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The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic
"Why are we losing the fight against depression? In this groundbreaking work, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg explains that despite advances in pharmaceutical science, progress has been hampered by our fundamental misunderstanding of depression as a psychological or chemical defect. Instead, Rottenberg introduces a surprising alternative: that depression is a particularly severe outgrowth of our natural capacity for emotion; it is a low mood gone haywire. Drawing on recent developments in the science of mood-and his own harrowing depressive experience as a young adult-Rottenberg explains depression in evolutionary terms, showing how its dark pull arises from adaptations that evolved to help our ancestors ensure their survival. Weaving together experimental and epidemiological research, clinical observations, and the voices of people who have struggled with depression, The Depths offers a bold new account of why depression endures-and points the way toward new paths for treatment"--
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2012
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August 7, 2014
I’m pleased I came across this intriguing and hopeful study. Rottenberg, a mood scientist who has suffered from depression himself, refutes the idea that depression is caused by a deficiency. Depressed people are not broken and weak. That’s an essential message when you consider that one in five Americans will suffer from depression in their lifetime, and that there are currently 13 million patients in the United States alone. “Depression has no ‘Race for the Cure’; this condition rarely spawns dance marathons, car washes, or golf tournaments. Consequently, the lacerating pain of depression remains uncomfortably private.”
Although Rottenberg provides extensive footnotes and figures as if this were an academic text, the book falls somewhere between popular science and self-help and will be readily comprehensible to laypeople. I especially appreciated his discussion of the causes and the average trajectory of depression. Depression is likely to be caused by a string of unfortunate occurrences, rather than one traumatic event. (Studies have shown that having three stressful situations at once is four times worse than having just two.) “Repeated social defeat, or physical isolation” are common factors, as are bereavement of any kind and perfectionism. “Depressed people don’t end up lying in bed because they are undercommitted to goals. They end up lying in bed because they are overcommitted to goals that are failing.”
Something I never quite realized before is that depression comes in two levels of severity: shallow or deep. Rottenberg’s central argument is that shallow depression, especially, is an evolutionary adaptation. For the sufferer, it can convey distinct benefits, such as being more deliberate, careful and skeptical; and being more persuasive in arguments, through concrete details. The author refers to depression as “an emotional cocoon, a space to pause and analyze what has gone wrong. In this mode we will stop what we are doing, assess the situation, draw in others, and if necessary, change course...psychic pain teaches us to navigate life’s rocky shoals with due caution.” Depressive realism allows sufferers to stop wasting time on futile projects.
Ordinary life stressors might lead to one day of low mood, but depression takes a bit more. It might be early life trauma, an irresolvable dilemma, lack of light (SAD) and sleep, or just one’s temperament. Neurotic, wary people are more likely to sink into depression, and overthinking (rumination) makes things worse. You can’t think your way out of depression. Unfortunately, those in shallow depression are five times more likely to fall into a deep depression. Rottenberg reveals a paradox: the more you value happiness, the less likely you are to achieve it. That’s because it can’t be a goal like any other; “we should avoid fixating on a specific happiness level and recognize that happiness itself is...but a fleeting by-product of progress toward other goals.”
Deep depression is a whole other story, one I’m very glad I have never approached. From personal experience and anecdotes from other patients, Rottenberg describes it as a black hole, a state of suspended animation. This is not just about crying more than usual; in fact, studies have shown that depressed people cry less, because in a numb state they are less reactive to sad stimuli. Even here, though, the author posits an evolutionary reason behind depression: “to organize disengagement.” Once again depression functions as a deliberate period of withdrawal and self-preservation, perhaps like a reculer pour mieux sauter. The good news is that for 90% of patients, it lasts less than a year; for 50%, it even lasts less than six months. (Rottenberg thinks he was in deep depression for nearly four years, a time he associates with a wasted history PhD.)
What can help? Antidepressants, CBT and interpersonal therapy are three main treatment strategies, though some advocate just watching and waiting for it to go away. Early improvers seem to have an innate resilience and receptivity to medication, or perhaps just good luck. It helps if one’s life problems seem less complex and more manageable. Still, improvement can be so gradual that it’s tough to pinpoint when things turned around. Alas, the longer a depression has lasted, the longer the recovery period can be. It also tends to be followed by residual depression, a time of limbo during which it is easy to sink back down. Depression (like seizure activity) actually changes the brain, such that less stress is required to tip one over in future.
The incursion of a positive life event, such as the birth of a child, does not have as much impact as you might think. Because “depressed people typically face a crisis of purpose,” often it takes multiple purposeful events to help you face life again. Rottenberg writes of “the hazard of putting all one’s eggs in a single basket. I stay well in part because I have diversified my portfolio, evolutionarily speaking” – with parenthood, a new career path, and hobbies all contributing to a renewed sense of purpose. The recovery process is, at best, about improvisation. Yet those who have come through speak of a new, secret strength or an inner peace.
“Welcome this pain, for you will learn from it,” said Ovid. “That is surely too glib,” Rottenberg replies, but I think it is a good summary for his book nonetheless. Depression, whether shallow or deep, is painful in a way that many find difficult to express. To know that it might have an evolutionary purpose is reassuring. I have never suffered from clinical depression myself, but some family members have, and I do have melancholy tendencies; for me, this was an important and heartening read.
I was delighted to win a copy in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
Although Rottenberg provides extensive footnotes and figures as if this were an academic text, the book falls somewhere between popular science and self-help and will be readily comprehensible to laypeople. I especially appreciated his discussion of the causes and the average trajectory of depression. Depression is likely to be caused by a string of unfortunate occurrences, rather than one traumatic event. (Studies have shown that having three stressful situations at once is four times worse than having just two.) “Repeated social defeat, or physical isolation” are common factors, as are bereavement of any kind and perfectionism. “Depressed people don’t end up lying in bed because they are undercommitted to goals. They end up lying in bed because they are overcommitted to goals that are failing.”
Something I never quite realized before is that depression comes in two levels of severity: shallow or deep. Rottenberg’s central argument is that shallow depression, especially, is an evolutionary adaptation. For the sufferer, it can convey distinct benefits, such as being more deliberate, careful and skeptical; and being more persuasive in arguments, through concrete details. The author refers to depression as “an emotional cocoon, a space to pause and analyze what has gone wrong. In this mode we will stop what we are doing, assess the situation, draw in others, and if necessary, change course...psychic pain teaches us to navigate life’s rocky shoals with due caution.” Depressive realism allows sufferers to stop wasting time on futile projects.
Ordinary life stressors might lead to one day of low mood, but depression takes a bit more. It might be early life trauma, an irresolvable dilemma, lack of light (SAD) and sleep, or just one’s temperament. Neurotic, wary people are more likely to sink into depression, and overthinking (rumination) makes things worse. You can’t think your way out of depression. Unfortunately, those in shallow depression are five times more likely to fall into a deep depression. Rottenberg reveals a paradox: the more you value happiness, the less likely you are to achieve it. That’s because it can’t be a goal like any other; “we should avoid fixating on a specific happiness level and recognize that happiness itself is...but a fleeting by-product of progress toward other goals.”
Deep depression is a whole other story, one I’m very glad I have never approached. From personal experience and anecdotes from other patients, Rottenberg describes it as a black hole, a state of suspended animation. This is not just about crying more than usual; in fact, studies have shown that depressed people cry less, because in a numb state they are less reactive to sad stimuli. Even here, though, the author posits an evolutionary reason behind depression: “to organize disengagement.” Once again depression functions as a deliberate period of withdrawal and self-preservation, perhaps like a reculer pour mieux sauter. The good news is that for 90% of patients, it lasts less than a year; for 50%, it even lasts less than six months. (Rottenberg thinks he was in deep depression for nearly four years, a time he associates with a wasted history PhD.)
What can help? Antidepressants, CBT and interpersonal therapy are three main treatment strategies, though some advocate just watching and waiting for it to go away. Early improvers seem to have an innate resilience and receptivity to medication, or perhaps just good luck. It helps if one’s life problems seem less complex and more manageable. Still, improvement can be so gradual that it’s tough to pinpoint when things turned around. Alas, the longer a depression has lasted, the longer the recovery period can be. It also tends to be followed by residual depression, a time of limbo during which it is easy to sink back down. Depression (like seizure activity) actually changes the brain, such that less stress is required to tip one over in future.
