I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

Is there any progress being made with regards to gut microbiomes causing depression? it's such a new area of research that it has the potential to bring out a cure for depression if we figure out why it's caused. I don't believe it's some un-crackable enigma living in the mind, because neuroplasticity is very very easy to change.

I have some level of social anxiety and it helped me a lot to talk to someone who accepted it as a real thing. Previously my experience was that people wouldn't want to hear how I felt and just told me "go out, talk to a few people and have fun".

I think it's the same for depression. It's nice to not have to live in hidden shame where you know that something is wrong but nobody accepts it as real.

>> My life is, by every objective measurement, very very good.

> Clearly not if you're suffering.

C'mon, you know this statement was meant to illustrate the fact that even if everything in your life is going your way, it doesn't mean that you are immune from depression.

I can see where you are coming from on your other points, although I don't share all your sentiments myself. So ok, he probably shouldn't become a psychiatrist. And maybe the next talk he gives at a mental illness conference could benefit from some of this constructive criticism (I agree on that whole "I live life on the lowest difficulty setting" bit).

But overall, I see this article as a big plus in the fight against the stigma of mental illness, and the struggle for those afflicted to find help. Sure he's not an expert in the medical field, and his style of sharing his own story maybe isn't for everybody, but surely there is more value to him sharing than just that he is getting help for himself.

I feel like capitalism separates people based on intelligence because value is added to businesses/society by your ability solve problems/create.

Manual labor is something literally anyone can do(barring major physical disability).

While this isn't a new idea in human history, the intelligent have always had it better, it's become a new problem recently that people who are of average intelligence cannot live decent lives.

This is just a theory but I feel like up until the past 20 or so years even if you were of average intelligence you could live a very decent life just working, raising your kids, etc.

Factory workers of the 60's made enough to do well for themselves and family.

Now with automation, outsourcing, etc, only the people who create the automation and can compete with the best minds from around the world have decent jobs, (i.e. STEM which isn't accessible intellectually to a fair amount of people).

So we're ALL competing intellectually now whereas before only some people were needed to be the brains and the rest could live a decent life.

I feel like constantly having to compete on this level with your mind having to constantly perform at its peak... not just to get ahead...but for basic survival without a foundational safety net, really lends itself to mental disorders or exaggerates existing ones.

Just my personal theory.

You've been downvoted because it sounds like you're rejecting Wil Wheaton's core point, which is to bring into the open a topic that is still pretty taboo in American society. He's doing this to raise awareness, and help other people who are suffering alone get help.

To address your points:

- This is planned and calculated only to the extent that it's a speech meant to get a point across. It is revealing personal vulnerability in order to help others who might be suffering from similar conditions, or those who have friends or family suffering from them, recognize the symptoms and take action.

1. The term "trigger warning" is sadly overloaded these days, but it is still useful for those suffering from the anxiety and depression he's talking about. Those are the people targeted by that paragraph, not you. Note that this speech was addressing NAMI, "National Association on Mental Illness", so it's likely some of those people were in the audience.

2. The word "objective" is the last sentence is key here. He is contrasting how other perceive the quality of his life vs how he's actually living it.

3. He's apologizing to his mother because she is likely going to hear or read this speech which reveals some pretty personal information, and she will likely blame herself. More generally, it's a message to people who have lost loved ones: don't blame yourselves.

4. Yes, he's trying to raise awareness and push for social change. Activism is part of doing that, and of course publishing this speech is as well.