Life has never been better. We're living longer, getting richer and even the weather is better than it was 100 years ago. If the figures - published last week in a Government survey - are to be believed, life in the closing stages of the 20th century should be full, rich and happy.

But it's not. Depression is now the West's second biggest killer, with one person in five suffering from a depressive illness at some stage in their lives and a third of all British employees said to be depressed.

At any one time five per cent of the population is suffering from clinical depression, while a further five per cent suffers from a milder form. And the problem is set to get worse as we move into the next millennium.

Misery at work, job insecurity and domestic strife will increase as the job market becomes more competitive and workers are forced to cope with ever increasing levels of technology.

By the year 2020, depression is set to become the world's most pervasive serious illness, more widespread than heart disease and cancer. But how is this possible when the quality - and quantity - of our lives have improved so dramatically since the beginning of the century? In short, why are we all so miserable?

According to figures in the 51st Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom, compiled by the Office for National Statistics, there should be plenty to smile about.

In 1901 diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera were rife. Poor living conditions and an ignorance of basic hygiene and sanitation resulted in a life expectancy of 45 years for men and 49 years for women. The nation has also grown enormously more wealthy, with average disposable incomes doubling in real terms between 1971 and 1997 alone. And the weather has even got brighter - with average temperatures in southern England having risen by 0.6C throughout the century.

But psychology lecturer Professor Lewis Wolpert, who himself suffered from depression four years ago and presented a TV programme about the condition earlier this year, believes the fact that life has improved could itself be a factor in our misery.

He claims our increasing knowledge of what life could be like means we are dissatisfied with the reality.

"The spread of information has resulted in a competitive world where people are out of tune with their real feelings and driven by media ideals of perfection.

"People may not be worrying about famine or disease any more, issues which affect the whole family or community, but they are worrying about their own individual performance.

"That is not to say that people living in the early part of the 20th century did not suffer from stress, they did. But their expectations of life were lower and the experiences they suffered were those endured by everybody they knew." Dr Derek Roger, director of the stress research unit at York University, believes we get depressed when we develop a distorted view of how perfect life should be. Research amongst 2,000 people, carried out by Dr Roger, found that one in five people suffered from perfectionist traits which made them susceptible to depression and frustration.

He says: "Depression is not caused by outside influences such as war, disease and famine. It is caused by comparing our lives with a perfect model and finding the reality wanting.

"Because advertising convinces us that the unattainable is actually attainable, we believe that the root to all our problems lies in a lack of motivation on our behalf. This is the fundamental cause of all depression in modern Britain."

And it is all-encompassing. Roger claims everybody, from parents trying to motivate their children to bosses imposing unrealistic deadlines, are part of our perfectionist society.

Women in particular can fall victim to developing depressive and mental illnesses, such as anorexia nervosa, due to unrealistic media images of perfection.

He says: "People today live in a daydream world compared to previous generations and therefore cannot even enjoy happier times when they do arrive.

"At the beginning of the century people used to look forward to the different seasons and to the harvest. At the end of a war there was jubilation, not only because there was an end to the misery, but also due to an expectation of happier times to come. "Now we are divorced from reality. We cannot appreciate a warmer climate because we have all-year round central heating and air conditioning. Similarly, we cannot appreciate peaceful times because we can switch on a television and see violence in East Timor.

"These may all seem like trivial concerns to most people but the effects on the mental and physical health of the nation has proved devastating.

"Instead of peaks and troughs of anxiety, as in the good old days, people are now in a permanent state of agitation. Depression is sadly the disease of the modern world."

Story date: Thursday 18 November

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