The incursion of a positive life event, such as the birth of a child, does not have as much impact as you might think. Because “depressed people typically face a crisis of purpose,” often it takes multiple purposeful events to help you face life again. Rottenberg writes of “the hazard of putting all one’s eggs in a single basket. I stay well in part because I have diversified my portfolio, evolutionarily speaking” – with parenthood, a new career path, and hobbies all contributing to a renewed sense of purpose. The recovery process is, at best, about improvisation. Yet those who have come through speak of a new, secret strength or an inner peace.
“Welcome this pain, for you will learn from it,” said Ovid. “That is surely too glib,” Rottenberg replies, but I think it is a good summary for his book nonetheless. Depression, whether shallow or deep, is painful in a way that many find difficult to express. To know that it might have an evolutionary purpose is reassuring. I have never suffered from clinical depression myself, but some family members have, and I do have melancholy tendencies; for me, this was an important and heartening read.
I was delighted to win a copy in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
September 8, 2014
There are far too many reasons why I wanted to read this book. For one, we do hear of Depression a lot more than we used to, say, 10 years back. And increasingly what goes with Depression is anti-depressants. The idea being that Depression is a defect in the system, that can be rectified by correcting some hormonal flows or chemical imbalances. I was a believer in this approach.
Rottenberg's work looks at it from a different angle - that of what he calls 'mood science'. The basic premise is that we have a system called 'moods' which directs us towards our evolutionary goals - survival and procreation. For eg. when we are likely to be facing something that is threatening and need to be on alert, the mood system puts us in that mode.
Rottenberg argues that low moods are something that we encounter often and have the goal of ensuring that we scale down effort when faced with incredible odds against achieving a goal. They help us lie low, think things through and move on to the next course of action. Depression, he argues is when things get so bad, in the face of external stressors for instance, that the system shuts down and you move around with no purpose to direct your energies towards. The idea that Depression is a defect or a disease is thus misplaced.
One of the myths he busts is about anti-depressants. Research has been showing that ADs have as much effect as placebos and can do more harm than good. Similarly, other options like Coginitive Behavior Therapy(CBT) have also shown mixed results. ADs are also eminently abused and are also medications to address symptoms from wide-ranging disorders like OCD, chronic pain etc. They even have effects on non-depressed normal people.
Depression and bereavement were dealt with separately, but increasingly research is showing that bereavement is a form of Depression, which means that Depression is something that arises from the loss of something that puts the key purposes of the mood system - survival and reproduction - in jeopardy.
The book stays away from offering any magic bullets, saying that because of the current lifestyle which emphasizes happiness as an end by itself rather than a byproduct we are likely going to be seeing more Depression than the already alarming numbers. The mood system works well in a given environment to guide us towards survival and reproduction. But in the current environmental conditions it can cause harm, like most other traits that evolved with us. Given the mixed results with different therapies, it is not likely to be eradicated easily.
Most Depression lasts for months or even years. Recovery depends a lot on how much the external stressors that caused it in the first place go away along with a lot of other factors, including response to medication or to any other therapy. It is also very likely that people can relapse into Depression, it being easier to fall into Depression relapse than the first time.
He does hold out hope though, that those who have recovered, show increasing appreciation for life. But then, a lot would depend on how much the stressors that caused the issues in the first place disappear and how much people are able to set things right. The importance of sunlight and exercise also cannot be emphasised enough!
I wish there had been something on how to prevent Depression, to stay in good mental shape. There is mention of trying to be in a positive mood, but then he also mentions that that can cause issues by itself as it would lead to more frustration if things don't work out the way we want to in the personal or the professional front. I also didn't agree too much with the idea that one way to stay out of Depression would be the find a 'purpose' in life. That contradicts with his initial statement that people have unrealistic goals that don't work out causing Depression. Purpose and goals can become unrealistic as circumstances change or we might just realise that we are not good enough to achieve what we set out. The Eastern way of detachment is a better approach, something that he briefly alludes to, but doesn't pursue much.
All in all, this is an important book, that should be a necessary read for anyone dealing with or having someone close dealing with Depression. Unlike The Emperor of All Maladies, this one is less biographic and more theoretical. But then, compared to cancer, we are still a long way to go on the figuring out scale.
Rottenberg's work looks at it from a different angle - that of what he calls 'mood science'. The basic premise is that we have a system called 'moods' which directs us towards our evolutionary goals - survival and procreation. For eg. when we are likely to be facing something that is threatening and need to be on alert, the mood system puts us in that mode.
Rottenberg argues that low moods are something that we encounter often and have the goal of ensuring that we scale down effort when faced with incredible odds against achieving a goal. They help us lie low, think things through and move on to the next course of action. Depression, he argues is when things get so bad, in the face of external stressors for instance, that the system shuts down and you move around with no purpose to direct your energies towards. The idea that Depression is a defect or a disease is thus misplaced.
One of the myths he busts is about anti-depressants. Research has been showing that ADs have as much effect as placebos and can do more harm than good. Similarly, other options like Coginitive Behavior Therapy(CBT) have also shown mixed results. ADs are also eminently abused and are also medications to address symptoms from wide-ranging disorders like OCD, chronic pain etc. They even have effects on non-depressed normal people.
Depression and bereavement were dealt with separately, but increasingly research is showing that bereavement is a form of Depression, which means that Depression is something that arises from the loss of something that puts the key purposes of the mood system - survival and reproduction - in jeopardy.
The book stays away from offering any magic bullets, saying that because of the current lifestyle which emphasizes happiness as an end by itself rather than a byproduct we are likely going to be seeing more Depression than the already alarming numbers. The mood system works well in a given environment to guide us towards survival and reproduction. But in the current environmental conditions it can cause harm, like most other traits that evolved with us. Given the mixed results with different therapies, it is not likely to be eradicated easily.
Most Depression lasts for months or even years. Recovery depends a lot on how much the external stressors that caused it in the first place go away along with a lot of other factors, including response to medication or to any other therapy. It is also very likely that people can relapse into Depression, it being easier to fall into Depression relapse than the first time.
He does hold out hope though, that those who have recovered, show increasing appreciation for life. But then, a lot would depend on how much the stressors that caused the issues in the first place disappear and how much people are able to set things right. The importance of sunlight and exercise also cannot be emphasised enough!
I wish there had been something on how to prevent Depression, to stay in good mental shape. There is mention of trying to be in a positive mood, but then he also mentions that that can cause issues by itself as it would lead to more frustration if things don't work out the way we want to in the personal or the professional front. I also didn't agree too much with the idea that one way to stay out of Depression would be the find a 'purpose' in life. That contradicts with his initial statement that people have unrealistic goals that don't work out causing Depression. Purpose and goals can become unrealistic as circumstances change or we might just realise that we are not good enough to achieve what we set out. The Eastern way of detachment is a better approach, something that he briefly alludes to, but doesn't pursue much.
All in all, this is an important book, that should be a necessary read for anyone dealing with or having someone close dealing with Depression. Unlike The Emperor of All Maladies, this one is less biographic and more theoretical. But then, compared to cancer, we are still a long way to go on the figuring out scale.
March 31, 2014
This is an important book about an important question: What happens when we get depressed? Is it a sign of weakness, or something else? Dr. Rottenberg, who was my college roommate and good friend for three years, explains current scientific thinking about depression -- what it means and why it's increasing. Dr. Rottenberg weaves in stories about the crippling depression he experienced himself, and encourages sufferers not to be ashamed, but to Come Out of the Dark. The science is intriguing, and helps explain why depression can be hard to treat. With humility and confidence, Dr. Rottenberg has written a significant book that can help all who struggle, either themselves or via a loved one, with the noonday demon.
December 18, 2021
A must-read for everyone who wants to understand depression and how we are wired for it.
“Ultimately, the strong cultural imperative toward being happy bumps us up against a wall: our mood system is not configured to deliver an end state of durable euphoria. ... So clearly does intense happiness fade after a goal is achieved that psychologists and economists have given the experience its own label: hedonic adaptation. It is powerful, and studies show it to be virtually omnipresent: whether after purchasing a zippy new sports car, getting a big promotion, or moving to a cool new apartment, with time (often surprisingly little) the euphoria fades”
“Ultimately, the strong cultural imperative toward being happy bumps us up against a wall: our mood system is not configured to deliver an end state of durable euphoria. ... So clearly does intense happiness fade after a goal is achieved that psychologists and economists have given the experience its own label: hedonic adaptation. It is powerful, and studies show it to be virtually omnipresent: whether after purchasing a zippy new sports car, getting a big promotion, or moving to a cool new apartment, with time (often surprisingly little) the euphoria fades”
June 10, 2016
I could have done without the term "mood science" but have to say it was better than most books that tackle this subject. I felt pretty certain going into this book that I would not care for it much because most books that attempt to tie current human behavior to evolutionary arguments end up being more pseudoscientific than scientific. However, just about every argument in this book was fairly reasonable and didn't fall as far into Gould's 'just so story' category as many other authors I have read.
