The Jan/Feb 2001 issue of Men’s Health Magazine has an article by Joe Kita titled, The New Depression.
He describes a type of covert depression called “dysthymia.” One physician in the article says, “Any person with a chronic sense of unhappiness or dissatisfaction in spite of the success and happiness in his life almost always has a mood disorder and often has dysthymia.”
A psychologist says, “It’s the life of quiet desperation that Thoreau wrote about. Most men don’t view it as a disease but as a weakness. It is a disorder of self-esteem.”
Men’s Health put a blurb on their web site when the author was working on the article. It read: “We’re looking for unhappy guys with perfect lives. If you have a great job, a great family, a great house full of great stuff, but you’re still feeling unfulfilled and, at times, even miserable, then we’d like to hear from you.”
Their web site has a Gripe Vine for responses to the article and it’s a little overwhelming to read the sad tales.
One of the treatment steps described is to “Define what has real meaning for you…such as spending more time with your kids, getting to know your parents better before they die, or developing a closer relationship with your wife.”
It’s interesting that the article never uses the word ‘spirituality’ . It seems to me that apart from whatever genetic and chemical imbalance factors might contribute to the problem, not having an active (meaningful? disciplined?) spiritual life is a good chunk of what this so-called disease or disorder is about.