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Depression May Provide Cognitive Advantages
Hugh Pickens writes "Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. argue in Scientific American that although depression is considered a mental disorder, depression may in fact be a mental adaptation which provides real benefits. This is not to say that depression is not a problem. Depressed people often have trouble performing everyday activities, they can't concentrate on their work, they tend to socially isolate themselves, they are lethargic, and they often lose the ability to take pleasure from such activities such as eating and sex. So what could be so useful about depression? 'Depressed people often think intensely about their problems,' write the authors. 'These thoughts are called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are considered one at a time.' Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas and there is evidence that people who get more depressed while they are working on complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test (PDF). 'When one considers all the evidence, depression seems less like a disorder where the brain is operating in a haphazard way, or malfunctioning. Instead, depression seems more like the vertebrate eye — an intricate, highly organized piece of machinery that performs a specific function.'"
You just have to think about marvin the paranoid android...
Break the sound barrier - bring the noise.
I'm going to have to think about this...
... I'm all depressed and thought I would come to Slashdot and read some funny comments. That'll cheer me up, right? No one RTFA? Snarky posts for +5 Funny? All I found was an article reminding me how god damned depressed I am.
I've been struggling with a real tough problem, and getting more and more depressed.
Now I read this, and I have hope of solving it! woo hoo!
I can't tell you how happy I am!
wait....
Not every depressed person drifts to suicide. Some of us just become miserable cynical bastards.
Kind of like Goth vs Emo - one wants to kill you, while the other wants to kill himself.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
I agree! Last time we met, I was thinking that I wish I were as dumb as you. Sure, you're smarter than a lot of people (and therefore moderately happy) but if I had your meager intelligence, I would be so much happier than I am now.
Because suicide is usually the best option. Why deal with one problem at a time when you can get rid of all your problems once and for all.
Yes. I'm being snarky. I also happen to have a 148 IQ and have been diagnosed with clinical depression, so don't anyone mod me down for being insensitive to the smarty-pants depressasaurouses. I am one of them.
Skiffy is Spiffy, but Ort is tort.
Nobel prize, here I come.
Jesus Christ, those are the two choices?
Fuck.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
About a week or so before sitting for the IIT-JEE break up with your girlfriend and fall into despair and depression. Great way to boost your All India Rank and State Rank.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
And poor, too! Imagine how cramped it must be, confined to a wheelchair with two other people.
I'm currently doing a very complicated documentation job about a system I've not worked on previously (its essentially been abandoned and I have to put together what they've done so it can be continued). I'm going to put on a few Radiohead tracks and see if it gets any easier.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
I don't want an eye with vertebrae. I'll stick with the beam.
...but it's not new.
Human yet knows that for ages, i.e in TaoÃsm that's what is called "contemplation" (the same word very takes sense at least in french)
It's a constructive and no-productive (hehe) part of life that aims in understanding how the world rolls. Do you remember opium smokers ?
I think science mainly usefull to formerly validate what we unconsciously already know.. great..
it's joyful, but it's really not new for me.
I also happen to have a 148 IQ
Yeh, me 2, I are 940 IQ end I haz been diagnosed clinicly dead
As an emmissary from the OCD camp, I hereby demand a study of our brains as well. Sure, we go raging and lose our sense of reality when some shmuck at the grocery store moves the raisins from the nut aisle to the candy aisle (where they don't goddamn belong!), but we're just as smart as those emo kids. Now get off my lawn before you move one blade of grass and I have to brush it all over again.
I guess.
I get soooo depressed whenever I attempt to solve the problem of how to get Noureen DeWulf, Jessica Alba and Rose McGowen into bed (either individually or all at the same time).
Any help out there appreciated.....
I'm noting a distinct lack of details to this "making 'fuck you' money" idea. I'm guessing there's a ????? somewhere in the business plan, though.