February 17, 2024
Awesome. Well. I searched for a book like this, because of many reasons. One of them, is that my dad killed himself 8 years ago. He'd been struggling with depression. The other reason was that I've read a lot of Jonathan Haidt, and evolutionary psychopathology, and really want to know a lot about depression, considering that gen Z, are more prone to this.
The book's main premise is this: up until now, depression is considered as a "sickness". Meaning that, if someone is "depressed" well, automatically "there is something wrong with that person" or "that person in biochemically unbalanced". The author, who suffered from a 4-year long depression, using the evolutionary lens, and quoting many studies related to "affective science" has come here to state another posture: "What if depression is not just a sickness, but an evolutionary mechanism with a purpose”? Evidence is outstanding. Both Marco del Giudice and Randolph M. Neese, have mentioned the possibility that low mood is a strategy to cope with the environment stimuli. Low mood and high mood are just states, meaning that the human brain is able to behave differently depending the environment and even cultural cues that we grew up in.
What if you struggle for something that you know is really difficult to achieve? Like being a millionaire by the time you are 25 years old? or having a doctoral degree by the time you reach thirty? Evolution does not care about your happiness. it cared about you being reproduced. These "material" things that I have mentioned, have only appeared recently. In ancient times, (evolutionary times), we had to deal with other issues, and not about onlyfans, Ferraris or stalkers on Facebook. We had to deal with famine, with early motherhood, scarce resources, and actually, with the possibility of dying because of a minor infection, every one of your days, because life expectancy was 30 years old. Activating low mood, is just another way to cope with the fact of navigating through life, a task that is not simple, but probably the most difficult one. As Camus mentioned "Imagine Sisyphus happy".
Now, in modern times, (even Bill Maher mentioned this recently this month), younger generations are growing up with lyrics that ovation "Gucci", "Prada", "Ferrari", "Balenciaga" (stuff that initially belonged to rap artists), to lyrics like this one: "I wanna be a billionaire so fuckin' bad, buy all of the things I never had". Imagine being a 13 year-old, singing that crap. By the time that person reaches 22 years of age, his expectations and economic standards would not be realistic. He's going to struggle. These things happen in western countries, more than in Asian cultures. This is the importance of the cultural setting. At some point, each and everyone of us is going to suffer this, and it is not a sickness, it is like pain; it has a meaning, and a purpose, we may not like it, but life is that way, is complicated, and uncertain, this is why we have religions and rituals, to control our own small worlds in which we live.
At any moment, I'm saying that depression is something "simple". My dad swallowed 30 sleeping pills with vinegar, and died of a heart attack while being induced to sleep. According to evolutionary psychiatry, suicide is "the last resource to end pain; terminating one self's conscience".
I hope this book reaches a lot of people, and it makes me happy that evolutionary psychology is being used to understand our minds, and how we cope with the everlasting pain or joy, of living.
The book's main premise is this: up until now, depression is considered as a "sickness". Meaning that, if someone is "depressed" well, automatically "there is something wrong with that person" or "that person in biochemically unbalanced". The author, who suffered from a 4-year long depression, using the evolutionary lens, and quoting many studies related to "affective science" has come here to state another posture: "What if depression is not just a sickness, but an evolutionary mechanism with a purpose”? Evidence is outstanding. Both Marco del Giudice and Randolph M. Neese, have mentioned the possibility that low mood is a strategy to cope with the environment stimuli. Low mood and high mood are just states, meaning that the human brain is able to behave differently depending the environment and even cultural cues that we grew up in.
What if you struggle for something that you know is really difficult to achieve? Like being a millionaire by the time you are 25 years old? or having a doctoral degree by the time you reach thirty? Evolution does not care about your happiness. it cared about you being reproduced. These "material" things that I have mentioned, have only appeared recently. In ancient times, (evolutionary times), we had to deal with other issues, and not about onlyfans, Ferraris or stalkers on Facebook. We had to deal with famine, with early motherhood, scarce resources, and actually, with the possibility of dying because of a minor infection, every one of your days, because life expectancy was 30 years old. Activating low mood, is just another way to cope with the fact of navigating through life, a task that is not simple, but probably the most difficult one. As Camus mentioned "Imagine Sisyphus happy".
Now, in modern times, (even Bill Maher mentioned this recently this month), younger generations are growing up with lyrics that ovation "Gucci", "Prada", "Ferrari", "Balenciaga" (stuff that initially belonged to rap artists), to lyrics like this one: "I wanna be a billionaire so fuckin' bad, buy all of the things I never had". Imagine being a 13 year-old, singing that crap. By the time that person reaches 22 years of age, his expectations and economic standards would not be realistic. He's going to struggle. These things happen in western countries, more than in Asian cultures. This is the importance of the cultural setting. At some point, each and everyone of us is going to suffer this, and it is not a sickness, it is like pain; it has a meaning, and a purpose, we may not like it, but life is that way, is complicated, and uncertain, this is why we have religions and rituals, to control our own small worlds in which we live.
At any moment, I'm saying that depression is something "simple". My dad swallowed 30 sleeping pills with vinegar, and died of a heart attack while being induced to sleep. According to evolutionary psychiatry, suicide is "the last resource to end pain; terminating one self's conscience".
I hope this book reaches a lot of people, and it makes me happy that evolutionary psychology is being used to understand our minds, and how we cope with the everlasting pain or joy, of living.
August 9, 2014
Spectacular! At last, a rational examination of depression from the "mood science" perspective. Weather your a clinician, or just a regular joe suffering from depression and looking for a way out, this book will be useful.
The author's arguments are grounded in experimental bio-psychology and evolutionary theory. The author posits that (what we currently refer to as) depression is an adaptation rather than a disease.
Although severe depression may be maladaptive in our current social and economic environment. The same trait is conceivably within the spectrum of behavior, between adaptive organismic up-regulation (expend energy) and down-regulation (conserve energy).
The obvious metaphor being the gas and break systems of a car. Where so-called manic symptoms represent the "go" gas and depressive symptoms represent the "stop" breaks. As every driver knows, sometimes slamming on the breaks keeps you alive.
For example:
Seasonal depression, is conceivably an adaptive response to the predictable lack of resources and opportunities in winter months.
In other words, it would have been adaptive for our ancestors to down-regulate and conserve energy (i.e. lay low) in the winter. This would be akin to hibernation in other mammals.
What we now experience as debilitating malaise could have been adaptive in the ancestral environment.
Postpartum depression may be an adaptive "authentic signal" i.e after giving birth, it may be adaptive to display overt signs of distress in order to garner needed social support for the task of tending to the infant during the critical early months of child rearing and during the mother's convalescence period.
After a significant loss it may be adaptive to "slow down" and skeptically reassess your life trajectory before rebuilding in the next period.
In times of danger, when things are actually hopeless and you are actually helpless to change the situation, it would obviously be adaptive to "hit the breaks" ", hide out, and conserve energy while the danger passes.
Things get sticky when this adaptive trait interacts with our other very human adaptation, language (and imagination). Sometimes the dangers we fear are neither clear or present, and sometimes our distorted beliefs and "negative self-talk" can "dump gasoline on the fire of otherwise healthy down-regulation.
Additionally, our current social and economic environment permits longer periods of inactivity than our ancestral environment likely did. Allowing depressed individuals to do things like not exercise for days, months, years etc. More gas on the fire.
Similar to the way our ultra efficient fat storage systems kept our ancestors alive in time of scarcity. But is now a public health crisis in our current environment of abundance. Depression may have kept our ancestors alive in an extremely dangerous and competitive environment. But is literally killing us in our current economic environment of go, go, go or sink like a stone.
Many object to evolutionary psychology as essentially "just so stories". But this is actually not so. To paraphrase Richard Dawkins, just so stories are Lamarkiean (a little evo-humor for the initiated).
Evolutionary theory is communicated in story from to lay people. But it is investigated via the methods of anthropology, tested experimentally and modeled mathematically.
The theories become the basis for hypothesis that are later tested experimentally and are subject to the same processes of peer review and replication as any other experimental claim. It's not perfect. It doesn't "prove" anything. But neither does a lot of legitimate science.
In many cases, including much of physics, science is simply our current best guess based on what we can currently know, and based on how our predictions pan out experimentally. This is all very consciously subject to revision as the data continues to accumulate. Real science never claims to prove anything. Real science is necessarily sceptical, especially of its own findings.
