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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 have higher cognitive ability, you realize how the world runs, you get depressed. Not the other way 'round.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I find it much more difficult to think logically about my own emotional problems when I am depressed. In that state, introspection is likely to lead to more depression. That's why it's referred to as a vicious cycle — depression is depressing! So it might be easier to figure out other people's problems but I'm skeptical that it actually leads to solutions to one's own social problems. Then again, perhaps that's just because I'm personally poorly socialized.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Most mental disorders are a result of an otherwise normal or useful mental process run-amok. Happiness and energy are good, but take them too far and you've got mania. Organization and hygine are good, but take them too far and you get OCD. Depression when half your family just died in a car wreck and your life is in turmoil is a normal part of coping, depression all the time when nothing is particularly wrong is a disease.
While depressive people tend to consider a problem very intensely and break it into lots of sub-problems and try to analyze what could have happened if some options were different, all those - ruminations (as the summary states) - still lead to nothing because the all the shit has already hit the fan and there is nothing that can undone that. so the thoughts go round and round and round again.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
But chronic pain is not so wonderful.
Having an immune system is also beneficial to survival. Multiple sclerosis, not so great.
I suspect that whether or not a clearer view of reality confers an advantage depends in large part on the circumstances, mostly the cost of failure vs. possible success.
In a system with debtor's prisons, being optimistic about your small business plan is probably a stupid idea. In a system with comparatively mild bankruptcy terms, and relatively easy incorporation, optimism may well be a very lucrative virtue. In some clannish honor-bound society, being optimistic about your chances with a possible sexual partner could get you killed. In a bar full of strangers in the modern west, the potential downsides are pretty low(assuming social rejection doesn't bother you).
Broadly, depending on the prevailing ratio between possible downsides/worst case scenarios and possible upsides/best case scenarios, a delusionally positive perspective could be highly adaptive, or swiftly lethal, or somewhere in between. A delusionally negative perspective could be as well, in principle.
"Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfuly glad I'm a Beta "
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Life is about the experience. Enjoy every dirty, awful bit of it.
Thanks for that. I've heard many times people saying that they'd like to die quietly in their sleep without ever seeing it coming and I just don't get it. The ugly parts of life are still life. I don't enjoy pain, but in my view death is the end of life (chuckle all you want - many people disagree). And it's the only thing that we all share. I'd like to see it coming and, avoiding years of agony, a few days of despair and slipping away seem interesting. Sorry, morbid.
Life is what it is - Work to make it as good as you can, but embrace it all. Even the awful stuff.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.