Depression is not just a personal or medical issue but a societal crisis fueled by capitalism.

Depression has emerged as one of the most pressing health challenges of our time. Unlike physical illnesses such as hypertension or diabetes—conditions that lend themselves to clinical diagnosis and treatment—depression defies neat categorization and easy solutions. The tendency to treat it purely as a personal or individual problem obscures the complex social and economic forces that often underpin it. While therapy and medication remain crucial, viewing depression solely through a biomedical lens risks ignoring the broader societal context in which it festers.

Depression, far from being a strictly individual affliction, is entangled in a web of social, economic, and psychological variables that collectively intensify its grip. Narrow definitions and clinical diagnoses, while helpful, can mislead policymakers and the public into thinking of depression as an isolated medical condition, rather than a systemic societal issue—thus limiting any serious effort to address it.

Before examining the external forces that contribute to depression, it’s essential to acknowledge the limits of medicine. Modern interventions—antidepressants, hormone therapies, and cognitive behavioral therapy—have had meaningful success. But they often fall short of offering a complete solution. After all, the human mind is shaped by experience, culture, class, environment, and memory. Sadness and depression are not interchangeable. Sadness is transient, a response to a particular loss or setback. Depression is persistent and corrosive—a state of enduring emotional stasis that impairs thought, diminishes potential, and hinders one’s capacity for joy or self-worth. Medicine alone cannot unlock the deeper roots of that despair.

To understand depression fully, one must look beyond the individual and confront the architecture of modern life. The neoliberal economic model—grounded in hyper-individualism, market fundamentalism, and relentless competition—has created an environment where social bonds erode and consumption supplants community. This ideology privileges accumulation over empathy, status over solidarity, and success over meaning. In this world, people are evaluated not by who they are, but by how well they perform according to the metrics of capitalism. Identity becomes tethered to productivity and purchasing power. The result is a quiet epidemic of alienation, as individuals chase after unattainable ideals and find themselves increasingly isolated when they fall short. The very system that promises fulfillment delivers disillusionment.

In moments of despair, people naturally seek refuge. In societies where mental health remains stigmatized—particularly in the developing world—many avoid seeking help from family or medical professionals and instead turn inward, or toward religion and spirituality. Faith, for many, offers structure, comfort, and a sense of belonging. But it is not always a balm. Spiritualism can create the illusion of control or transcendence, yet often fails to grapple with the structural conditions that produce despair in the first place. Worse, religion can be co-opted into more dangerous forms of radicalization. History offers grim lessons: disillusioned individuals can be lured into movements of hate or violence. The emotional wreckage of depression becomes fertile ground for demagogues and fanatics. What begins as a personal crisis can metastasize into political extremism.

Depression’s invisibility makes it especially vulnerable to pseudoscientific solutions. Astrology, numerology, and other non-empirical belief systems often promise clarity and comfort. These practices may provide temporary relief for someone desperate to make sense of inner turmoil, but they rarely address the underlying causes. Worse, they divert attention from the systemic roots of the problem, offering a placebo instead of a policy. When mental suffering is interpreted solely through superstition or pseudoscience, individuals are prevented from pursuing more substantive, evidence-based support.

Contrary to popular belief, wealth does not inoculate one against depression. The affliction cuts across class lines. In fact, the pressure to maintain wealth and status within the same neoliberal framework can exacerbate mental distress. The elite may be surrounded by abundance, but they are often ensnared by the same values—competition, individualism, and performance—that destabilize the less affluent. The social fabric, from education and family to personal beliefs and relationships, has been reshaped to reinforce a system that alienates everyone, albeit in different ways. A culture of mistrust, isolation, and self-doubt permeates even the most privileged circles.

To combat depression, we must resist the temptation to treat it solely as a personal affliction or medical condition. It requires a holistic, multi-pronged strategy that recognizes the individual’s interplay with their economic, cultural, social, and political realities. Governments must do more than increase funding for mental health services; they must adopt policies that dismantle the invisible cages of inequality, insecurity, and isolation. Only then can we hope to address depression not as an epidemic of the individual, but as a symptom of a society in distress.