If you're sceptical of evolutionary psychology, good. But now it's on you to come up with a better explanation, and a more predictive model. Go for it! We'll all be better off for it. But if your an armchair hater, all I can say is, I hope you have fun on the trailing edge. These exciting new perspectives on human behavior are revolutionizing the field, and becoming more mainstream daily.
For the life of me, I can't understand haters of evolutionary psychology. I'm tempted to venture a guess or two. But I have been drinking, so now is not the time to wonder down that dark alley. Suffice it to say that if you are an evo-psych hater, you may wish to opt out of this one (at your own experience).
If nothing in biology makes sense outside of evolutionary theory (and it doesn't), than we can safely include human behavior, cognition, and affect in that camp. Last time I checked, people (including our brains and our behavior) are biological, and are probably not somehow magically outside of the same evolutionary process that shaped all other things biological.
In conclusion, The Depths is an important and clarifying read. Comprehensive yet brief, very well researched and written. I highly recommend this tight little book.
The author's arguments are grounded in experimental bio-psychology and evolutionary theory. The author posits that (what we currently refer to as) depression is an adaptation rather than a disease.
Although severe depression may be maladaptive in our current social and economic environment. The same trait is conceivably within the spectrum of behavior, between adaptive organismic up-regulation (expend energy) and down-regulation (conserve energy).
The obvious metaphor being the gas and break systems of a car. Where so-called manic symptoms represent the "go" gas and depressive symptoms represent the "stop" breaks. As every driver knows, sometimes slamming on the breaks keeps you alive.
For example:
Seasonal depression, is conceivably an adaptive response to the predictable lack of resources and opportunities in winter months.
In other words, it would have been adaptive for our ancestors to down-regulate and conserve energy (i.e. lay low) in the winter. This would be akin to hibernation in other mammals.
What we now experience as debilitating malaise could have been adaptive in the ancestral environment.
Postpartum depression may be an adaptive "authentic signal" i.e after giving birth, it may be adaptive to display overt signs of distress in order to garner needed social support for the task of tending to the infant during the critical early months of child rearing and during the mother's convalescence period.
After a significant loss it may be adaptive to "slow down" and skeptically reassess your life trajectory before rebuilding in the next period.
In times of danger, when things are actually hopeless and you are actually helpless to change the situation, it would obviously be adaptive to "hit the breaks" ", hide out, and conserve energy while the danger passes.
Things get sticky when this adaptive trait interacts with our other very human adaptation, language (and imagination). Sometimes the dangers we fear are neither clear or present, and sometimes our distorted beliefs and "negative self-talk" can "dump gasoline on the fire of otherwise healthy down-regulation.
Additionally, our current social and economic environment permits longer periods of inactivity than our ancestral environment likely did. Allowing depressed individuals to do things like not exercise for days, months, years etc. More gas on the fire.
Similar to the way our ultra efficient fat storage systems kept our ancestors alive in time of scarcity. But is now a public health crisis in our current environment of abundance. Depression may have kept our ancestors alive in an extremely dangerous and competitive environment. But is literally killing us in our current economic environment of go, go, go or sink like a stone.
Many object to evolutionary psychology as essentially "just so stories". But this is actually not so. To paraphrase Richard Dawkins, just so stories are Lamarkiean (a little evo-humor for the initiated).
Evolutionary theory is communicated in story from to lay people. But it is investigated via the methods of anthropology, tested experimentally and modeled mathematically.
The theories become the basis for hypothesis that are later tested experimentally and are subject to the same processes of peer review and replication as any other experimental claim. It's not perfect. It doesn't "prove" anything. But neither does a lot of legitimate science.
In many cases, including much of physics, science is simply our current best guess based on what we can currently know, and based on how our predictions pan out experimentally. This is all very consciously subject to revision as the data continues to accumulate. Real science never claims to prove anything. Real science is necessarily sceptical, especially of its own findings.
If you're sceptical of evolutionary psychology, good. But now it's on you to come up with a better explanation, and a more predictive model. Go for it! We'll all be better off for it. But if your an armchair hater, all I can say is, I hope you have fun on the trailing edge. These exciting new perspectives on human behavior are revolutionizing the field, and becoming more mainstream daily.
For the life of me, I can't understand haters of evolutionary psychology. I'm tempted to venture a guess or two. But I have been drinking, so now is not the time to wonder down that dark alley. Suffice it to say that if you are an evo-psych hater, you may wish to opt out of this one (at your own experience).
If nothing in biology makes sense outside of evolutionary theory (and it doesn't), than we can safely include human behavior, cognition, and affect in that camp. Last time I checked, people (including our brains and our behavior) are biological, and are probably not somehow magically outside of the same evolutionary process that shaped all other things biological.
In conclusion, The Depths is an important and clarifying read. Comprehensive yet brief, very well researched and written. I highly recommend this tight little book.
July 18, 2016
Essentially argues that depression can be adaptive, and that some parts of modern life foster deep depressions that extend past the point of utility (it wasn't exactly clear to me that the features he outlined in this regard are distinctly new to modern life). For example, when rats are placed in an impossible situation, those who take antidepressants don't learn helplessness and continue to struggle. Which may in fact not be adaptively beneficial. Sometimes the best, most adaptive, and most logical course is to give up.
Argues for studying those who recover and what helped them (positive programs focused on multiple dimensions of well-being: nutrition, fitness, yoga, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, de-storying, allowing negative emotions to pass and not expecting to be so friggin' happy all the time, etc.)
"a procession of unfortunate events has been shown to predict human depression more strongly than a single unfortunate event" (52).
"Antidepressants affect many behaviors that are unrelated to depression: chronic pain, OCD, eating disorders and influence the behaiviors of healthy nondepressed volunteers" (49).
Although the DSM separates them, low mood related to bereavement is considered appropriate; low mood not related to bereavement is considered diseased, although the objective symptoms are the same (63). In 2013 this distinction was eliminated.
9/10 depressed people can identify external events that triggered or contributed, "with more than half reporting a severe, stressful life event prior to the onset of depression" (67). Loss -- of partner, love, social prestige, social networks -- seem to be the key. "The theme of loss is often present in more subtle ways. Take a young adult's depression that emerges after he starts working at an ordinary job after college; the depression might be related to the fact that taking a less-than-ideal job meant giving up on a childhood career dream, even if the loss of the dream was not discussed explicitly" (68)
"Sinking through thinking" -- moods are evolutionarily designed to help us respond appropriately. We assume that if we reflect to understand why we feel bad, we can figure out how to fix it. A main function of low mood is to "draw attention to threats and obstacles in unfavorable environments" (95). "What people brood about is not random but tracks key evolutionary themes (finding a mate, staying alive, achieving status, defending kith and kin, etc.) Mothers and fathers worry about their children . . . because mistakes in child rearing are evolutionarily costly . . . Even the most backward-looking counterfactual thinking (coulda, shoulda, woulda) has a forward-looking element: understanding why bad things happen helps us prevent their recurrence" (96). However, what enhances survival and fitness may not enhance happiness. We solve many problems by thinking, but "our confidence in thought makes it more difficult to recognize when thinking is not working. In fact, 'thinking your way out' might actually provide new ways _in_, new ways for low mood to deepen into serious depression" (97). Our meaning-making can be too productive for our own good . . . we can generate dozens of seemingly plausible environmental reasons for the question: "Why am I so blue?" . . . Yet many of the leads will be false, irrelevant to the real source of the mood. . . . The generation of false leads may be good for fitness (the value of an exhaustive seearch), but it's not always so good for happiness" (96).
From an evolutionary perspective, sometimes the best survival strategy is to hold in place (120). "Deep depression is an organized response to make sure we don't act. The mood system seizes the entire body and mind, every drive in the body -- eating, sleeping, fornicating, and emoting -- and pulls them toward disengagement -- a black hole for motivation" (121).
"A biological response strong enough to shut down seeking may have unintended consequences . . . . seeking is our natural state . . . . " the positivity offset ensures that most people report more positive than negative emotions in response to neutral stimuli, because "it encourages exploration and engagement with novel objects . . . . shutting down seeking requires a potent mechanism that is likely to bring with it collateral damage, including the possiblity that deep depression is sustained well beyond an instigating crisis. [depression increases risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks], outcomes so harmful and utterly without benefit, it's impossible to conceive of them in terms of evolutionary design" (136-7)
Patients with Cushings syndrome often become depressed through extended exposure to high levels of cortisol. "Medications that block the effects of cortisol to treat depression have shown some promise and are in an experimental phase of testing." (137).
