Depression, Suicide, and the Modern World

According to this article Greenland is the country with the world's highest suicide rate. From 1900-1930 Greenland had a suicide rate of 0.3 per 100,000. Now it's a staggering 100 in 100,000 and is the highest in the world! Why such a huge increase? In the first half of the 20th Century they lived much as they had for the past 4000 years-- namely hunting and fishing and living in small villages. So perhaps something to do with the change in the way they live?

I suspect people are happier in small closely knit communities with a shared history and identity, where everyone knows each other, and where they do traditional work rather than doing repetitious work for some faceless company in the modern world. I would speculate the modern world, and the style of living it inaugurated, has some role to play in why so many people are depressed and commit suicide.

Modern Life

Just read the following article:

Depression Is a Disease of Civilization: Hunter-Gatherers Hold the Key to the Cure

Modern life can be a perpetual debilitating state of anxiety. Hunter-gatherers and the "stress" they deal with is of a different nature to the stress that we often feel.  Any "stress" hunter-gathers felt would presumably have been short lived.  Escaping from a predator might have short term stress, but then there's the thrill of escaping from such a predator, relying upon others to save your life, and you saving other peoples' lives in your turn. It's living life in the raw and all the thrill that entails.