OPINION —
Having hosted our local community podcast here at The Observer, The Lee County Listener, over the last eight months, I’ve had many fascinating conversations with people doing amazing things in our county. I had the pleasure of sitting down a couple weeks ago with Sean Forbes and Jessi Riel of O Grows, an organization committed to localizing and improving the food systems of Opelika to better meet the particular needs of the community.
We got to talking about an unsettling but undeniable fact: Contemporary America is the loneliest culture to ever exist.
Consider the data: Surveys conducted in 2019 showed that 58% of Americans often felt like no one in their life knew them well. In 2021, 49% reported having fewer than three close friends, nearly double the number reporting the same in 1990 (27%). In 1990, 33% reported having 10 or more close friends, compared to just 13% today. A tragic 12% reported having zero friends in 2021, four times as many as 30 years ago.
If these numbers alarm you, good. It’s time we all feel the gravity of the crisis so we can step up and seize responsibility for the wellbeing of our neighbors, our communities, our friends, our families and ourselves.
People have been sustained for thousands of years by communities profoundly more connected than ours. It’s true that it takes a village to raise a child, but it too often goes unsaid that it also takes a village to sustain an adult. A life devoid of friendship and a deep sense of communion with other human beings is no life at all.
We’re not wired evolutionarily to survive under the present conditions. Is it any wonder the incidences of depression and anxiety continue to rise at shocking rates each year?
No. It really isn’t. And that’s the problem. Our nation and our world are descending deeper by the minute into a historically unprecedented state of isolation and loneliness. And some doctors have likened the negative health effects of chronic loneliness to smoking about 15 cigarettes a day.
Yet we continue to treat this pandemic of unhappiness with the medicinal methods proven for decades by the best scientific evidence to fail miserably. While it’s true that some cases of depression and anxiety can be related to underlying chemical factors, many are not and most have far more to do with social, environmental and emotional causes.
That’s why Dr. Dainius Pural, one of the United Nations’ leading doctors, said in a 2017 statement that we need to start talking less about chemical imbalances and more about imbalances in the way we live. In how we address the depression and anxiety currently spreading like wildfire through our population, we have all but abandoned the Biopsychosocial model of mental health.
First conceptualized by George Engel in 1977, the Biopsychosocial model suggests that biological factors alone are insufficient for understanding a person’s mental health, and that psychological and social factors also play a major role. This should be obvious to us, yet depression is routinely understood — and therefore treated — from an almost exclusively chemical perspective.
If you or someone you love struggles with depression or anxiety, medicine might help. Or it might not. But let’s get one thing straight: Humanity’s known the most effective treatments for what the modern world calls depression for centuries.
What are these not-so-secret cures? Exercise, healthy eating, sleep, sunshine, fresh air, fun, laughter, meaningful work, a sense of belonging, the chance to contribute to the lives of others and loving, supportive relationships with the people around us.
Journalist Johann Hari said, “Depression is not a malfunction. It’s a signal. … It’s telling you something.” The message? It’s time for a change. It’s time we rethink our values and priorities as a society in a way that might lay the groundwork for happier, healthier lives.
And remember that the relationships that sustain us have as much to do with quality as quantity. As Carl Jung put it, “Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you.”
So consider this column a call to action: Get out there and get involved — our community needs you. Follow the example that O Grows sets every day. Or better yet, get involved with the work it and the other amazing local organizations around here are doing.
Visit the O Grows Farmer’s Market this Tuesday afternoon and be among people, soak in some sunlight and pick up some food that isn’t so processed it would survive a nuclear apocalypse, but was instead grown right here in your hometown by a real person who worked hard on it to provide for all of us and for their family.
And get plugged in with the community garden. As Jessi Riel told us on the Listener, “It’s an empowering thing to eat food you grew yourself.” And it’s a nourishing thing to join a group of people building something together, getting to know each other and having fun while they’re at it.
O Grows got started because Sean Forbes wanted to spend time with his child. It began as a school community garden/great excuse for Forbes to hang out with his son and teach children about sustainability.
That’s the key to all of this: If you want to make Lee County a better place, get selfish in the best way possible and seek out the social bonds we all need. Start creating those spaces for yourself, those you love and those you haven’t met yet, so we can all discover together through real, lived experience that happiness and wellbeing can be cultivated too.
Sam DiChiara is the operations manager at MAK Media Team and a host of The Lee County Listener. He has a master’s degree in English creative writing from Auburn University. He writes about philosophy, politics, ethics and technology. You can reach him at sdichiara13@gmail.com.
To tune in to The Lee County Listener, visit www.open.spotify.com/show/4RlE6LEhHOEOKCndYHrZd8.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
This column is not intended to be medical advice. If you or a loved one is experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety, seek medical attention from a trusted medical provider.
Call 988 if you are experiencing thoughts of suicide.