For those who improve on antidepressants, "about 60 percent of the improvement occuring on antidepressants in drug trials happens during the first two weeks of treatment. This quick pace challenges an older conventional wisdom in psychopharmacology that it takes many weeks on antidepressants for action in the brain to manifest clinically" (146).
Factors that trigger chronic depression -- neurotic temperament, mood-punishing routine, exposure to trauma early in life, continuing exposure to stressors (discordant and conflictual relationships with significant others)
Notes that there is residual depression -- period when patient is no longer acutely depressed but is not quite well, either.
Argues we should define recovery as wellness/thriving (protective) versus simply absence of symptoms, and that multiple "levers" that move mood should be pulled: diet, sleep, though patterns, relationships with others, exercise (184).
Positive mood creates an upward spiral of "broaden attention and build resources:" positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires: wider visual search patterns, display novel and more creative thoughts & actions, more flexible in goals and mindsets.
depressed people typically face a crisis of purpose, so having a purpose in life can be healing and protective. "Careers, as they are connected to economic and social resources and ultimately social status, are an important evolutionarily favored purpose, one that the mood system will carefully track. Author stays well b/c he diversified portfolio: found career, married, had child, took up marathon running, wrote book.
Argues for studying those who recover and what helped them (positive programs focused on multiple dimensions of well-being: nutrition, fitness, yoga, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, de-storying, allowing negative emotions to pass and not expecting to be so friggin' happy all the time, etc.)
"a procession of unfortunate events has been shown to predict human depression more strongly than a single unfortunate event" (52).
"Antidepressants affect many behaviors that are unrelated to depression: chronic pain, OCD, eating disorders and influence the behaiviors of healthy nondepressed volunteers" (49).
Although the DSM separates them, low mood related to bereavement is considered appropriate; low mood not related to bereavement is considered diseased, although the objective symptoms are the same (63). In 2013 this distinction was eliminated.
9/10 depressed people can identify external events that triggered or contributed, "with more than half reporting a severe, stressful life event prior to the onset of depression" (67). Loss -- of partner, love, social prestige, social networks -- seem to be the key. "The theme of loss is often present in more subtle ways. Take a young adult's depression that emerges after he starts working at an ordinary job after college; the depression might be related to the fact that taking a less-than-ideal job meant giving up on a childhood career dream, even if the loss of the dream was not discussed explicitly" (68)
"Sinking through thinking" -- moods are evolutionarily designed to help us respond appropriately. We assume that if we reflect to understand why we feel bad, we can figure out how to fix it. A main function of low mood is to "draw attention to threats and obstacles in unfavorable environments" (95). "What people brood about is not random but tracks key evolutionary themes (finding a mate, staying alive, achieving status, defending kith and kin, etc.) Mothers and fathers worry about their children . . . because mistakes in child rearing are evolutionarily costly . . . Even the most backward-looking counterfactual thinking (coulda, shoulda, woulda) has a forward-looking element: understanding why bad things happen helps us prevent their recurrence" (96). However, what enhances survival and fitness may not enhance happiness. We solve many problems by thinking, but "our confidence in thought makes it more difficult to recognize when thinking is not working. In fact, 'thinking your way out' might actually provide new ways _in_, new ways for low mood to deepen into serious depression" (97). Our meaning-making can be too productive for our own good . . . we can generate dozens of seemingly plausible environmental reasons for the question: "Why am I so blue?" . . . Yet many of the leads will be false, irrelevant to the real source of the mood. . . . The generation of false leads may be good for fitness (the value of an exhaustive seearch), but it's not always so good for happiness" (96).
From an evolutionary perspective, sometimes the best survival strategy is to hold in place (120). "Deep depression is an organized response to make sure we don't act. The mood system seizes the entire body and mind, every drive in the body -- eating, sleeping, fornicating, and emoting -- and pulls them toward disengagement -- a black hole for motivation" (121).
"A biological response strong enough to shut down seeking may have unintended consequences . . . . seeking is our natural state . . . . " the positivity offset ensures that most people report more positive than negative emotions in response to neutral stimuli, because "it encourages exploration and engagement with novel objects . . . . shutting down seeking requires a potent mechanism that is likely to bring with it collateral damage, including the possiblity that deep depression is sustained well beyond an instigating crisis. [depression increases risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks], outcomes so harmful and utterly without benefit, it's impossible to conceive of them in terms of evolutionary design" (136-7)
Patients with Cushings syndrome often become depressed through extended exposure to high levels of cortisol. "Medications that block the effects of cortisol to treat depression have shown some promise and are in an experimental phase of testing." (137).
For those who improve on antidepressants, "about 60 percent of the improvement occuring on antidepressants in drug trials happens during the first two weeks of treatment. This quick pace challenges an older conventional wisdom in psychopharmacology that it takes many weeks on antidepressants for action in the brain to manifest clinically" (146).
Factors that trigger chronic depression -- neurotic temperament, mood-punishing routine, exposure to trauma early in life, continuing exposure to stressors (discordant and conflictual relationships with significant others)
Notes that there is residual depression -- period when patient is no longer acutely depressed but is not quite well, either.
Argues we should define recovery as wellness/thriving (protective) versus simply absence of symptoms, and that multiple "levers" that move mood should be pulled: diet, sleep, though patterns, relationships with others, exercise (184).
Positive mood creates an upward spiral of "broaden attention and build resources:" positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires: wider visual search patterns, display novel and more creative thoughts & actions, more flexible in goals and mindsets.
depressed people typically face a crisis of purpose, so having a purpose in life can be healing and protective. "Careers, as they are connected to economic and social resources and ultimately social status, are an important evolutionarily favored purpose, one that the mood system will carefully track. Author stays well b/c he diversified portfolio: found career, married, had child, took up marathon running, wrote book.
September 2, 2019
Hands down the best book I've ever read about depression.
Rottenberg introduces the concept of depression as an evolutionary valuable response by distilling it down to low mood and lack of responsivity, then examining where it would be adaptive. Depression can spontaneously occur in an otherwise psychologically healthy individual in response to grief, and that makes adaptive sense.
In the Paleolithic, if someone you knew died, there was a reason, and that reason endangered you too. The most likely culprits were poison or predation; this was before metabolic syndrome and car crashes slaughtered us by the million. Your odds of getting got by predators massively decreased if you never left the cave. There's the depressive malaise, the inability to even get out of bed. It's safe in bed. Why risk it?
As for poison, we weren't big on cause-and-effect back then, so instinct had to phone it in. Something we ate, something accessible, killed one of our own. The most adaptive move is waiting for this particular storm to pass; the grieving individual is already less likely to be moving around, so their metabolic requirements have dropped to just above basal, and the loss of appetite both corresponds to the reduced energetic expenditure and the increased danger potential of available food.
Fast forward a couple million years, and we are now sophisticated thinking machines running on antiquated unga-bunga hardware. When we lose someone close to us, we still get acute depression. It would be unnatural not to undergo a loss pf appetite and joie de vivre following the death of a loved one.
The implication in The Depths is different people have grief thresholds, calibrated neuroanatomically over our lifespans, nature and nurture both playing their role. Hereditarily, this is in keeping with the research on the hedonic treadmill that keeps us screeching back to our happiness (or misery) baseline.
The nurture aspect complicates things. While a high happiness baseline can improve an individual's natural resilience, a traumatic childhood can mess with that resilience manifesting in the first place. Extending our reductionist beep-boop analogy from earlier, it can lead to the grief switch getting stuck in the "On" position, because the brain never got the opportunity to learn how to turn it off.
I like this perspective on depression more than the disease model for the empowerment and autonomy it provides those afflicted.
Depression not as a spiritual cancer, a personal failing, or a lack of grit or whatever, but as a naturally occuring evolutionary response that once saved our ancestor's lives. It isn't a signal of weakness, it's a signal that something is wrong. That the individual is mourning some sort of loss.
At this point, we get into the weeds, and it's better handed off to an individual psychotherapist on an individual basis. You can grieve anything, from a loved one to getting fired to an abstract "loss of innocence" that was never addressed at the appropriate time. You'd be amazed at the wackadoo physical symptomology the body will manufacture in response to these psychologically seismic experiences you didn't realize (or didn't let yourself realize) were significant at the time.
It makes more sense to view depression as a signal, the same way we view pain. Something is wrong. From there, it's just a matter of finding out what.
