Does Depression Help Us Think Better?
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This article underestimate what being clinically depressed really means, putting it alongside common temporary sadness or a melancholic character/state. AFAIK, people suffering from depressive disease are barely able to function (and need medications) and rarely come out of this state by their own. So, while sadness could be an incentive to focus, eliminate distractions and solve our problems more effectively, i really doubt that cognitive skills and problem solving abilities are improved by a clinically depressive state (not convinced by the experiment in the paper).
Maybe we should all start looking at problems in a more "healthy" way, focusing on finding a solution (maybe following uncommon approaches) instead of "endlessly ruminating".
Depression tends to resolve spontaneously after a year or two as long as the person doesn't take anti-depressants. (In which case the symptoms will get better immediately, but the problem may last many years or even a lifetime.)
Basically think of it like a drug with a half life of 6 months or so.
Around 46% of Americans have either depression or an anxiety disorder at some point during their lives, but only around 7% have the problem currently. Seeing as only around 1 / 3 of those affected get treatment, and the treatments most people get aren't super effective, this seems to support my point.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1MDD_ADULT.shtml
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1ANYANX_ADULT.shtml
I mean think about it, if we agree that most people aren't getting treatment, and that most of them don't stay depressed forever, then we agree that depression will eventually resolve on its own. From there it's just a matter of nailing down the exact timeline. How long it takes obviously varies a lot from person to person, but a half life of around six months seems like the typical case.
You're making the same mistake the article makes: serious depression and the type of depression that 46% of Americans report experiencing are two completely different beasts, and it's devastatingly dangerous to leave the former untreated.
I'm not saying people shouldn't seek treatment.
These statistics are about the population trend with yearly samples and don't say anything about duration distribution. It would be also interesting to know how many drop treatment, stop seeking medical help or get out of the statistics in different ways, to understand how effectively this problem is being addressed.
> but some introspection practices (orthodox practices but also meditation) could be and they could provide a definitive solution.
I think you're arguing two sides of the same coin on this one. What's unnatural about introspection?
Also, please don't spread misinformation like "depression resolves spontaneously". It is true that it gets better and worse over time, but not treating a depression is extremely dangerous, as patients tend to see suicide as a good solution to everyone problems. The idea there is that they make live troublesome for everyone, and as they themselves stop caring for their own live at some point, suicide looks like way out.
Shifting ones mental perspective is not trivial, and probably essential for overcoming certain types of depressions. In the end I was finally able to notice the blind spot in my mind that I'd been avoiding, and from there take a different path that led me to peace and happiness. It took a lot of effort and insight to get to that point so I for one firmly believe depression has its uses.
I'd even go so far as to say that clinical depression is probably over-diagnosed in cases where there are clear external reasons for the person having a crisis. Sometimes, having a crisis can be a perfectly normal and even "healthy" response to events. Though it is a bitter experience, it can even be productive, as you described. But at a certain point, when people fall of the previously mentioned cliff, the brain chemistry can change and make them prone to devastating episodes that are rightfully characterized as a disease.
The Ashkenazi are a fascinating case study for this subject. We still don't know whether a tendency towards being depressive is a biochemical tradeoff for heightened mental capabilities, or whether intelligence makes people miserable because it allows them to see the nature of reality more clearly. Maybe high intelligence and a sarcastic sense of realism about the world correlates with depression because it's the only logical response to the way the world works.
However, I've also learned 'do not make major life decisions while depressed' because often depression lurches to radical and likely long-term damaging solutions which may have a short-term benefit of short-circuiting the depression (e.g. thinking 'quit job immediately without having another one lined up and having family depending on the income').
Happy people don't need to rock the boat. Happy people don't turn their lives upside down striving to build great companies and unearth essential truths. Happy people are... happy already.
When not depressed, I am able to dive deep into an intellectual problem and probe it from different angles, leading to creative solutions. When depressed, I have difficulty even concentrating on a topic and creativity is lost. Furthermore, when not depressed, my mind constantly works on problems (the proverbial shower ideas); when depressed, that stops dead.
Maybe there is some other definition of "thinks better" that I don't understand, but for me with my definition, absolutely not.
Well, there is a passage from the article, which frames it specifically in terms of thinking about social relationships:
“I started thinking about how, even if you are depressed for a few months, the depression might be worth it if it helps you better understand social relationships,” Andrews says
Given the black-tinted glasses, relationship understanding is one of the first things out the door.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/19/mental-health-creati... - “Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus”.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100203084254.ht... - a self-perceived increase in social status actually increases D2 levels in the brain.
Perhaps rumination is the general form of self-reflection that includes the correlation found between social status and creativity.
I can see how people who tend to ruminate would also do that on daily problems and might therefore yield better results but to point in the direction of this actually benefiting a truly depressed person is beyond me.
When you are actually depressed, your whole thought process is quite literally de-railed and poisoned and you are ruminating in a very unhealthy way and typically you are unable to "dig yourself out", no matter how good at deep thinking and ruminating you might be. Even worse, you will ruminate yourself even deeper into depressions. And then there is also "clinical depression".