It's difficult to deduct whether there's a higher prevalence of Depression amongst the members here than in the general population because there are a lot of factors to consider; how comfortable you are with divulging such information to relative strangers (can work both ways), how often you log on, what sort of stage you are at in the illness, whether you have been diagnosed, who else posts a response and so on and so forth.
Not so sure about Noodley's point. I have my own theories about the membership here: it's characterised by mainly males, whose age distribution centres around 35-45 year olds, who have a higher disposable income than the national average, and who are physically in better shape than the majority.
This may well be hokum however!
If these any, most or all of these characteristics are common to sufferers of Depression then you might conclude that there's a higher prevalence here than in the gen. pop.
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I like your thinking here. I recall an articles I saw/read/imagined which stated that many depresson sufferers as well as autistic people derived some therapeutic benefit from repeated rhythmic exercise. Cycling wouuld fit the bill as would say jogging/distance running. It would be interesting to see if depression was as prevalent in Runners as it seems in cyclists compared to other sport participants in say team sports.
Or like Noodles suggest (nice hat this year btw) it's just a reflection of the prevelance in society.
For the record, treated with mild medication twice and most recently Prozac'd and Counselling following cardiac and job-burnout issues. Been good for some 2 years now. Slowly eradicating the triggers/causes from my life...
Oh, and I'm past the mid life crisis now too!
Of course the key thing is whether they are clinically significant or not. After all a not inconsiderable percentage of people report having 'heard a voice' at some point in their life, but most of them are doing just fine and don't meet the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia.