And considering inert placebos are 82% as effective as antidepressants (as per Irving Kirsch's 2010 research), it's probably not "a lack of medication" that's wrong.
Rottenberg introduces the concept of depression as an evolutionary valuable response by distilling it down to low mood and lack of responsivity, then examining where it would be adaptive. Depression can spontaneously occur in an otherwise psychologically healthy individual in response to grief, and that makes adaptive sense.
In the Paleolithic, if someone you knew died, there was a reason, and that reason endangered you too. The most likely culprits were poison or predation; this was before metabolic syndrome and car crashes slaughtered us by the million. Your odds of getting got by predators massively decreased if you never left the cave. There's the depressive malaise, the inability to even get out of bed. It's safe in bed. Why risk it?
As for poison, we weren't big on cause-and-effect back then, so instinct had to phone it in. Something we ate, something accessible, killed one of our own. The most adaptive move is waiting for this particular storm to pass; the grieving individual is already less likely to be moving around, so their metabolic requirements have dropped to just above basal, and the loss of appetite both corresponds to the reduced energetic expenditure and the increased danger potential of available food.
Fast forward a couple million years, and we are now sophisticated thinking machines running on antiquated unga-bunga hardware. When we lose someone close to us, we still get acute depression. It would be unnatural not to undergo a loss pf appetite and joie de vivre following the death of a loved one.
The implication in The Depths is different people have grief thresholds, calibrated neuroanatomically over our lifespans, nature and nurture both playing their role. Hereditarily, this is in keeping with the research on the hedonic treadmill that keeps us screeching back to our happiness (or misery) baseline.
The nurture aspect complicates things. While a high happiness baseline can improve an individual's natural resilience, a traumatic childhood can mess with that resilience manifesting in the first place. Extending our reductionist beep-boop analogy from earlier, it can lead to the grief switch getting stuck in the "On" position, because the brain never got the opportunity to learn how to turn it off.
I like this perspective on depression more than the disease model for the empowerment and autonomy it provides those afflicted.
Depression not as a spiritual cancer, a personal failing, or a lack of grit or whatever, but as a naturally occuring evolutionary response that once saved our ancestor's lives. It isn't a signal of weakness, it's a signal that something is wrong. That the individual is mourning some sort of loss.
At this point, we get into the weeds, and it's better handed off to an individual psychotherapist on an individual basis. You can grieve anything, from a loved one to getting fired to an abstract "loss of innocence" that was never addressed at the appropriate time. You'd be amazed at the wackadoo physical symptomology the body will manufacture in response to these psychologically seismic experiences you didn't realize (or didn't let yourself realize) were significant at the time.
It makes more sense to view depression as a signal, the same way we view pain. Something is wrong. From there, it's just a matter of finding out what.
And considering inert placebos are 82% as effective as antidepressants (as per Irving Kirsch's 2010 research), it's probably not "a lack of medication" that's wrong.
July 28, 2014
For some reason, I found the author's writing style to be difficult, at time, to follow. I am well educated but still had a tough time following some of the ground work in the opening chapters re: low mood. Perhaps the vocabulary was not explained well enough for me but when I went to other reviews I had a better idea of the points he was trying to make.
Essentially, though, I do appreciate the author's stance that depression is not a defect but rather a way to deal with perhaps unattainable goals. Depression deserves to be listened to because it has something to say to us. It sounds like the way out of depression involves not one simple solution but a collection of strategies. To understand that temperament and past history play a pivotal role in depression is important. To understand that things like sleep, exercise, and social connections are also tools to be used in recovery is important. Medication to address some biochemical issues could be helpful and psychotherapy (an attentive, caring, and skilled guide through the process) might offer useful insights.
I am a little bummed by the suggestion that true and forever recovery from depression is not the norm. I wasn't clear on the why of that but I was left with that message. It's not that you CAN'T completely recover from a depression episode but just that, if you do, you will likely fall again. Interestingly enough, the highlight of the book was the discussion of depression as transformation. After suggesting that full and forever recovery is not the norm, the author also postulates that depression can bring about a whole new way of looking at the world. If the tools are used and the person is open, well, life CAN become worth living again.
Essentially, though, I do appreciate the author's stance that depression is not a defect but rather a way to deal with perhaps unattainable goals. Depression deserves to be listened to because it has something to say to us. It sounds like the way out of depression involves not one simple solution but a collection of strategies. To understand that temperament and past history play a pivotal role in depression is important. To understand that things like sleep, exercise, and social connections are also tools to be used in recovery is important. Medication to address some biochemical issues could be helpful and psychotherapy (an attentive, caring, and skilled guide through the process) might offer useful insights.
I am a little bummed by the suggestion that true and forever recovery from depression is not the norm. I wasn't clear on the why of that but I was left with that message. It's not that you CAN'T completely recover from a depression episode but just that, if you do, you will likely fall again. Interestingly enough, the highlight of the book was the discussion of depression as transformation. After suggesting that full and forever recovery is not the norm, the author also postulates that depression can bring about a whole new way of looking at the world. If the tools are used and the person is open, well, life CAN become worth living again.
February 12, 2016
There are hundreds if not thousands of books about depression but this is the one we needed. The author perfectly balances the objective clinical research with his own personal experience to really powerful effect. The widely accepted defect model of depression is not only uninformed, it's harmful and discourages people from getting the right kind of help or possibly any help at all. This book offers practical optimism rooted in science, not more positive mood garbage about how you should just smile more. There is nothing wrong with you, and medication might be an answer but it's certainly not the only answer. There were so many useful insights here and such a comprehensive understanding of what happens and how it happens and why it happens and why it's not always a bad thing. I got this as an audiobook on loan from the library but I intend to buy a copy to keep in my house and I'm going to vigorously recommend it to anyone who has struggled with mood disorders or loves someone who has. This is the real deal.
October 21, 2019
I consider this book essential reading for anyone interested in depression.
This book is not a self-help book. However, I do believe the information it contains should useful for those currently suffering from depression and those hoping to stave off a relapse or minor depression turning into major.
The premise of this book is that we need to move beyond defect models of depression - either the "low serotonin" biochemical explanation or the "defective thinking" explanation. Neither of these models can explain why rates of depression are on the rise and why the treatments for either model (either SSRIs/medications or cognitive behavioural therapy), while useful on average have a wide variability in how effective they are. Traditional therapy focuses on "repairing defects" which are actually side effects of the true underlying cause. Unfortunately, traditional therapies often misguide attention away from what triggered the depression in the first place. Additionally, they promulgate an unhelpful narrative that "something is wrong'' with the person who is suffering.
The core thesis of this book is that depression is a state of extremely low mood - it is the mood system gone haywire. Variations of mood serve a valuable evolutionary purpose. However, just as being warm blooded serves animals well but comes at a cost, so too does having a mood system. Low mood leads to anxiety / brooding / rumination / introspection / and "hunkering down", and very low moods lead to depression. High mood, by contrast, leads to novelty seeking and exploratory behaviour, and very high moods can also have a dark side such as impulsiveness or excessive risk-taking. As an example of the mood system at work, the loss of a romantic partner typically results in low mood for some time, and this causes the brain to focus on the loss and what caused it to help ensure a similar thing doesn't happen again. The key thing that ties together low moods is loss - loss of status, social connections, sexual partners, health, etc. 9/10 people who are depressed can point to a loss that triggered the depression. Nearly 1/4 of depressions are caused by loss of a loved one. Somewhat oddly, for a long time the DSM had a "bereavement exception", stating that depressions from bereavement were somehow different in nature from other depressions - but this is not supported by the science.
Animal models of depression confirm the hypothesis that depression is an exceptionally low mood state triggered by loss. In animals, depression can be induced by repeated repeated stressors or loss, such as removing a rat from its social group. There is a connection to the phenomena of learned helplessness, such as when a rat realizes it can't escape from a tank of water and floats on the surface. Learned helplessness is a short term very low mood state, while depression is a long term one. The basic idea is that depression acts is an evolutionary system which stops people from continuing to pursue things where they are failing. This explains why depressed people have psychomotor retardation and extreme fatigue. This challenges the idea that depressed people are 'apathetic". Rather, Rottenberg writes, depressed people become depressed because they've been too attached to a particular goal even after failure.
Humans are much more complicated, since how well we are achieving evolutionary goals can be tied to high level abstract concepts, such as goals. For many teenagers or young adults, failure to achieve a long-sought after goal can trigger a depression - for instance failure to end up in one's "dream job" after college. Perversely, self help books can backfire - by having people focus on the goal of "being happy" they can actually lead to low mood and depression when the sought after happiness fails to materialize. Happiness, Rottenberg writes, is a biproduct of progress towards evolutionarily relevant goals, not a sensible end goal in itself.
