system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I believe that a considerable percentage of Americans are misdiagnosed with mental health disorders due to a growing incentive for medicine to profit. CMV

This view has two aspects that I think need to be considered. 

1. I think that the pharmaceutical industry and doctors both profit immensely from the growing trend of depression awareness. I believe that many doctors give out anti-anxiety, anti-depressants, and ADHD medicine too freely when these issues are normal parts of growing up and do not require medication in all but the most extreme cases. 

2. I think that most people who are depressed are depressed because they have been thinking negatively for a long time, thus changing their brain chemistry. I think that a new outlook on life combined with a better and more fulfilling life may lead to a healthier mental state. 

3. I think too many people think they are depressed for societal reasons and personal reason, and that they are not truly depressed in a clinical manner (requiring medication). I think that living an unexciting life full of only netflix, video games, work, alcohol, and television (be honest, this is most of all young people's existence between the ages 13-22) and work/school really isn't that fulfilling on a personal level unless you have some professional success or personal success. I think being out of shape and having no personal goals (many young people end up working a job they honestly don't care all that much for unless they go to college) beyond having fun this weekend is a new cultural norm that basically equals having a shitty life, despite comfort. I think that people raised in the late 80s and 90s (and now the 2000s) are told that they are good enough throughout childhood, and then are abruptly left hanging in their teens, a time of hormonal changes. 


Basically, I think depression is more rare than what the internet and teenagers think. I think most people need to say, "I am not depressed; I'm just unhappy". Contrary to the "think positive! snap out of it!" unhelpful BS, people need to accept the fact that life sucks unless you make it not suck (if you can, this is where hard work and money can aid). I think that people are likely to say, "I am depressed" because it allows them (subconsciously, no one would choose to be depressed) in a way to excuse their directionless. Instead of saying, " I am feeling directionless because i am depressed", I believe people should say, "This directionless is kind of depressing"

TL;DR   society isn't depressed, they are comfortable but unfulfilled on a personal level. I think psychiatrists/psychologists can only diagnose based on symptoms and that feeling sad for a long time might only mean that you've been unhappy with your circumstances.
gpt
I've worked as a therapist, and yes, I've definitely seen cases of misdiagnosis (for a number of things, not just depression), and there's no question that some psychiatrists are too quick to push medication on clients (not always out of greed: it's kind of a "if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" thing).

However, your conception of what "depression" is in a clinical sense is wrong.

It's not just feeling "sad" or "unfulfilled."  It's not even feeling those things for "a long time."  People can get depressed for months after a family member dies without being diagnosed with "depression."

You can look up what the actual parameters of the diagnosis itself is from the DSM-V, but I'll try to use an analogy that I've heard that works pretty well:

The symptoms can vary somewhat from person to person, but depression is just as much about limited capacity for happiness as it is a deeper capacity for sadness.  Imagine your range of emotion as a gallon jug for water, and sometimes it's very full, and you're bursting with joy and energy, and other times it's nearly empty, and you feel like doing nothing but crawling into bed and pulling up the covers.

When someone suffers from clinical depression, instead of a jug of water, they have a simple 20 ounce water bottle.  And while the container is *smaller,* the amount of water you need to reach emotions *doesn't change.*  They can be hanging out with friends doing something that they'd normally enjoy, and still feel "normal," because their capacity is reached.  You know when you see something slightly amusing online, and you just smile a bit, or breath out through your nose in amusement? Imagine that was 99% of your capacity to laugh.  Depressed people can still occasionally be amused, but the emotion is often mild and fleeting.  They can laugh from time to time, but without utterly losing themselves in that moment of carefree joy the vast majority of us experience when we do so.

This is just one aspect of depression, but it should serve to describe a bit better why your perception, which is indeed the common one, is a bit off.  People who are truly clinically depressed are not "comfortable but unfulfilled."  Anyone who's unemployed but being supported by family/friends could be described as "comfortable but unfulfilled," but most psychiatrists would not call them depressed simply because they have no motivation or feel "directionless," even if those things result in a low self-esteem.