Does Corporate America Cause Mental Disorders?

I want a real, wholesome study on PLoS One to tell me whether living a stressed out, unsatisfied life in Corporate America actually causes mental disorders.

I see studies about stress and mental disorder (1), I see studies of stress and physical ailment (2). I see articles about workplace stress and mental health concerns (which, by the way, completely avoids the question of whether workplace stress could cause mental health concerns by saying that it is possible to have mental health concerns without workplace stress). or there's this one, that just says that a source of stress, which can make existing mental health worse, is work.

But I want to see a study.

I wonder if our rates of depression and anxiety have anything to do with jobs in cubicles. I would like to know what percentage of cubicle-dwellers are depressed. I mean really now.

I'll tell you some of my theories:

Lack of security. Corporate America is all about having a nice secure paycheck, right? Wrong! We all know that any day, regardless of how hard we worked or how well we did our jobs, we could get laid off. Whether it's a merger or a slow year, none of us is safe.

It's not personal--it's business. We spend most of our waking hours with these people, but it's "not personal". What a way to dehumanize anyone!

It's just not fair. We're surrounded by racism, sexism, and (other) unethical behaviors. In fact, at many companies, the people who are best at the Blame Game tend to rise to the top.

In Triplicate Let's say it together: bureaucracy. Nothing is more maddening than not being able to get anything done.

I could go on and on, but these four should be enough to start off a study. If anyone knows of a study, please comment so I can read it. I'd really appreciate it!

Update: What serendipity! It's not PLoS One, but yesterday (the day of the original post) the American Psychological Association released "Stress in America", which (ta-da!) reports that 70% of people are stressed about work. Slightly more are stressed out about money.

Let's look at that number: 70%. 7 in ten people. Let's pick you and the nine people sitting closest to you. Only three of them aren't stressed about work.

And guess how many people are dealing with their stress? By hiding at home watching TV and guzzling soda in between fistfuls of gummy worms (guilty!).

People, what are we doing to ourselves? Let's get this straight: we're choosing this for ourselves. It is totally possible to live off-the-grid or nearly so, and to pull utility expenses WAY down. By not doing these things, by participating in our very unhealthy materialistic culture, we are choosing to make ourselves sick.

Now you and I have a question to answer: what are you (what am I) going to do about it?