Do NOT attempt to think or depression may result.

[undergroundpanther]

Depression's Evolutionary Roots

Two scientists suggest that depression is not a malfunction, but a mental adaptation that brings certain cognitive advantage

There is another possibility: that, in most instances, depression should not be thought of as a disorder at all. In an article recently published in Psychological Review, we argue that depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.
*snip
There is another suggestive line of evidence. Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas. Yet these would seem to have been precisely the kind of problems difficult enough to require analysis and important enough to drive the evolution of such a costly emotion. Consider a woman with young children who discovers her husband is having an affair. Is the wife’s best strategy to ignore it, or force him to choose between her and the other woman, and risk abandonment? Laboratory experiments indicate that depressed people are better at solving social dilemmas by better analysis of the costs and benefits of the different options that they might take.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=depressions-evolutionary



So, Depressive ruminating may help solve Social Delimmas. I ruminate over delimmas that affect alot of people depressed or not.So it might be a very important social survival mechanism...Social Delimmas are plenty in our society like war,wall st.,bullies,pollution,inequality,corruption,abuse,sexism,racism,the oppressive corporate powers,our diminishing rights and privacy,why are so many people so narcissistic, sociopathic,manipulating or cruel,etc.etc.

Depression might actually help solve the intractable issues happy people don't want or like to think about?? That's a strange idea,but it also seems possible. Most my life has been spent depressed.I DO ruminate over things alot. I do think deeply,I see things very different than most can tolerate even hearing,except when I'm depressed and talking to other depressed people, it seems we focus on similar issues. I ask why are things the way they are a lot,doubt,question,research think...and sometimes what I find,sometimes other depressed people figure out pieces of solutions while ruminating too. So if Depression is useful for making social change,than,it has a reason to exist.

*snip
One reason to suspect that depression is an adaptation, not a malfunction, comes from research into a molecule in the brain known as the 5HT1A receptor
*snip
Rodents lacking this receptor show fewer depressive symptoms in response to stress, which suggests that it is somehow involved in promoting depression

(stress of being in a traumatic or painful situation,dealing with abusive people maybe)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"or they(depressed people) have difficulty putting their complex internal struggles into words."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=depressions-evolutionary


Yeah that's so true...So many times people don't grok what I'm trying to say,and get defensive over what I write,and get nasty or try to hijack the threads. But I keep trying to say it regardless of the defensive trolling,here on DU.Why? Because I need to convey what it is I am learning via ruminations to someone,anyone in hopes they understand it,and even better USE it to solve a social delimma. I know when I write here,it gets to more people than those who reply to my posts or try to derail it..This concept of depression, makes sense.

Alot of traumatized people suffer deep depression. A trauma is a personal delimma. Trauma's delimmas maybe shared by many people.Not just depressed ones.But depressed people can't let a painful delimma be denied because of the pain..Depressed people sometimes deal with very deep questions..like asking things like why does life have to suck,why me,why am I alive?

Legit philosophical questions I think.

Hmm This means the you make your own happiness new age crap floating around like the secret might be socially DE-evolutionary,and right wing reactivism.Which is not thinking or rumination over a social delimma.

Shut Up Be Happy by Ice T & Jello Biafra.

We interrupt this program with a special bulletin:
America is now under martial law.
All constitutional rights have been suspended.
Stay in your homes.
Do not attempt to contact loved ones, insurance agents or attorneys.
Shut up.
Do not attempt to think or depression may occur.
Stay in your homes.
Curfew is at 7 PM sharp after work.
Anyone caught outside the gates of their subdivision sectors after curfew
will be shot.
Remain calm, do not panic.
Your neighborhood watch officer will be by to collect urine samples in
the morning.
Anyone caught interfering with the collection of urine examples will be
shot.
Stay in your homes, remain calm.
The number one enemy of progress is questions.
National security is more important than individual will.
All sports broadcasts will proceed as normal.
No more than two people may gather anywhere without permission.
Use only the drugs prescribed by your boss or supervisor.
Shut up, be happy.
Obey all orders without question.
The comfort you've demanded is now mandatory.
Be happy.
At last everything is done for you.

