Being Jewish And Being Depressed
In doing research for another client, I discovered that some people — even educated people — believe that Jews are more depressed than people from other cultural backgrounds. I’m not Jewish (at least, not that I’m aware of) but I had a feeling that the belief that Jews are the most depressed people in the world was not a correct one. Personally, I vote for Native Americans being the most depressed people in the world, but that’s just an opinion.
With the extreme persecution that the Jewish people have gone through over the centuries, it is no wonder that they are thought of as being naturally depressed. Symptoms of depression are more allowed to be shown in public than in some other cultures, which may give the appearance that most Jews are depressed.
Any Studies Done?
According to a 1999 study published in The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (”Vulnerability of Jews to Affective Disorders,”), there is no difference between the amount of depression in Jewish women and in any other religion looked at (including Christianity). But the rate for depression among Jewish men was twice as high as in any other religion. The study’s authors concluded that drinking alcohol was the reason for the high incidence of depression among this group, not their Jewish heritage or religion.
Influence of Alcohol
However, Jewish men have a low rate of alcoholism, 2.8% compared to non-Jewish men’s rate of 14%. The study inferred that many non-Jewish alcoholics were depressed but didn’t go to the doctor for help and thus chose alcohol for self-medication. Perhaps Milton Berle put it best when he said, “Jewish men don’t drink much because it interferes with their suffering.”
January 11th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
[...] Jewish and Being Depressed, Pt. 2 by Rena Sherwood Continuing where we picked off from yesterday, why would Gentiles get the assumption that Jews are the most depressed people in the world? And [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Well with the current world affairs, it comes as no suprise that people have so many “disorders”. Thanks for all the great content.