depression is a fever.

I am now HOOKED on blogging. Came across a really interesting article a few minutes ago. According to a research team led by Paul Andrews (Virginia Commonwealth University), there might be a bright side to depression.

Depression is perhaps not a mental illness, but rather an evolutionary adaption to problematic social circumstances. Similar to the way that a fever directs the body's immune reaction to the place of infection/disease, depression may also play a role in redirecting the brain's resources to solving social dilemmas.

For years, doctors have diagnosed me with depression/anxiety and now statistics are coming out suggesting that 30-50% of all people will suffer from depression at some point in their lives. I wrote an article once about one research team that sees this increase in depression as the product of a deprived pleasure pathway. Life has become simpler. We don't need to plough fields in order to get wheat, we can just stick a mi goreng packet into the microwave and voila, din din is served. There's no sense of achievement (though perhaps getting off your butt and turning off Modern Family for the first time in the day can be seen as a big highlight). We all feel depressed at some points, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we have a disorder. In fact, only about 1% of the general population has the actual disorder. It's a hot topic and Andrews' team now sees depression not as a liability, but rather, something that can potentially bring real benefits

I obsess over things; mainly to do with what's actually bugging me. Some people think about their next meal or advertisement slogans or well thought out puns. I think about why I feel the way I do. What I did wrong, what I could have done better, how I can improve, why didn't I say the things that were actually going through my mind and so on and so on. It's frustrating! Once upon a time, I thought that because I couldn't switch off my mind, it meant that I was lacking in maturity, common sense or intelligent thought but that's not the case at all. I sit my exams, I get depressed over them, I can't sleep at night and without fail, I always end up getting over 90%. My mind is highly analytical. Although I mainly analyse and re-analyse the causes for my depressive cycles, I can apply that sort of mind frame to anything, perfect my understanding and ask well thought out questions.

Andrews' team came across this conclusion in their research also. They found that sufferers of depression scored lower on cognitive tests but did better on complex problems that required deep thought. There's this one protein, SHT1A that binds serotonin (responsible for happy feelings!) and higher levels of the protein have been observed in depressed patients. The team suggests it's this protein that helps supply energy to neurons involved in the ventrolatral prefrontal cortex (VLPC) which are integral to keeping us focused on a task. In the happy, non-depressed individual, the VLPC runs out of energy and we lose focus. The depressed VLPC has a constant supply of nutrients and doesn't turn off.

The depressed mind thinks less of food and sex, as these just interrupt flow of thought. The depressed mind hasn't been phased out as we've evolved perhaps because it has the ability to solve social dilemmas that non depressed minds can't. Our analytical minds go into overdrive, we consider the costs and benefits of a given situation, such as a marriage or break up and come up with the best resolution. Oh how I hate seeing gray in a world that sees black and white! :(

I think the ideas are pretty rad and could potentially change the way depression is treated. They do however put into question the effectiveness of cognitive based therapy. Maybe simply talking about the way you feel (i.e. Freudian psychoanalysis) is the best way to go! There's no doubt that depression can be XTREMEly detrimental, though. Is that benefiting anyone or are we just wired to think that depression equals bad and hence conform to that ideal?

It's odd, because even this blog, is just an extension of my obsessively analytical mind. I don't know if I have depression, but I think like most people, I could relate to what was discussed in the article. We all have our own depressive tendencies.