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Shut-Up-Be-Happy-featuring-Jello-Biafra-lyrics-Ice-T/E7444E919B810DB948256DF80016350F

[RKP5637]

1. Yep to the researchers, catatonic depression is just great, yep they

get a lot of problem solving done. Yet another WTF to add to my endless list.

[undergroundpanther]

2. it might depend on the type of depression you have.

My depression is connected to traumatic things that happened to me when I had no power to stop it.Sometimes I was trapped and forced to stay where the abuse happened,and return there every day.

So,I have major depression,I take 2 kinds of anti depressants.Was taking 3.Been on alot of medicines,been in therapy since age 13,first hospitalization I had just turned 15.I have failed suicide attempts,and I often long to die.

But while I cry,do nothing,don't eat,forget to drink,and feel like the scum of the earth, I think,and think,and think,why are things so fucking wrong,painful,crazy?

To me,this article made me feel a tiny bit better,like maybe it's not all my fault I can't be happy enough to suit fortunate happy people,or it has a purpose besides torturing me day after day for nothing.

[RKP5637]

7. Yes, I can see where it would definitely depend on the type of

depression. I get depressed from time to time, but nothing like you had to endure. I'm glad to hear the article helped you feel a tiny bit better. Everything helps. Thanks for sharing this!

[Lionessa]

3. N duh! I've said for decades of this "be happy" crap,

that only through dissatisfaction do we feel the need to advance; advance our knowledge, our skills, and our lives. Happy is equal to stagnant, and that can't be good. A good tide that ebbs with dissatisfaction and floes with excitement over ideas and solutions is so much better.

I for one am totally happy with my mental disorder, that I have aptly named

Hyper-dissatisfaction Syndrome and because of it I have an amazingly wide and deep knowledge and skill base and always enjoy the knowledge that tomorrow something else will dissatisfy me to the point of creating a solution.

[justabob]

6. right?

The "be happy" has never made sense to me either. I don't much like feeling the way I do, but its true I am more creative because of it.

[WillyT]

4. The Door, By E.B. White

Link: http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/door.html

[Raine]

5. Interesting, I've been depressed most of my life. The worst has been the last 4 years

due to personal tragedies. I can't accomplish anything from day to day that should be done. The thing that depresses me even more about this article is for all the continual thinking and pondering I do I never solve anything, it's a vicious cycle.

[RagAss]

8. Come to think of it, I've never met a depressed moron.

[Flying Squirrel]

9. I`ve been depressed most of my life too

and am currently on anti-depressants so please don`t think this to be a flippant comment, but the most surprising part of that article to me was finding out that rats could get depressed.

[Zorra]

10. This works for me:

I can choose to be happy, or I can choose to be sad. It's a discipline I chose to follow that became a habit that became everyday reality.

I am in control of my mind and can use it to remain happy. I am fortunate to have no brain chemical trip going on that causes me to be clinically depressed.

Yeah, very often the overall human condition is distressing, and there's some really mean people out there, but there's a whole lot of awesome people too. It is what it is, and I do what I can to try to make a better world, and wish I could do more to make a better world, but I really don't see the sense in wallowing in misery over it when it won't do me, or anyone else, one fracking bit of good.

I'm healthy, honestly love life, love people, love the earth, always have lots of fun. Always thrilled and grateful to see the sun rise every day.

I really don't see what's so wrong about that, and don't see how it makes me out to be some type of de-evolved right winger.

And I don't seem to have any significant difficulty in "solving social problems", despite my eternally positive outlook and sunny disposition.

This is not the product of some phony New Age woo.

It is how I choose to be, because it is how I want to be...

Because I can.

I'm really very sorry you are depressed, but you don't need to get defensive about it. My ex lives with depression, it doesn't make her defective, or less of a human being, or stupid, or crazy, or bad etc. She's a great person. Lots of people have to live with depression.

They're just like everyone else, except they're depressed.

peace