Depression and Evolution

I've had my first experience with depression at the age of 10. It was really horrible, but I don't want to go into the specifics right now. I want to talk about the conscience that came along with it and the questions concerning humanity as a whole that started popping up in my head back then. And don't get me wrong, I don't think life must be an endless stream of joy and amusement. Pain can teach us valuable lessons indeed, as I've been witnessing non stop in the last couple of years. But whoever has ever struggled with severe depression, knows exactly this is not the case with that particular condition.

While suffering like I've never had before, I've started asking myself what was the purpose of that pain. Honestly, I wasn't able to find an answer from my own perspective, though I'd spend almost all my time awake trying to figure it out. I believe the reason why I wouldn't find the answer was not the fact I was only 10, since I'd have 23 additional years to think about the matter while depression would parasite my life and yet I wouldn't get anywhere either.

Depression seems to want to kill the person that has it, and often enough it accomplishes this goal. Suicide is the obvious case that comes to mind, but there are several others like malnutrition and heart disease. What's the biological logic behind that, assuming there's one? I think some myths must be destroyed for greater comprehension to be finally possible.

Many people believe depression comes from the depths and complexities of the human mind, which is a late 19th century conception. Then there are all sorts of psychological theories that attempt to give a systematic explanation and propose some measures for treatment. While a lot of interesting reading have been generated from this assumption, there are some strong evidence it's not at all valid. Interestingly enough, these don't invalidate the influence of human mind complexity on the disorder outcomes. They just point out that the underlying mechanism is something more primitive. It turns out that many animals can get depressed as well. This fact is the base for all the efficient pharmacological treatment available today.

If Freudian, Jungian, Lacanian theories or the likes were true, animals wouldn't possibly get depressed. You can still claim that what animals have is not the same (while identical symptoms point again to the opposite direction). But supposing they indeed get depressed, what's the biological advantage springing from that phenomenon?

Well, at the individual level I've never managed to find any descent answer. On the other hand, although nasty, depression can make sense at the population order of magnitude. It can be a way for less adapted individuals to succumb as a result from the interaction between the environment conditions and their self perceived ability to cope with them (which is actually how researchers cause depression in animals to test the drugs). This will leave more natural resources for better adapted individuals to thrive and reproduce and can even abbreviate suffering from the ones affected by the disorder (this would account for the humane part of it). Assuming part of the reasons for superior adaptation is genetic, that would support the survival of the best genes. This mechanism could also be beneficial in case of environmental sudden changes, in which disabling part of the population will to compete with each other could save the whole species from self-inflicted extinction.

Today depression prevalence figures in humans seem to point to an up trend (check WHO for details). That could also be consistent with the fact population is huge and resources are finite. Therefore, it seems a quite compelling hypothesis that in the face of a species-wide extinction danger, some genes would get activated and make some of the folks just give up and die without a fight. It makes a lot of sense for the species, (but so would the annihilation of the weaker by the stronger in wars, genocides, etc). Maybe that explains society discriminates depressed people, attributing all sorts of undesirable personality traits to them.

But to me this is the right moment for all human complexity to jump in and finally save the day. It was once very common to die at 30 because of some infection that today would be easily treated with inexpensive antibiotics. It was also natural to have to wonder around to get some food, since agriculture is a human invention too. Isn't it plausible that mental illness is just another natural frontier we need to cross? Couldn't it be just another naturally occurring condition we can decide to abolish, because we are able to replace it with less cruel mechanisms to preserve our existence as species?

For me, at the individual level, the most effective approach to fight depression has been to quit searching for existential reasons for it to have been born within me. Because of our brain power to process and retrieve information, it's quite likely anyone can find these reasons, even if they don't actually exist. This exercise won't help getting better from depression. It's very unintuitive, but in fact the best way to fight depression is to separate one self from it and act deliberately against one's urges emerging from the condition.

Depression and anxiety are deeply affecting human lives at the individual level, but also at the social one. Economic impact is huge, even not being currently accounted for entirely. Families and individuals suffer to great extents and most often they are left alone and abandoned by others as if they were morally flawed. So incredible things never get done because of these nasty conditions and the super counter productive habit of judging and condemning on the basis of these diseases. It's the medieval thing to do and yet it's still done at huge scale in 2014.

If rationality and inteligence really make us something unique in the Universe, it's urgent for us to step up and use these in our own benefit. That's the kind of evolution it's up to us to promote and we must start taking responsibility fot it right now.