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Sounds awesome, right? What is the secret? Swedish society and physiology is not all that different from the USA after all. How do they manage it?
Maybe Swedish society is a bit less stressful? After all, there's parental leave and vacations on a whole other order of magnitude than in the USA, and there is heavily subsidized medical care and no crime-ridden megacities. Life is just better, and Swedes compete with the Danes on being the happiest people on the planet.
Swedes kill themselves 20% more than US Americans.
I dont know the facts here so i cant say for sure. But if you can show that there is more stigma (perhaps by showing a low prevalence of seeking help when you need it) then I'd say its a fairly rational argument. I dont doubt this is the case, just haven't confirmed it.
Ok so read the article.. Here is my take.
1) In this case I'd imagine that the article is likely somewhat accurate just because it sounds plausible.
2) the article on cites a single reliable source, and that link didn't work. so I cant confirm the data myself. Though again If i had to guess i wouldn't be surprised if the article is still true.
3) vice is certainly as discredited a source as the other one presented earlier. They are known to have a fairly extreme left leaning political agenda. Objectivity is not their goal, promoting a left-agenda is. I am not saying the left is bad or anything, only that this is no more an objective source than the other links.
So in short, I dont disagree with your general argument, though still lack the data to confirm. But the link itself is not a credible source to make your case regardless.
@freemo Anecdotal evidence incoming: the Swedish mental health system isn't exactly very good. No idea about depression, as I only had to work with a different kind of neuropathology, but getting doctors to read non-outdated manuals was a bit of a challenge. There's some good research happening at the forefront of it, but the state of the clinics is a peculiar one. Also, the climate is conducive to SAD and depression, because much less sunlight than people normally need -> Vitamin D deficiency.
@werekat Doesnt surprise me at all. Any healthcare system that is based on extremist ideologies like 100% pure free market or single-payer universal healthcare is bound to be shitty. We see it in the USA, England, and apparently Sweden. I can say as a Dutch person it is also true of the Dutch system.
Sadly people are just really shitty at come up with good systems that dont behave at one end of an extreme or another.
I know that antidepressants are about the most sold "medicine" in pharmacies, and this I know as I have asked several pharmacies face to face about that. This may vary, as my questioning was few, few pharmacies in certain area of the world, cannot be generalized for all the world.
However -- antidepressants are marketed, well marketed and well solved.
Higher purchasing of antidepressants or lower purchase volume, indicate only tha something is wrong or good with the marketing for them.
But in itself, antidepressant will never solve any underlying human problem.
As if one feels depression for being a victim in such situation where one is not being able to do anything -- just as example of a human condition -- no drugs, and no chemical stuff injected into body is to give the idea to the person on "what can be done about it".
Such exemplary problem could be solved by simply -- brainstorming. Speaking to somebody or speaking to several persons to find possible solution on how to escape the situation where one may feel a victim, or feel not be able to do anything, somebody else will have better opinion and may give incentives to the person.
Giving them drugs is not solving any human problem.
Finally, those drugs are sold on unproven grounds, an many are FDA labeled in the USA as causing depression, causing psychotic feelings, suicidal thoughts, and can create true killers.
www.vice.com/sv/article/jm9g38โฆ