Psychologists Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thompson, Jr. argue that depression may be an evolutionary advantage developed early in human history. What could be good about depression?
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Depressed people often think intensely about their problems. 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.
This analytical style of thought, of course, can be very productive. Each component is not as difficult, so the problem becomes more tractable. Indeed, when you are faced with a difficult problem, such as a math problem, feeling depressed is often a useful response that may help you analyze and solve it. For instance, in some of our research, we have found 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.
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I understand that some diseases come with evolutionary advantages, but this idea doesn't make much sense to me at all. Most depressed people aren't thinking analytically about serious problems- they're thinking analytically about how much they think their lives suck. And since their lives usually don't actually suck that much- their perceptions colored by depression- I can't see how this helps.
I don't think the article is correct though, sometimes people get depressed about things that happened in the past for which there is no solution.
I know alot about this affliction as my mother had, and my sister still has, uncontrollable depression.
I'm not sure I would agree that it is evolutionary but other psychosis are. I.E. Alcoholism, Bi-polar traits etc.
Sometimes it pays to have low to no morals and not dote on the past.
As a depression patient myself I would argue that malfunctions are most of the time just that. Malfunctions. There have to be no "evolutionary roots" whatsoever. As long as it doesn't mess with the patients capability to reproduce (much), evolution isn't in the picture at all.
I think we really misunderstand depression. I experienced nearly 10 years of it (5 years in the middle being the most intense).
For the first half, I treated it as a meaningless chemical imbalance. I ignored it, I distracted it, it got worse, I medicated it. I nearly died.
For the second half, I treated it as a meaningful signal that my life had legitimate issues that needed solving. I spent a couple years in intense introspection, and deconstruction.
I addressed many, many issues. I no longer have depression. In spite of a childhood of extreme abuse, neglect, and dysfunction, I now am a fully-function adult with healthy relationships. I am not medicated, and I haven't had a single session of therapy.
Granted it was a rough few years... but at least I got to the bottom of my issues.
When will those outside of that silly religion call psychology learn that it is simply a very lose form of belief, with not one single shred of scietific evidence to back up even a single one their theories?
As with most standard religion, some phsychologists actually believe they are there to make lives better, but have not one standard way of doing that.