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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2018)
'-25, 2018 News Page 7 DEPRESSION, from page 5 The liberal government at the time decided to do this experiment They chose a town, seemingly at random, called Dauphin, and they said to everyone in this town, “We are going to give all of you a guaranteed basic income from now on.” I think it was the equivalent of about $17,000 in contemporary U.S. dollars. This continued for three years, and there were many results. But to me, the most interesting one was what happened to E.G.: You offer seven solutions to depression people’s mental health. There was a massive in your book - non-chemical forms of improvement in people’s mental health. antidepressants, like the cow that you mentioned Depression so severe that you had to be earlier. Whatare some simple changes that a hospitalized fell by 90 percent. It didn’t typical person might be able to make in their life happen in the surrounding areas. to become a happier Person? That tells us that one of the things that’s making people depressed is profound J.H.: One of the most interesting pieces of insecurity in how we live. People research I looked at, done by a who have income from property guy called Dr. Brett Fordat the University of Berkeley, " U s lw r s a l baste In - a r e 10 times less likely to develop anxiety disorder than looked at if you consciously try e s a e , wStieb F re s l- people who don’t Part of what’s to be happier, will you in fact d e a f O b am a s a id making us anxious is that aspect become happier? c a n id h a p p e n w ith in of the way we live - and it’s an Dr. Ford and her colleagues increasing insecurity. There’s a studied this in four places: in 2 0 ye a rs, Ib a t Is a n reason why depression the United States, in Taiwan, in a n tid e p re s s a n t/* massively spiked up after the Japan and in Russia. They JOHANN HARI, found in the U.S., if you AUTHOR of "LOST. 2008 crash, because a lot more people were insecure and having -CONNECTIONS'« decided to consciously spend to work even harder to just keep more time trying to be happier, their heads above water. And so you will not become happier, universal basic income, which but in the other three places, President Obama said could happen within 20 you do. What they discovered is, if you try to years, that is an antidepressant. become happier in the U.S., what you do is you There are biological factors that can make try to pursue happiness for yourself. You buy you more sensitive to these social factors. So stuff for yourself, you try to get a promotion for your genes, for example, can make you about yourself, you build up your ego. We have an 35 percent more sensitive to these things instinctually individualistic view of happiness. In the other countries, they had an instinctively , than someone who had a different genetic collective sense of happiness, so if you tried to They’re just making you more sensitive to make yourself happier, what you do is you do these factors in the environment and in your something for your family. You do something psychology. for your community, you do something for This requires us to really reframe what’s someone else, not for yourself. And it turns out going on, because we’ve been told a story that an individualistic model of happiness just has really disconnected us from the source of doesn’t work. If it did, Donald Trump would be our own pain, and because we haven’t a very happy person, and he’s an incredibly understood what’s causing it, the solutions miserable person, for example. that we’ve been using haven’t worked very A Collective vision of happiness, by contrast, well. does work. emily@streetroots.org; Twitter @greenwrites Another thing would be based on the experiment happening in Canada in the ’70s. pushing us to live in an extrinsic way, to not do things because we think they’re valuable, but to do things in order to buy something ’ else, in order to show something off, in order to look impressive on social media M just like junk food has hijacked our diet and made us physically sick, junk values have hijacked our minds, and made us mentally sick. | pe « ■ ■ Poetry Is raw edged real Pain Needing words To heal And ecstasy Set loose To set The seeds loose To bloom So when you read mine Remember T eam ed It all To set those tones Sepia or bright and beautiful Those pictures Ya they’re all mine And therefore Save your Preconceived notions For those whose Pictures better match Your expectations And leave your Judgement and hypocrisy For those who revel in it As for me I show them to you Not because I like your sight of them But because Like breadcrumbs Theysnow What trails not to take Every single Bit of bad and good W ■ t I r C i* IO It was ‘bout rough edges ' Sanded by soft And The impossible Meeting the highly implausible I earned The right to use the words s I use to paint with MMMI1 111 W i f e y ■ -A * „ „ wf * - Poetry was never Bout Roses being red Or violets being blue The tears and the deep belly laughter And I carry the scars as proof Of the profit of where I been WEDNESDAYS 2-7PM FOOD CO-OP I S In the end The sensations You left on this skin Are what caused those words To scar the page FARMERS’ MARKET e’s ggj " i r « < On pictures and poetry by j.mccurdy W ® P M g» ' "k ” " ' -K*»--? s UP TO $10 MATCH WITH EBT CARD We're passionate about helping our community access healthy food that they can trust. 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