Some of you may know that I really enjoy spending time in Las Vegas. I love the weather, the food, and especially the blackjack tables.
I get a special thrill out of knowing the mathematical chances that the dealer has a 10 card underneath their face card in blackjack (trust me, they do).
You know, it isn’t even the payout. It’s the satisfaction of paying attention and knowing what is statistically the next thing that will happen.
Here’s a set of statistics I found earlier this week:
What if I told you that, after our work together doing talk therapy for depression, you’d have an extra month… every single year?
“Surely you’ve been drinking too much aspartame, you fool,” you might say.
“Truly, I find this incredulous!” *adjusts bejewelled monocle and raises eyebrow.*
End scene.
Bear with me though.
Calculating the Global Burden of Disease
According to the Global Burden of Disease study, people in Indiana lose over 61,000 years of life each year due to depression alone. These are called Disability Adjusted Life Years, or “DALYs” by the World Health Organization.
These include years where disability causes a reduction in quality or life (think missed days, doctor’s visits, disability payments, etc.) and also in quantity of life (read: Years of Life Lost due to untimely death.
Major Depressive Disorder is one of the few mental illnesses that has a distinct risk of fatality, especially for men).
How Depression Contributes
Depressive episodes contribute to these years lost by their classic symptoms. Here’s a good summary of the DSM-5’s requirements for Major Depressive Disorder with some example statements that I have heard from many suffering individuals:
Depressed mood
“I feel down. Sometimes I’m not even sure why. I think about my life and things are going pretty good. It’s weird that I feel this way.”
Loss of interest/pleasure
“I used to love watching football. These days I could care less.”
Weight loss or gain
“Man, have I been eating more. Sometimes my spouse calls me an emotional eater and I think they are probably right.”
Insomnia or hypersomnia
“Man, I can’t sleep for anything. I can get to sleep, but I probably wake up 3 or 4 times each night and have a helluva time getting back to sleep.”
Psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day and observable by others (not merely subjectively restless or slow)
“I’m not usually clumsy. I’ve tripped twice going out to my car in the last week. Do you think this is Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s?”
Fatigue or loss of energy
“Even after sleeping 14 hours; I still wake up tired. It’s like I can’t sleep enough!”
Feeling worthless or excessive/inappropriate guilt
“It’s all my fault. If I had just done that thing, then everything would be fine today. I’ve screwed up and that probably means I’m a screw up.”
Decreased concentration
“You know I can’t even read anymore? That was my sole reliable escape from stress and anxiety. I’d pull out a Sci-Fi book and feel better after reading. I can’t even do that now.
Thoughts of death/suicide
“Sometimes I get this nasty thought of hanging myself. I wouldn’t do it though. I think it would really hurt my kids. I gotta tell you, though, I think about it more now than I did even a month ago. What is wrong with me?”
The Statistical Benefits to Recovery from Depression
If those sound familiar, then let me illustrate to you exactly what is being robbed from you.
Let’s say you are the exact average age in the United States.
A ripe 38 years old in the United States according to the 2020 census (US Census Bureau, 2022).
You decide you are tired of this depression and you decide to get started with my practice.
We figure out where you are and figure out where you want to be.
In your service, I use my talk therapy expertise and integrated mental health knowledge to help catalyze changes in your mind and in your body. We will talk about thoughts, feelings, and likely dietary replacements of things that might be doing you more harm than good.
Whoever this is could pay for half their statistical treatment at Gentle Beacon in Lafayette, Indiana.
Statistically speaking, research shows you will get the most benefit between 5 and 8 sessions (I lost this citation. I’ll update this when I track it down again. It was a study from 2005 if I recall correctly). That translates to 5 to 8 hours of meetings over a span of maybe 2 months total.
Let’s say we take the full 8 sessions. That would be an investment at maximum of about $1,000 as of this writing including the assessment.
The Payout
Research shows that you statistically will get an extra 1.3 months experiencing life with less paralysis and more party. Less guilt and more gain. Less languish and MORE LIFE.
EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.
That means, if you spend even half that time working instead of being stuck in a bed, then by 65 years old, you’d amass an extra almost $80,000 in that time if you have the average American salary (Doyle, 2022).
It would also statistically give you an extra 52.5 months total of living your life should you make it to your statistical life expectancy of 78.1 years (AnnuityAdvantage, 2019).
This would give you a return on investment of approximately 80 to 1. Or, $80 for every $1 you spent on treatment.
If you are younger than 38, then you’d stand to make even more.
Way better odds on that payout than in Las Vegas, I might add.
Christopher C. Hutcheson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Lafayette, Indiana. His practice, Gentle Beacon, specializes in anxiety and depression treatment. You can find his website, gentlebeacon.com, here and his newest book Be Calm: A Guided Journal here.
References
AnnuityAdvantage. (2019). Life expectancy table. https://www.annuityadvantage.com/resources/life-expectancy-tables/
Doyle, A. (2022, September 19th). Median salary in the US. The Balance. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/average-salary-information-for-us-workers-2060808
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2020). Global burden of disease. https://www.healthdata.org/gbd
US Census Bureau (2022). Median age in the United States. https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?q=average+us+age&page=1&stateGeo=none&searchtype=web&cssp=SERP&_charset_=UTF-8