Medications, Depression, Exercise, and People

Some statistics from The National Council on Patient Information and Education (2006):

• Almost two-thirds of Americans currently use medicines: 49 percent use prescription drugs, and 30 percent use nonprescription medications.
• 32 million Americans are taking three or more medications daily. (Many medication combinations have not been researched at all, especially in the context of unique individuals)
• 10 percent of all hospital admissions are the result of patients failing to take prescription medications correctly. (These patients stay an average of 4.2 days in the hospital)
• Adverse drug reactions may be the 4th-to-6th leading cause of death.

What a medicated age we live in. Misinformedly or improperly medicated at that. Many of these medications are incredibly valuable life-improving or even life-saving medicines. But it is important to realize that improvements to human health and lifespan have been due primarily to improvements in food, water, and air quality. Not medicines.

And then there are antidepressants. Antidepressants "work" for a large percentage of patients that take them in attempt to resolve depression. But it turns out that exercise works too, and without any adverse side effects (and with added benefits). Exercise activates dopamine and endorphine systems (neurotransmitters that are attributed to inducing sense of well-being).

We are then inclined to ask... why? The obvious answer is that people are just too lazy. Or depression destroys motivation for something like exercise but not taking medications. Let's talk about the cases where people are not so severely depressed that they are entirely dysfunctional (which is rare).

If the obvious answer is correct, then people are simply too lazy to improve their own health and lives. They lack the motivation to improve; to feel better. Where did things go wrong?


Sources:
American Heart Association statistics
LocateADoc Natural Depression Busters
Trans-Health Exercise and Depression

Re: What do you think is the purpose of life in general?

Original question:

What do you think is the purpose of life in general? Of your life?
At what scale do you measure purpose in life?
What motivates you?

This seems to be the question, especially of our time. More and more people wonder about this kind of thing, and we have the luxury to be curious about it.

There obviously is no single or correct answer. But maybe there is a good answer. I would like to simplify it as just, to live how we should live. Any more detail may be trivial and not apply to life in general. Any less I feel would leave out an important aspect of life.

Nowhere in that statement is happiness explicitly mentioned, because I think that it is inappropriate and somewhat unuseful to recommend that someone simply "be happy." (I say somewhat unuseful because "be happy" may be profoundly meaningful to some, and not at all to others). I think that the items mentioned will consistently lead to happiness when applied with personally relevant details. In that way, happiness may be one of the primary goals, but not simply the endgame. The components mentioned may evoke emotions, benefits, and levels of being, beyond simple happiness.

To apply those things to myself, I would say that the purpose of my life would include a combination of passionately living and experiencing, understanding myself and others, and using that understanding to improve myself as well as to help others improve. This may change as I progress in life, but it is where I stand as of now.

It is difficult to specify scale for the concept of purpose in life. I think that it can incorporate any permutation of personal, social/communal, and universal components. I prefer to measure purpose in life on the personal and communal levels. Universal purpose is abstractly elusive.

My motivation for doing simple and small things is largely based on entertainment. My motivation for doing greater, longer-lasting, future-affecting things is based on my current perceived purpose of my life. That and survival, desired lifestyle, and all those other boring things.