How mainstream treatments keep America depressed

Not everyone is depressed--but it sure seems that way sometimes.

A new survey finds that nearly 10 percent of the nation is suffering from clinical depression, a stunningly high number that only proves again how drugs have failed.

More on that in a moment.

CDC researchers armed with a widely used mental health questionnaire, PHQ-8, questioned 235,067 adults from 45 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands between 2006 and 2008--and found that a whopping 9 percent had all the classic symptoms of depression.

In addition, the survey found that 3.4 percent of Americans suffered from major depression, and 6.6 percent of us experienced a major depressive disorder during the preceding year.

The most depressing state was Mississippi, where nearly 15 percent of the residents suffered from the condition. On the flipside, it's always sunny in North Dakota--because just 4.8 percent of the folks there suffered from depression, according to the study.

Side note: North Dakota is also the coldest state in the continental U.S., and the least visited state in the union. So apparently they're cold... lonely... and very, very happy in spite of it (or perhaps even because of it).

The survey didn't ask about drug use, but we already know that more people are taking antidepressants than ever before.

In fact, those numbers are remarkably consistent with this survey: Recent studies have found that ten percent of all Americans take antidepressants--enough for every single depressed person and then some, statistically speaking.

And that leads to the billion-dollar question: If those meds were so effective, why are so many people still depressed?

The short, easy answer: Because those drugs aren't so effective after all.

It's the biggest lie in modern medicine--take a pill and feel better--yet the mainstream is pushing to not only expand the use of antidepressants, but to encourage the people who've failed on these drugs to keep taking them... forever.

"If someone has had three or more episodes of depression, they really should probably stay on their medication continuously the way you would stay on insulin if you are diabetic," Dr. Joel Yager told WebMD.

Yager wasn't just voicing an opinion. He's the chairman of the American Psychiatric Association's steering committee on depression treatment guidelines, and that permanent prescription plan is part of the first update to those guidelines in a decade.

The new guidelines also recommend alternative treatments-- but don't get too excited: They've concluded that the best "alternative" for depression is shock therapy.

But there is some encouraging news in the updated guidelines, because they also quietly acknowledge some of the better alternatives I've been telling you about-- including ordinary physical exercise and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

I guess the real shock would have been if they had mentioned those safe and effective alternatives first!

I'm not done with depression yet--keep reading for some cutting-edge news on herbal treatments.