Bountiful Blessings

The great depression was a time of economic and social devastation that began in the United States with the Wall Street stock exchange collapse on the 29th October 1929, a day which came to be known as Black Tuesday.

The great depression facts, record that the poorest and most difficult times which were to follow, might last for lots of years, till the beginning of World War II, when a lot of countries began pouring huge sums of money in the new war driven economy, finally bringing unprecedented worldwide slump to an end.

What must be remembered certainly is that in the days, there’s no social support. When you’re penniless and hungry, there’s nowhere or no-one to turn to. It’s in such circumstances as these that one of the most shocking depression statistics emerged that 50% of all kids didn’t have enough food, clothing, shelter or medical care.

For most people, too poor to put food on the table, the only recourse was the soup kitchen, where people queued all day long for a bowl on meager, thin, watery soup. People were reduced to scavenging amongst the rubbish bins for something, anything to eat.

Industry ground to a halt, virtually. Because people didn’t have any money, they couldn’t afford to buy anything. With no income coming in from sales, businesses were forced to lay workers off, and eventually, to put themselves into liquidation.

It’s African-Americans that were always first to lose their livelihoods. For those who have had the chance to stay in work, wages have been dreadfully low. Depression pictures show that the standard wage of a farm worker was $ 216 per year, while a doctor earned $ 3822.29.

At the beginning of the great depression, the President was Herbert Hoover and as it can currently be imagined, he wasn’t a popular man that being considered by many for doing too little and not managing to avoid the crisis.

The name of Hoover was taken and used for some results at the time, as settlements or shanty towns that sprang everywhere called “Hoovervilles, or the soup ” cocktail ” that starving people might make when they went to a restaurant, diverted the waitresses attention, made a soup of all that was left on the table top (tomato sauce, water, pepper, salt) and drink it, whilst her attention was still unfocused, a creation that has come to be well-known as “Hoover Soup.” A pathetic but true fact of great depression.

Someone once said that Depression Statistics are depressing, and in truth the statistics showing how many Americans are depressed are staggering. For instance, The National Institute of Mental Health, referred to as NIMH, has said that depression strikes approximately 17 million adults each year in America.

Unfortunately, this is much more than cancer, coronary heart disease and, even more than AIDS! Moreover, they indicate that in their estimates, 15 percent of cases of chronic depression may end in suicide. Women are said to be twice as possible as men to be chronically depressed. And 90% of suicides had a diagnosis of mental illness and it’s generally a depressive disorder.

Other depression statistics show that nearly 80-90% of all cases can be treated successfully and effectively. The information is supported by the American Psychiatric Association or called APA.

The National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association has stated that an estimated $43 billion a year is lost to depression. Mostly this is attributed to medical costs, lost productivity and of course absenteeism from the work force. Also, 80-90% of people who have a serious mental illness are unemployed.

You may want to know what is depression. There are three different types of depression, bipolar or manic depression, major depression and finally dysthymia. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has stated that major depression may affect as many as 15% of Americans at some point during their lives.

Major depression is said to come in the episodes, while dysthymia doesn’t come in the episodes at all, but rather is persistent through many years. According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Depression Statistics indicate nearly 10 million American people who may have dysthymia every year.

Manic-depression or Bipolar is much less common, as it’s reported in the statistics of depression that only about 6 million or 3% of American people are affected by this type of depression in a given year.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reported that having a serious medical disease may cause depression as well. For example, persons who have had a heart attack, they’ll have 40% chance of feeling depressed.

Really terrifying on the subject of depression statistics is the great depression facts that nearly 80% of those who are now experiencing depression symptoms aren’t getting treatment. And 4% of adolescents may develop severe depression and really unfortunate is the truth that suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 24 years. It’s also expected that depression is going to be the world’s 2nd most universal health problem by the year 2020.