Rottenberg points out that ruminations during depression often have evolutionary themes, such as finding a mate, protecting or caring for children, and fretting about social status. Depression warps the mind, biasing memory towards negative events, and often making it impossible for the depressed to remember what it was like to be happy. While this is extremely unpleasant, it serves an evolutionary purpose, by focusing the brain on negative events and their causes, to help prevent them from happening again. An interesting tidbit is that depressed people are not more likely to cry in response to sad movies - actually, they exhibit emotional flattening. The reasons for this are not fully understood, as with many other observations, such as that fact that depressed people have higher levels of cytokines, which cause inflammation, higher cortisol, and highly messed up Circadian rhythms.
Another key idea is that depression can serve as a form of "creative destruction" - forcing the sufferer to abandon old goals and re-align their lives in a different direction. The concept of "purpose" is important here - the depressed often loose their sense of their life's purpose, and recovery from depression often requires finding a new one.
Overall, this was an excellent read. My only disappointment was that he never directly addressed the particular reasons behind the current depression epidemic in the developed world, as was advertised in the subtitle. Yet, after reading the book, it is not hard to piece together some possibly relevant causes which exist in the current cultural milieu - the breakdown of traditional community structures, increased social isolation among young adults and the elderly, and people having the goal of "being happy".
This book is not a self-help book. However, I do believe the information it contains should useful for those currently suffering from depression and those hoping to stave off a relapse or minor depression turning into major.
The premise of this book is that we need to move beyond defect models of depression - either the "low serotonin" biochemical explanation or the "defective thinking" explanation. Neither of these models can explain why rates of depression are on the rise and why the treatments for either model (either SSRIs/medications or cognitive behavioural therapy), while useful on average have a wide variability in how effective they are. Traditional therapy focuses on "repairing defects" which are actually side effects of the true underlying cause. Unfortunately, traditional therapies often misguide attention away from what triggered the depression in the first place. Additionally, they promulgate an unhelpful narrative that "something is wrong'' with the person who is suffering.
The core thesis of this book is that depression is a state of extremely low mood - it is the mood system gone haywire. Variations of mood serve a valuable evolutionary purpose. However, just as being warm blooded serves animals well but comes at a cost, so too does having a mood system. Low mood leads to anxiety / brooding / rumination / introspection / and "hunkering down", and very low moods lead to depression. High mood, by contrast, leads to novelty seeking and exploratory behaviour, and very high moods can also have a dark side such as impulsiveness or excessive risk-taking. As an example of the mood system at work, the loss of a romantic partner typically results in low mood for some time, and this causes the brain to focus on the loss and what caused it to help ensure a similar thing doesn't happen again. The key thing that ties together low moods is loss - loss of status, social connections, sexual partners, health, etc. 9/10 people who are depressed can point to a loss that triggered the depression. Nearly 1/4 of depressions are caused by loss of a loved one. Somewhat oddly, for a long time the DSM had a "bereavement exception", stating that depressions from bereavement were somehow different in nature from other depressions - but this is not supported by the science.
Animal models of depression confirm the hypothesis that depression is an exceptionally low mood state triggered by loss. In animals, depression can be induced by repeated repeated stressors or loss, such as removing a rat from its social group. There is a connection to the phenomena of learned helplessness, such as when a rat realizes it can't escape from a tank of water and floats on the surface. Learned helplessness is a short term very low mood state, while depression is a long term one. The basic idea is that depression acts is an evolutionary system which stops people from continuing to pursue things where they are failing. This explains why depressed people have psychomotor retardation and extreme fatigue. This challenges the idea that depressed people are 'apathetic". Rather, Rottenberg writes, depressed people become depressed because they've been too attached to a particular goal even after failure.
Humans are much more complicated, since how well we are achieving evolutionary goals can be tied to high level abstract concepts, such as goals. For many teenagers or young adults, failure to achieve a long-sought after goal can trigger a depression - for instance failure to end up in one's "dream job" after college. Perversely, self help books can backfire - by having people focus on the goal of "being happy" they can actually lead to low mood and depression when the sought after happiness fails to materialize. Happiness, Rottenberg writes, is a biproduct of progress towards evolutionarily relevant goals, not a sensible end goal in itself.
Rottenberg points out that ruminations during depression often have evolutionary themes, such as finding a mate, protecting or caring for children, and fretting about social status. Depression warps the mind, biasing memory towards negative events, and often making it impossible for the depressed to remember what it was like to be happy. While this is extremely unpleasant, it serves an evolutionary purpose, by focusing the brain on negative events and their causes, to help prevent them from happening again. An interesting tidbit is that depressed people are not more likely to cry in response to sad movies - actually, they exhibit emotional flattening. The reasons for this are not fully understood, as with many other observations, such as that fact that depressed people have higher levels of cytokines, which cause inflammation, higher cortisol, and highly messed up Circadian rhythms.
Another key idea is that depression can serve as a form of "creative destruction" - forcing the sufferer to abandon old goals and re-align their lives in a different direction. The concept of "purpose" is important here - the depressed often loose their sense of their life's purpose, and recovery from depression often requires finding a new one.
Overall, this was an excellent read. My only disappointment was that he never directly addressed the particular reasons behind the current depression epidemic in the developed world, as was advertised in the subtitle. Yet, after reading the book, it is not hard to piece together some possibly relevant causes which exist in the current cultural milieu - the breakdown of traditional community structures, increased social isolation among young adults and the elderly, and people having the goal of "being happy".
December 21, 2021
لتقدير ما يمكن أن يخبرنا به العلم عن اضطرابات المزاج ، نحتاج أولاً إلى فهم ماهية الحالة المزاجية. لماذا لدينا هذه الحالة؟ هنا نستكشف بنية نظام المزاج ، وهو نظام قديم يؤثر على ما نشعر به ونفكر فيه وما نفعله ، بالإضافة إلى توجيه استجاباتنا الجسدية للعالم.
تواجه جميع الكائنات الحية - من الديدان إلى نجوم موسيقى الروك - مشكلة السلوك الكبرى. ما الذي يجب أن يفعله الكائن ، في ظل قائمة غير محدودة من الاحتمالات؟
يمكن للماعز بجوار بيت المزرعة أن تأكل علبة من الصفيح ، أو تأخذ قيلولة ، أو تطارد الدجاج ، أو تجري في دوائر. كيف تقرر ما يجب فعله أولاً؟ لحسن الحظ ، فإن الماعز ، مثل جميع الحيوانات في المزرعة ، عندها حل مسبق لهذه المشكلة ، لأنها مزودة بنظام توجيه سلوكي يحركها نحو الإجراءات التي كانت ناجحة في الماضي (أي ، الإجراءات التي قادت ماعز الأسلاف إلى التكاثر بنجاح ونشر جيناتهم). بمعنى آخر ، فإن الحالة المزاجية هي إشارات داخلية تحفز السلوك وتحركه في الاتجاه الصحيح. لفهم الدور الهائل الذي تلعبه الحالة المزاجية في البقاء ، تذكر نظرية التطور لتشارلز داروين وفكرته العميقة بأن الضغوط التطورية لم تشكل السمات الجسدية فحسب ، بل شكلت أيضًا العمليات العقلية للحيوانات والخصائص السلوكية.
كخطوة أولى ، يحتاج نظام الحالة المزاجية إلى معرفة نوع الموقف الذي يمر به. وللمواقف المختلفة آثار مختلفة على اللياقة الإنجابية (أي البقاء والتكاثر). بالنسبة إلى ماعزنا ، فإن الوضع يشمل العالم الخارجي للفناء: هل حلّ الظلام أم أنه وقت الظهيرة؟ الجو حار أم بارد؟ هل الطعام قريب ووفير أم بعيد ونادر؟ هل يمكن أن يكون هناك حيوانات مفترسة قريبة؟ ويشمل الموقف أيضًا عالم الماعز الداخلي: هل هو ينزف أم مريض أم يتألم؟ جائع أم لا؟ كل هذه العناصر تؤثر على الحالة المزاجية. نظام المزاج ، إذن ، هو التكامل العظيم. يأخذ معلوماته من العالمين الخارجي والداخلي ويلخّص ما هو مناسب أو غير موات لتحقيق الأهداف الرئيسية المتعلقة بالبقاء والتكاثر
.
