the leading diagnostic expression, depression increased its frequency (its usage of name) in the medical field and was a synonym by the end of its century. The DSM-I (1952) (as cited in Girdlera & Klatzkinb, 2007) refers to depressive reaction and the DSM-II (1968) (as cited in Girdlera & Klatzkinb, 2007) depressive neurosis, as words that define an extreme reaction to an identifiable conflict or an internal circumstance (DSM, 2000).

By making depression seem ambiguous and less severe than it really is, the general population became more inclined to use the antidepressants. By depicting depression as kokoro no kaze, “it implied that [depression] was not the severe condition it was once thought to be and therefore should carry no social stigma…[and] suggested that the choice of taking a medication for depression should be as simple and worry-free as buying a cough syrup or an antihistamine” (Watters 524). The last message portrayed to the general public is the phrase “depression [is] ubiquitous” (Watters 525). By using the analogy to connect the common cold to depression, GlaxoSmithKline downplayed the severity of the mental illness and as a result, made the general population more open to acknowledging the possibility of having a mental illness and thus making depression a social and societal norm. “Depression was so broadly defined by the marketers that it clearly encompassed classic emotions and behaviors formerly attributed to the melancholic personality type” (Watters 525). Depression became “intentionally ambiguous and ill-defined, applicable to the widest possible population and to the widest possible range of discomforts…. The only feature that distinguishes depression as a ‘disease’ from an ordinary depressed mood seems to be the length of time…” (Watters

Whether we are becoming a more depressed population or simply changing the standards by which we diagnose is an area of some controversy. What is certain is that the medical system is now processing and treating—with ever-changing cocktails of psychotherapy, support groups, and pharmaceuticals—20% more Americans every year than the year before. Depression—together with its aftermath—is a staggering epidemic sweeping the country, ravaging countless lives in its

However, with changes in society it has come to describe those who suffer from pervasive lowering of mood preventing them from living a normal life. Conditions range from person to person. It may vary from mild, brief occasional dips in a person's mood to a severe lifelong persistence in extensive depressive episodes characterizing a person with intense feelings of self-worthlessness. Overall depression is a very common mental health disorder, however it is still highly misunderstood. This disorder is seen to be “one of the greatest, if not the greatest disease burden of the twenty first century”. (Mulholland.1) As this disorder brings distress to millions of households across the nation, it is frequently misdiagnosed or simply not seen as an issue of concern at all. Leading to “a great deal of suffering and a substantial number of deaths”. (Mulholland.1) Alas, the condition sadly evokes a lot of stigma. The lack of personal experience and knowledge residing with most people causes feelings of superiority in those who the condition does not affect. This causes tears in the social fabric and worsens things for those that do have

The typical description of a disease would be something that causes unwanted effects on the body; however, mental illnesses show few physical symptoms and cause problems that outsiders can rarely see. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), to be specific, is a complex disorder that occurs when a person has five of the following symptoms: a depressed mood, diminished pleasure, weight loss or gain, insomnia, lethargy, problems with concentrating, fatigue, feeling worthless, or having thoughts of suicide (Myers 3). While MDD is chronic, depression is the infrequent counterpart. The official etiology of depression is important because it is widespread and is becoming increasingly more common. Knowing why an illness occurs, in theory, can help physicians

Watters shows that not only symptoms are different, but also how people search for the source of the differences is important as well. Without the different interpretations of both illness and health, it would lose its complexity, and the social meaning behind it is a risk. So although differences makes it harder to fully understand the terms, at the same time, it may be beneficial and can aid us into finding what it actually means. Obviously, health would mean being fit, and illness would mean being sick, but there are certain countries where they think this comparison does make sense. In this case, it seems as if health may have a negative connotation. It is strange how we use the word “health,” such as looking for mental health professional, or getting “health insurance.” It is as if we use health to describe the illness, even if health generally has words associated with words such as good, fit, etc. It is peculiar how “health insurance” will only benefit you if you are ill, not when you are healthy. Because health and illness have known to be direct opposites for many years, many people do not think as much that health and illness can be similar, rather than being different.The meaning of both health and illness is described in many ways in the marketing world. This shows that marketing uses the meaning of illness or health and shape it in a way they believe is the right definition. Marketers make diseases sound so severe and make customers believe the only way to cure it is by buying their product. This idea however, is obviously not 100% a scientific fact. GlaxoSmithKline tries to put Paxil into the Japanese market, the founder of the Mood Disorders Association of Japan. However, this is an exaggeration, which many marketers tend to do in order to sell their product. This makes it easier to sell what they want to sell, as they have the broad definition of

The medical community of the 1950s and 60’s accepted a classification that divided depression into sub-types based on supposed causes of the disorder. This was influenced by the hundreds of years of back and forth debate as to whether depression was best thought of as a mental or physical problem, and by the increasing knowledge of the brain and brain chemistry. Depression that came from within the body and was caused by genetics or some other physical problem was dubbed as “Endogenous” Depression. People with endogenous depression were supposedly to view themselves as the source of their own suffering and to think that everything was their fault. Their emotional pain was thought to be unaffected by the attitudes or responses of the people

It has been normalized in societies to the point that if someone does not have depression, that person is the one considered weird. Now, people are self-diagnosing themselves with depression moreover, any other mental health problems, and have included the word depression in their vocabulary using the term very loosely. While some may think it is acceptable to say “I am so depressed” or “I have depression” over trivial matters, in reality is can be very offensive towards people who are actually diagnosed with depression. On her personal blog, Rebecca Chamaa addresses this issue saying, “The word depression has become so overused by people that I can no longer tell when someone is referring to the mental illness, or is having a bad day” (It Is

