Our perspective of depression as a disorder may have changed

Are depressive states actually a way for humans to biologically solve the problem or problems at hand?

Depression is widely known as a psychological disorder that (in accordance with healthline.com) affected 16 million Americans in 2012 (with at least one major depressive episode). Symptoms of depression such as ‘insomnia’ and ‘loss of focus’ affect 350 million people worldwide. Its causes are variable, although normally attributed to illness and death. The disorder is commonly treated with meds (i.e. antidepressants) or forms of therapy. Iin total ‘Scientific American’ note that the disorder costs the U.S. $210 billion per year.

Despite the heavy sums ploughed into the treatment of the disorder, there is literature that argues against common assumptions of depression as a disorder. The article in question (by Paul Andrews and J. Anderson Thompson, Jr.) detail depression as being an evolutionary mechanism used for analysis and problem-solving. In other words, when a human enters a depressive state, they are subconsciously making an effort to reverse the proverbial wheel.

The abstract of the paper in question highlights “rumination” (deep, considered thought) to be a common element of depression, in that each episode leads the sufferer into cognitively assessing their problems, hoping to get to the root of the issue. Quoted from the paper, “Abundant evidence indicates that depressive rumination involves the analysis of episode-related problems. Because analysis is time consuming and requires sustained processing, any kinds of disruption, regardless of severity would interfere with problem-solving.” Further to this, the paper makes a point of pinpointing depression to be “an adaptation that evolved as a response to complex problems and whose function is to minimize disruption of rumination and sustain analysis of complex problems.” The almost catatonic state an individual can be left in would equate to a biological pull with the purpose of minimising disruption in order to find a solution.

The assumptions of the article discussed above (entitled “The Bright Side of Being Blue: Depression as an Adaptation for Analyzing Complex Problems”) coincide with the psychometric therapy “The Socratic Method” which requires the depressed patient to self-inquire, or essentially question themselves regarding the occurrences of the episodes they have suffered from. This conscious rumination acts as a form of critical thinking, by which a patient can rationalize their disorder, with the therapist at hand as a helpful guide.

Of course, from an economical perspective, the treatment of depression is costly (as aforementioned), and if indeed methods such as Socratic Method are ever proved to be the Gold Standard in the treatment of the disorder, it should go a long way to saving money and far more importantly, saving lives.