Isn’t it sad how much the world we live in produces this never-ending epidemic of depression? Check out these statistics:

That’s a lot of depressed people, isn’t it? It’s sad even thinking about how many people are perpetually down. But the problem lies in the fact that the cultural implications of how we should be living our lives is depressing.

We have culturally and socially ingrained this idea into everyone’s head to become a cog in a machine. To go to school our whole lives, and work for someone to become valuable members of a contributing society. We are not taught to follow our hearts, chase after our dreams, and find deeper meaning and purpose. Our lives are robotically visioned and passionless.

Our society is so driven towards success and consumerism to uphold status that our very identities are measured by competitive demands. This is so exhausting to constantly compare ourselves to other people. Our path to happiness has become so lost that we are emotionally and psychologically imbalanced. Our self-esteem is not even measured on our abilities to love ourselves or our decisions to spend our lives doing what makes us happy, but instead, based on seeking the very things that we think will bring us achievement; in that, we become disenchanted and misdirected.

We’ve lost what it means to have a life well spent. We’ve become marginalized by constantly trying to fit the norm that society has molded for us but along the way of trying to fit in, we lost our own voices, causing our lives to become devoid of true purpose. And this is where depression settles in. It is the ultimate warning sign that we are not on the right path.

When we depress ourselves of the things we truly love, of the things we were meant to do, and of loving relationships with people we actually care about, we are dehumanized and become another cog in the American workforce machine… and this is exactly what society has tricked us into.

We are convinced to travel on the path of an unmerciful routine fostered by society itself. We become strangers in our own lives and think we cannot undo the trauma we’ve inflicted upon ourselves. Then we are diagnosed with depression for profit, crushing our human spirit, which is never actually resolved but just temporarily subdued.

So what are some simple steps to getting on the path of creating happier lives?

1. Live your life instead of watching it happen without you on social media.
2. Don’t compare yourself to others because you will never be that person. Just be the best version of YOU.
3. Cultivating meaningful relationships with others is always more important than any job you will ever have. People are not depressed if they feel loved by everyone around them and reciprocate the love in return.  It gives them a sense of purpose, no matter what career they have.

So don’t follow the crowd. Break some rules. Do what you love because that is the only way you will be happy. Stop comparing yourselves to others through the falsities of social media. Love and be loved. And most importantly, be YOU. Your emotions will continue to be buried in a rut if your true character is suppressed by the tugs of society.