17.5 million Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression every year. It 's not "just the blues" or some "made-up disease" that many people can just get rid of. It affects your moods, thoughts, body, and behavior. Researchers believe depression is caused by the two naturally occurring chemical imbalance of serotonin and norepinephrine. These chemicals are located in the brain and body. Serotonin and norepinephrine are thought to be associated with mood. There are four types of depression. Those are mild depression, major depression, situational depression, and seasonal affective depression also known as the "winter blues." It is thought that by the year 2020 depression will be the second largest killer after heart disease, and studies show that it is a contributing factor to coronary disease. People who have depression experience some of these signs: sadness all day and feeling that way every day; Loss of interests or enjoyment in your favorite activities; Feeling emptiness or hopelessness; Fatigue; Sleeping to much; Change in appetite. Many doctors today are prescribing thousands of prescriptions in the battle to fight depression. I believe they need to look at other alternatives to fighting depression first before they so easily reach for that pen and prescription pad. Some of the drugs used to treat depression are Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and Cymbalta. Many of these drugs have serious side effects and have been linked to suicide, violence, psychosis, abnormal

Sometimes companies try to change culturally believes in order to be able to place their product in the market. Pharmaceuticals benefit from the way society sees certain diseases. In “Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” Ethan Watters presents the difference between depression in Japanese culture and depression in American culture. He explores how some of the big pharmaceutical companies try to bring their products for depression into the Japanese market, but to do that they have to change the way people see depression in Japan. Watters divided his essay into different categories which are: “The Culture of Sadness”, “Junk Science and First World Medicine”, “Mega-Marketing of Depression” and “Speeding the Evolution”. In “The Culture of Sadness” he explains how different cultures express the way they feel in different ways. There is not a specific word on The Japanese language that means exactly the same as depression in English, which means that there is not the same context for the experiences of the disease. In the rest of the sections of his essay, Watters presents how certain pharmaceutical companies started to advertise depression in Japan by manipulating the researchers and media about depression and the Western solutions to it. Cultural beliefs about disease usually have a lot to do with the way people describe who they feel and what symptoms they have, but economic reasons push people to try to manipulate them; the result of these is that the cultural, scientific

Also, there are many types of disorders to be picked from. Depression is one of the most major and easily identifiable, though people tend to hide it away. Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. To trace it back in history, the first signs of it emerged around the 5th century B.C. and was originally called melancholia. At the time, it was considered to be a form of demonic possession only to be cured by noble priests. The first understandings were that it was a spiritual problem rather than a physical one. Literature of the time was filled with references to mental illness caused by spirits or demons. The early Babylonian, Chinese, and Egyptian civilizations also viewed mental illness as a form of demonic possession, and used exorcism techniques (such as beatings, restraint, and starvation) designed to drive demons out of the afflicted person's body as treatments. In one of hippocrates works, he recommended diet, exercise, distraction, travel, purgatives (cleansers that purge the body of toxins), bloodletting, herbal remedies, marriage, and even music therapy as

The effect of the Hippocrates faded and the way people viewed mental illnesses like depression were caused by demons and furious gods. Treatments involved hydrotherapy (baths) and behavior therapy. Later on in the years, scientific thinking about depression went backwards. During the Middle Ages most people thought that depression was caused the devil, demons, or witches. They also thought it was contagious. They treatments included cruel strategies such as exorcisms, drowning, and burning. Some people with depression were tied up and locked away in insane asylums. In Rashmi Nemade’s article it is expressed that in 1621, Robert Burton had published “Anatomy of Melancholy” and he explained some of the causes of depression. He expressed that

Depression is a well-known mental health issue impacting a significant share of the Western population. This particular illness has become a contagious phenomenon, eliciting stigmatisation towards anyone displaying depressive behaviour. Thus, the subject is whether individuals are unknowingly, due to their cultural milieu, confusing and labelling normal notions of sadness with depression. This particular ideology can be concluded through examining the effect of the placebo in juxtaposition to anti-depressants. Results from various studies have displayed how those who rate low on depressive scales, tend to benefit from placebo antidepressant drugs. The priority focus is on female adults (20-45 years) within the western demography, considering they have the highest rates of depression, not only in the Western hemisphere, but globally as well; thus global comparisons amongst women will be necessary. It is important to note, that for the purpose of this analysis the West will constitute as developed countries (mainly the US, Australia and the UK). More so, there have been trends in discussion of genetic depression, yet that will also be disintegrated and exemplified on how easy it has become for women to self-diagnose themselves. Thus, the essay contends to argue that those who are affected by the placebo may be unknowingly and wrongfully self-diagnosed/been labelled depressed when they are indeed simply experiencing normal reactions of sadness.

Depression is considered to be the "common cold of psychological disorders." This is because depression is the most common mood disorder. In fact, depression is becoming more and more widespread and the incidences of depressive disorders are increasing rapidly.

The term depression is widely misused in today’s society. All human beings experience periods in life where they are sad for a relatively short period of time, which is considered normal. Those who experience sadness for extended periods may be suffering from depression. Two terms used to reference the classifications of depression, are Major Depressive Disorder, and Dysthymia. Individual diagnosis of these classifications is dependent on the length of time, and severity of symptoms experienced by the individual. The causes for these depressive states can be due to genetics or the insufficient production of neurotransmitters, which provide the brain with the data necessary to regulate one's psychological well being. Two examples