This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Jonathan Schnapp, Psychotherapist at Private Practice of Psychotherapy Which profession causes the most amount of depression in people? Full transparency I googled this question because I was curious. I got mixed results although it seems that doctors and dentists lead with the highest rates of suicide, followed by police officers, Vets and those in financial services. As for depression it seemed caregivers (nurses, etc), teachers, social workers, farm workers, lawyers and construction workers, were listed among those mentioned above. However, people who are unemployed had the highest rates of depression. What did this tell me? Not a whole lot. People experience depression across the spectrum of professions. While some very stressful jobs may lead to increased rates of depression, I think the goodness of fit between the individual and the job is a far more significant factor. There are those who love, hate and everything in between, in every profession. The trick is finding something that works for you, as opposed to doing a job that you think you should do because someone else thinks it makes sense, or because of the respect or status or money you think it will earn you. I’m not suggesting you should ignore the fact that we need money to pay our bills. This is a part of reality that cannot be ignored without serious consequence, but so few people actually pursue jobs or careers that they are passionate about because they assume that working is not supposed to feel good. It’s one of the most unfortunate myths in modern society. “It’s work.” “It’s just a job.” “Work isn’t supposed to be fun.” Well, I’m telling you that this is not true. There is a lot of pleasure and gratification that can be gotten from any job, whether you are washing dishes, teaching, doing surgery or fixing someone’s pipes. You just have to find the one or ones that work for you at the current point in your life. I add the variable of time, because these things change, and what you enjoy or feel passionate about today might not be what floats your boat 5 or 10 or 20 years from now. Know yourself and know what works for you. It’s not always easy to figure this out, because first you need to recognize that your needs are not necessarily what everyone around you has been telling you. Source
