Lost Connections

Like many who will consider reading this book I have suffered from bouts of extreme clinical depression for a long time, despite a life that has been, by any standard measure, filled with success, recognition, and good fortune. And I know, like most who suffer from depression do, that 1. the pain is very real, and 2. career recognition, material success, and a comfortable life have little to do with the ultimate quality of life. Three decades ago I was finally forced to seek help. And I mean forced. I was that guy in the corner office of a large organization, I owned an impressive amount of stuff, traveled the world, and split my holidays between Aspen and the Caribbean. And I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. There was no reason to. And if I hadn’t addressed it, I’d probably still be there. I, too, was treated with SSRIs and they worked remarkably well. And I could not have cared less if that was a function of the placebo effect or the drugs were addressing some chemical imbalance in my brain. I still don’t, to be honest. I do, however, care about continuous improvement in my overall health and well-being. View the beautiful valley before you from atop the mountain and you’ll seek a more magnificent mountain. I have little fear of falling back to where I was because I ultimately went through extensive psychotherapy with a brilliant and insightful doctor and he taught me how to fish, or climb, as it were. Johann Hari has provided a delightful refresher course, although that understates the contribution of this book. He has also reframed the discussion in a way that only a fellow traveler and gifted writer could. He has made both the problems and the solutions very accessible and in so doing has broadened both the audience and the quality of the dialogue. Which is why, I think, this is a book not for the depressed and anxious, but for all of humanity. Depression is often defined as a very specific manifestation of issues each and every one of us faces at some time in our lives. That doesn’t mean that different manifestations are any less painful or debilitating. Addiction is just one example. Are you drinking too much because you’re addicted or depressed? It doesn’t matter. That’s not to suggest that the source of all pain is universal. That, I think, would be naïve. We are quite literally defined by our experiences and once you’ve been around for a couple of decades or more you are experientially unique. Mark Twain once quipped, “History does not repeat itself but it often rhymes.” And so it is with mental and physical well-being. We’re more alike with each other and with the baboons of the savanna than we are different. I won’t give away the details of the book because you need to experience the context within which the author unveils the problems and their solutions. Let’s just say that the title is appropriate. It’s all about connections. I have given a great deal of thought, and now have the time to do so, as to how to re-establish the connections that have been lost in our current world. As Johann so clearly established, it is the loss at the heart of our growing collective angst and disillusionment. I have been particularly interested, in light of my executive career, with re-establishing purpose and connection in the workplace. When I began my career we never talked about work/life balance, not because we didn’t work hard or our lives outside of work weren’t important, but because our careers were an integral part of our life. We achieved connection, purpose, identity, and status there, no matter what job title you held. But that is all gone today and I have met few, even in the C-suites of corporate America, who honestly claim to get any real fulfillment from their work. And that is a function of lost connection. That loss, however, has resulted in an even bigger loss - the loss of trust that connection enables. There is no trust in the world most of us live and work in today. And by trust I don’t mean the trust to set a pile of money on the table and leave the room. I mean the trust to know that the people you work with have compassion, humility, and optimism; are competent in what they do; and have some sense of how they and we, as human beings and as a work unit, fit into the world. I read a lot of books. And this is one of the best I’ve read in a long time. Johann never says so, but he is a fellow Pyrrhonist, I suspect. That, by the way, is the ultimate compliment – it’s where trust comes from. You can’t trust a person who hasn’t challenged himself or herself. And he clearly has. This is a book you should read. Perhaps more importantly, this is a book your adolescent children should read. (I feel the same way about psychotherapy, actually. It should be mandatory when you turn sixteen.) Thank you, Johann Hari.

