America laughs to keep from crying. That’s getting canceled. 

Last week, I was on a call with public health experts talking about chronic diseases. It was mentioned that 50 percent of all Americans have at least two chronic diseases, 75 percent have one, and chronic disease accounts for 90 percent of American healthcare costs.

The typical conditions that we think of as chronic illnesses — heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes and tobacco-related problems — were rattled off. But someone added depression as a major chronic illness and contributor to illness in America overall.  

A few days later, I watched the final tribute song of the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; “You Say Goodbye,” led by Paul McCartney. Feeling sad at losing a way we laughed as we once did, it reinforced that laughter is part of the human spirit. It also reinforced that when politics increasingly takes away happiness, there will be personal, societal and medical consequences, including depression.

The authors of the Declaration of Independence recognized this notion and penned three cardinal principles: “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These ideas sprang from the revolt against authoritarian monarchs and against attempts by certain religions to control one’s conscience and thought.

For the last 250 years, our country has not only embraced such words in thought, but in action and war. We each have a personal view and meaning of what happiness is, and what happiness is lost. Simply, the antithesis of happiness is unhappiness. But, more expansively, those of us who are clinicians see the loss of joy as a factor in depression.

In the U.S.,........

© The Hill