Can Depression Be Good For You?

A compelling piece of writing that challenged my understanding of depression, I recommend this essay because it upends our notions about mental disorders and hands us a new lens to view them through. 

Evolutionary psychologists are now looking at depression in a new light - as possibly serving a positive purpose, and yielding insights into our own selves and providing us with better problem-solving abilities.

Theories about evolutionary reasons for depression are many. What this particular essay presents is a comprehensive round-up of several studies which essentially say it is best to “let depression work its miserable magic under protective supervision.”

It is important to clarify that this argument is neither elevating evolution nor minimising the enormous trauma depression causes, but has been presented only to understand its purpose. One of the main arguments the essay puts forth is that depression might be evolution’s way of adapting. In order to solve complex problems, depression is a kind of ‘altered state’ that forces you to pay attention to the underlying issue. Depressive people often ruminate, and this 'reflection in spirals' is one of depression's primary functions, presenting a path toward understanding what has gone wrong. This is also why most episodes of depression end on their own - what researchers term ‘spontaneous remission’. It ends precisely because depression serves to accelerate the very processes that our brain employs for problem solving.

There are many complex issues at stake here, and looking at depression as a strategic response our body is programmed to carry out requires caution. There is danger in trivialising and misreading suffering. Evolutionary psychologists clarify that this knowledge is not yet ready to be taken outside of the lab. But the questions it raises about traditional treatments such as antidepressants, which suppress symptoms (should they be supressed if depression is a strategic response?) are vital and need to be considered.