The US suicide rate has risen nearly 30 percent since 1999. The rate in 2017 was the highest it has been in at least 50 years. Why are more Americans suffering from depression? Johan Hari interviewed prominent researchers in the field to find the answer. An award-winning journalist and best selling author, Hari suffered from depression, which ran in his family. He took antidepressants in progressively stronger doses, but inevitably the sadness returned. Hari noticed a tremendous increase in the American use of antidepressants over several decades. Today about one in four middle-aged women in the United States is taking antidepressants. His book explains why are so many more people apparently feeling depressed and severely anxious. Something changed. Hari came to understood that depression is not caused by a defective brain. Instead, anxiety and depression are reactions to how we are living. What are environmental factors causing anxiety? In a word, the cause is disconnection -- from meaningful work, from other people, from meaningful values, from nature, from a secure future. Gallup finds that 87 percent of workers are either not engaged or are actively disengaged from their jobs. Nearly twice as many people hate their jobs as love their jobs. Depression among British civil servants correlates with their rank, with higher ranked bureaucrats suffering less depression than those lower on the totem pole. The degree of control a worker has over his job is the key factor, even among workers with the same ranking. "More people say they feel lonely than ever before," and research shows that loneliness leads to depression. In most cases in one five-year study, loneliness preceded depressive symptoms. Humans evolved in tribes, and being part of a tribe was necessary for survival. "Loneliness isn’t just some inevitable human sadness, like death. It’s a product of the way we live now." Highly social groups such as the Amish and the Hutterites have very low rates of loneliness. In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam of Harvard meticulously documented the sharp decline in community involvement in the US since the 1960s. Putnam also found we do fewer activities with our families, such as eating meals or watching tv together. Americans have been polled for decades about how many close friends they have; at one time the answer was three, but today the most common answer is none. In short, there has been an unprecedented social crash, which prevents us from fulfilling our desire for belonging. Cyberspace connection doesn't fill the void. The inordinate amount of time young people spend on smartphones further reduces the time they spend in face-to-face interaction. "Online connection is a pale imitation of face-to-face connection that we social animals crave. The difference between being online and being physically among people is a bit like the difference between pornography and sex: it addresses a basic itch, but it’s never satisfying. Social media can’t compensate us psychologically for what we have lost—social life." Another cause of depression is the loss of status and respect. Among baboons, the lowest ranking members of the troop have the highest levels of stress hormones, although having an insecure status was the one thing even more distressing than having a low status. In other words, stress is highest when status is low or is threatened. Depressed humans have the same stress hormone found in low-ranking male baboons. Human depression and anxiety are responses to the constant status anxiety many of us live with today. Research by Wilkinson and Picket finds that the more unequal the society, the more prevalent all forms of mental illness are. The higher the inequality, the higher the depression, which strongly suggests that something about inequality seems to be driving up depression and anxiety. This doesn’t affect only people at the bottom; in a highly unequal society, everyone has to think about their status a lot, and whether they are in danger of falling into lower status. What role do genes play in depression? The best research on identical twins reveals that 37 percent of depression is inherited, while for severe anxiety, it is between 30 and 40 percent. "So genes increase your sensitivity, sometimes significantly, but they aren’t—in themselves—the cause. Experts agree that depression caused solely by internal brain malfunction is rare or nonexistent, with the exception of bipolar or manic depressive disorders where genes play a bigger role. If Hari is right that depression is not a brain disease, then pills are not the appropriate treatment for most people. So what is? Hari says treatment would change if doctors called depression disconnection. "If disconnection is the main driver of our depression and anxiety, we need to find ways to reconnect." The Amish have low rates of depression because they have a dense community network that provides a profound sense of belonging and meaning. Alienated workers need to become reconnected to meaningful work. They need to overcome the feelings of being controlled and having no say and little status. An alternative to the corporation is the democratic cooperative, which better engages partner/workers than the hierarchical corporate structure. Partners are happier, less anxious, and less depressed than they had been working in the kind of top-down organizations that dominate our society. People are less anxious where they feel they have some control and input, as opposed to just being given orders. Finally, he would address anxiety related to low income by having government provide a guaranteed basic income. Studies of this policy show recipients have less stress, a reduced sense of financial insecurity, fewer doctor visits for anxiety and depression, and more time with their kids. Lost Connections reads like a series of stories rather than an academic journal. Hari's interviews with researchers and formerly depressed people make the book more interesting and readable. Some of his contentions are debatable, but he certainly persuades readers to rethink what we know about depression. ###

Why not 5 stars ? A bit naive and idealistic and simplistic , but still thought provoking and probably a very good read for people struggling with depression and anxiety . The key to remember is that even a well written book like this based on the interviews of a lot of smart people just scratches the surface of a complex problem that clinical depression / life is.

Wow super interesting So many things that I was able to relate to Would definitely recommend to authentic people who seek meaningful connections but nevertheless experience loneliness today!!

Lost Connection è stata una rivelazione. Sono "scottata" dai libri di auto aiuto e di crescita personale. Il più delle volte sono ridondanti di concetti ripetuti all'infinito. Li trovo vuoti, noiosi da leggere, riassumibili in 10 pagine. Questo libro è un mondo a sé. Analizza i "perché" delle malattie mentali (depressione in primis) del nuovo millennio e lo fa da vicino, vicinissimo, dando voce (e riportando a fine lettura) a colossi del settore e a studi che hanno coinvolto migliaia di partecipanti. Mi ha aperta ad un'infinità di nuove prospettive e, ad oggi, è stato il primo libro in grado di farmi mettere DAVVERO in discussione tutto ciò che facevo per prendermi cura della mia psiche portandomi ad un cambio di rotta decisionale. Non smetterò mai di consigliarlo. 10+!

Very good book.. Just finished reading Kindle edition.. A perspective changing book, A must for those with anxiety and depression; for those who are care givers for people with depression and anxiety; those who want to understand depression and anxiety and for health care professionals in related fields. 5 star rating for content, research, presentation, courage to go against the prevailing thinking in society and bigwigs, courage to accept incorrect stands taken by author (on this topic) in the past. But I recently read criticisms about book and author on Google. I am not in position to evaluate that in depth. So just mentioned this to have a balanced views. But personally I found great insights in this book.

I read this book based on recommendations by my friends and I have to admit I am a bit torn right now writing this review: On one hand, I found this book very inspiring and it helped me quite a lot in understanding myself a bit more and in trying to find solutions for myself. I loved the insights and it really hit a mark. BUT on the other hand, I found this book at parts very cheesy and overly "American"-ized, so to say. The metaphors and examples used are often like getting smacked into your head with a tree trunk. There's no subtlety and the writing is filled, at parts, with overly dramatic accentuations so I as a reader often felt like reading a biased diary of someone instead of an actual novel. "Lost Connections" is definitely a book that I would recommend- and already have recommended- to other people but only with a "reading discretion": try to find the essence but don't get stuck in the sometimes terribly camp-y writing or get distracted by the very obvious and biased examples. Otherwise, it's a great read and I felt like I learned new things :)

I loved the fact that the book was well priced yet it arrived in a terrible state. One of the book edges was damaged and the book was bent in a weird way. I hope amazon takes care of these notes the next time.