Dear Friends,
It seems to me that depression is in large part a physiologic /psychological symptom of emotional distress. Mostly in the form of frustration.
I have read that depression is related to suppressed anger or anger turned inward. I agree to a point but I think this definition falls short. I would follow the causal chain from frustration to anger. (Which fosters anger and is therefore before anger in the causal line). Anger being the result of frustration.
I was shopping the other day and I heard a mother chastise her, 15 year old or so son, loudly in public. He was mortified at the public humiliation. In anger he slammed a freezer door shut. Which brought an immediate rebuke from his mother. I could see the frustration on his face and in his every move. He had all he could do to contain himself. But had no outlet for his frustration.
It is impossible to squeeze a balloon with your hands. Try it. It is impossible. There will always be a bulge that will appear between your fingers. Sometimes appearing where you least expect it. No matter how you try there will always be a point at which the balloon’s air forms a bulge instead of being compressed. It is impossible to form perfect containment so that the fabric of the balloon will give…
The kid in the store was compressing his ego balloon. No matter how strong the fabric of his balloon it must at some point give. Where the bulge will manifest itself no one knows. It may manifest itself as depression, acting out, drugs, etc… there are no end to the negative ways that held in frustration can reveal itself.
Sports and physical exercise are positive ways to vent frustration. They also foster team building in youth. Unfortunately athletics is such that only some percentage of youths shine at them. Video games are a new phenomenon and can help alleviate frustration. They also help with hand eye coordination as well as practicing the ability to wholly focus on one task. But there are some youths that find games to be a waste of time.
There is one way that is rarely used in our society today… Hard work with a reward. There is not one youth that cannot work hard at something. Hard work is a great vent for frustration. It also fosters a strong work ethic. The most important part of the fix however is the reward.
There must be an obvious, valuable reward that is scaled and tied to performance. That will be the carrot that entices youths to work hard. Lets face it, no one is born wanting to work hard, it is an acquired taste. If we teach our youths to work hard for a suitable reward we will soon have adults that work hard and expect a proper reward for their labors. Every economist sees the truth in a productive workforce raising the standard of living in a society. A strong work ethic in a society makes a productive workforce possible.
Government is in a special position to destroy the work ethic of our youth. Every time government tries to foster something governments action rots it from the inside. Government cannot be efficient (pragmatic) or set incentives. The incentives, with all government programs, are to play the system. Youths are not ignorant of this fact. Only liberals are.
A youth that gets a government fostered job will do as little as he or she can (playing the system). Government is nothing but red tape (making the system easy to play). Dots that need to be dotted and t‘s that need to be crossed, forms in triplicate, a signature from the highest level, all to provide a box on a check board for someone to check. If the system is shown to be flawed… Government being government will simply hire another person with another check board to check off that the person in front of him checked his board. (Because government, in it’s arrogance and hubris, cannot understand that a system it set up can be fatally flawed).
Regardless of how frustration is handled it must be handled. Else the problems we as a society have with violent crime will continue. Violent crime that could have been stemmed and reworked into a strong work ethic if the right measures had been taken at the right time. Measures that would not only help society but more to the point… the person.
