So maybe you *need* to be depressed...

[lblanchard]

The most hopeful thing I've read about depression in years:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=depressions-evolutionary

Comments

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

interesting!
thanks for posting, certainly
wouldnt have seen it otherwise.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Someone mentioned this in a meeting today (he saw it on Slashdot). It was interesting, because I said at some point that I was depressed about our data, and he quoted the article--which is exactly how we behaved when we found out the bad news. We got very rational.

We get the converted data back soon, and I'm already looking forward to being depressed about the condition it's in!

[pameladean]

If this is true, I think it must work rather like other adaptive traits, where a certain amount of the depressive ability is functional, but if you get a double dose, you're screwed. Most people I know with major depression cannot solve problems; they can hardly get out of bed.

P.