According to a study released this week, Americans without jobs are four times more likely to suffer from mental illnesses, like severe depression, than those who are employed. Workers whose hours have been rearranged or cut are twice as likely to suffer compared to people with full-time jobs.

Such results might lead one to believe that work keeps a person sane, or at least contributes to mental stability.

There is some logic to that assumption. Some byproducts of a job – an income, for example – can bring peace of mind. Especially for people with families whose wages are the main provision for their family, it's a reassuring thing to know that your income will meet your and your family's needs. And for people who have placed their job as a high priority in life – not just to earn money, but the actual work itself – a full-time job brings a sense of identity and fulfillment.

But how often have jobs been cited as a major source of stress and worry? Long before this recession hit (perhaps since the creation of work itself), jobs were a common thing to grumble about. Inadequate pay, cranky customers, demanding bosses, lazy coworkers, not enough time in the day to get things done ― none of these are new complaints, and all of them can be a considerable source of stress and anxiety (Of course, anxiety is different from depression. My point is to demonstrate that employment isn't automatically the road to happiness – it may be trading one evil for another.).

So if we complained about jobs when we had them, why are we so distraught when we lose them? Is it a purely monetary reaction, or is there something deeper that makes us grieve when our jobs are gone?

I can't help but wonder, too, if all of these depressed Americans had jobs then lost them, or if some of them have not had a steady job at all and are therefore in a depressed state unrelated to a loss. Is there something about work in and of itself that wards against depression? Is an unemployed lifestlye one that leads to depression?

What do you think? What is it about work that keeps us sane? Or what is it about not working that unhinges us?