I have a theory which I can’t substantiate, just anecdotes and conversations I had throughout the years. But, I’m convinced a lot of depression/anxiety stems from thinking too much and that in turn is caused by an ever complex word with looser and looser guidelines or norms.
I’m not making judgements weather this is necessarily good or bad but rather observing.
In the past, even as recent as the 50s but certainly before the 20th century, a persons course in life was mostly determined at birth.
You’re born, you play, you grow up, work the fields or a job, get married, have kids of your own and die. Society was more rigid and pretty much funnelled you through a “tried and tested path”, for good or for worse. And the lack of information made things “simpler” in a way in the sense you had a small number of people to get input from. Take child rearing for example. Many modern people worry so much and research ways to “optimise” their children for example ( I’m thinking of a lot of questions I saw on the parenting stack overflow ) whereas in the last, you’d just ask your own parents. And, since they were older, the assumption was they knew what they where talking about, even if it was not necessarily true. Same with health, same with sexuality, relationships, a lot of things.
Essentially lack of information and a rigid social structure meant fewer choices which meant less thinking. And less thinking meant less depression and anxiety.
Now when you have a world of information at your hands, you have way more things to think about, to worry about and to look for information on how to fix or improve.
I’m not sure medication, even “working” one is a sustainable solution to what appears to me to be an environmental problem rather than a biological one.