Jonathan Rottenberg
The Depths
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
تواجه جميع الكائنات الحية - من الديدان إلى نجوم موسيقى الروك - مشكلة السلوك الكبرى. ما الذي يجب أن يفعله الكائن ، في ظل قائمة غير محدودة من الاحتمالات؟
يمكن للماعز بجوار بيت المزرعة أن تأكل علبة من الصفيح ، أو تأخذ قيلولة ، أو تطارد الدجاج ، أو تجري في دوائر. كيف تقرر ما يجب فعله أولاً؟ لحسن الحظ ، فإن الماعز ، مثل جميع الحيوانات في المزرعة ، عندها حل مسبق لهذه المشكلة ، لأنها مزودة بنظام توجيه سلوكي يحركها نحو الإجراءات التي كانت ناجحة في الماضي (أي ، الإجراءات التي قادت ماعز الأسلاف إلى التكاثر بنجاح ونشر جيناتهم). بمعنى آخر ، فإن الحالة المزاجية هي إشارات داخلية تحفز السلوك وتحركه في الاتجاه الصحيح. لفهم الدور الهائل الذي تلعبه الحالة المزاجية في البقاء ، تذكر نظرية التطور لتشارلز داروين وفكرته العميقة بأن الضغوط التطورية لم تشكل السمات الجسدية فحسب ، بل شكلت أيضًا العمليات العقلية للحيوانات والخصائص السلوكية.
كخطوة أولى ، يحتاج نظام الحالة المزاجية إلى معرفة نوع الموقف الذي يمر به. وللمواقف المختلفة آثار مختلفة على اللياقة الإنجابية (أي البقاء والتكاثر). بالنسبة إلى ماعزنا ، فإن الوضع يشمل العالم الخارجي للفناء: هل حلّ الظلام أم أنه وقت الظهيرة؟ الجو حار أم بارد؟ هل الطعام قريب ووفير أم بعيد ونادر؟ هل يمكن أن يكون هناك حيوانات مفترسة قريبة؟ ويشمل الموقف أيضًا عالم الماعز الداخلي: هل هو ينزف أم مريض أم يتألم؟ جائع أم لا؟ كل هذه العناصر تؤثر على الحالة المزاجية. نظام المزاج ، إذن ، هو التكامل العظيم. يأخذ معلوماته من العالمين الخارجي والداخلي ويلخّص ما هو مناسب أو غير موات لتحقيق الأهداف الرئيسية المتعلقة بالبقاء والتكاثر
.
Jonathan Rottenberg
The Depths
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
January 16, 2022
A thoroughly interesting read on depression. Very scientifically based. Looks into the origin and stages of depression carefully so as to answer lingering questions about depression.
November 4, 2025
A solid, objective view of depression and sad moods, well worth including in your reading list on the subject.
April 12, 2018
This is about “mood science” (I didn’t know there was such a thing). According to the author, this book is above all an attempt to elucidate the relationship between mood and depression. Our model is broken. We need to usher in a new diagnostic and therapeutic paradigm, one based in the science of mood. We are losing the fight against depression in part because our fundamental description of it – as reflecting defects – is wrong. The first step to finding more effective solutions is getting that fundamental description right. Someone wrote a book called “Listening to Prozac,” but this author believes that instead we should “listen to depression.” In other words, just accept the fact that at certain times in life we will be sad, and that is a normal part of life.
We should resist the urge to explain why we are in a bad mood. You might think you are in a bad mood because something bad happened in your life, when in reality you just have a cold or got a bad night’s sleep. It is normal for people to have high and low moods, and there isn’t necessarily any need to expound upon it. Fantasizing about a world without low mood is a vain exercise. Low moods have existed in some form across human cultures forever.
From an evolutionary perspective, there are benefits and costs to being bold and energetic, and there are benefits and costs to being depressed and withdrawn. Animals that are daring might discover new things that benefit them, but they are also more prone to encounter dangerous situations. Animals that are timid and “worry” about danger are more likely to stay out of trouble, but also might miss out on positive opportunities. It actually makes sense for animals in general to become “depressed” during dangerous times, but then to be more outgoing when there are no threats.
It is totally normal to be depressed when life-changing bad events happen, such as the loss of a loved one or a job that you have invested a lifetime of energy into maintaining. Or when you go through a transition period during which you need to adjust to the fact that your life is not how you expected it to be. Other animals besides humans become depressed when they experience great loss. So again, it is totally unrealistic for people to believe that they should never be sad.
Contemporary routines contribute to bad moods. Compared to 100 years ago, we are exposed to much less natural light from the sun, get less sleep, and engage in more activities that are out of kilter with the body’s natural rhythms.
Thinking about why you are sad is not always a good idea. Some problems are not best solved by trying to think about a solution. In the case of depression, thinking about why you are sad can lead to endless rumination, which can make the problem worse. It is often a better approach to just try to distract yourself and “forget about it.”
The author agrees with many others who advocate mindfulness meditation. Rather than ruminating, it is better to engage in a daily practice of just focusing on your breathing and trying not to hold on to any thoughts. When you start to think about something, just acknowledge to yourself that you’re having a thought and then let it pass by like a cloud. In this way, you can learn to detach from your thoughts, rather than engaging in rumination.
One cause of depression seems to be that people are overcommitted to goals that are failing. People have an idea of what their life should be like, and they just cannot accept that their actual life does not match the idea they had. Even if their actual life is perfectly fine and normal, they just cannot let go of their self-perception that they are a worthless failure. Perfectionists are more likely to become depressed than non-perfectionists. Perfectionists literally can’t accept that nobody’s perfect, including themselves.
The profusion of self-help books may increase the number of people who are depressed. People come to believe that there is something wrong with being sad, when it’s totally normal to be happy sometimes and sad sometimes. People believe that all sadness can be “fixed” rather than just accepting that sometimes they are in a low mood and that’s just a completely normal part of life. Being able to accept negative feelings – rather than always striving to make them disappear – is associated with feeling better, not worse, in the long run.
People who have happiness itself as a fundamental goal are less likely to be happy. People who spend their lives pursuing goals other than the goal of happiness itself are more likely to report that they feel happy. And this difference is much more pronounced for people who have objectively non-stressful life situations. So if your life situation is basically normal, you are best off focusing on some life goal other than the goal of happiness itself. You need to create some purpose in your life other than the mere goal of being happy.
The key is accepting a low mood with equanimity. People should strive for equanimity, or contentment, not the type of happiness that is associated with excitement. Sure, you are going to have moments of excitement in life, but that is not the constancy of life. It is interesting that in many Asian cultures, it is not the norm to strive for excitement. Rather, people are more likely to seek personal peace and tranquility. The American emphasis on constant thrills is more likely to lead to people feeling depressed. Eastern religion and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy use meditative practices to help a person tolerate and accept episodes of low mood while avoiding an endless loop of negatively toned cognition.
People who are in deep depression become insensitive to what is happening around them and inflexible. They become flat. Not only do happy events not make them happy, sad events don’t make them cry. In an extreme case, they can even become catatonic. Also, for some people, depression outlasts its apparent source. For example, a person who becomes depressed when they become homeless might stay depressed even after they find a place to live. Some people only have one episode of depression in their lives and then after a period of time are no longer depressed and don’t become depressed again (like the author of this book). Other people, come out of depression and then relapse. Also, some peoples experience post-traumatic growth; they are happier after a really bad thing happens in their lives, because they have more appreciation for when nothing bad is happening.
This book gives a really good first-hand account about how someone named Suzie Henderson broke out of her depression: A doctor recommended I take fish oil, so I started taking it, and didn’t really notice changes until a couple months of consistent use, and then I perceived a more even keel attitude shift within myself. I started meditating, and doing yoga. I began slowly, maybe a class once a week. I started educating myself about nutrition and eating balanced meals. Here is a key ingredient to my recovery, I am constantly observing my thoughts and using positive self-talk. I use a mantra when my mind chatter is especially negative, and it’s really simple. I just remind myself that I am strong, healthy, and beautiful. I say it many times throughout the day, not necessary to keep count. I have done it for years now. Basically crowd out negative habits with positive ones. It is not a quick fix, but if you have the patience, it really helps. Other helpful methods, getting to know how to have work-life balance, enough sleep, eating well, being grateful for the gifts I have. You know it’s easy to focus on the negative, but even keeping a journal where you just write about things you noticed during the day that stirred a sense of gratitude inside you is helpful. Get support from friends and therapists. Work towards goals. My depression has allowed me to declare who I am and screw anybody who doesn’t like it or approve of me. No one’s opinion of me matters. I no longer seek approval AND I will go the extra mile to reassure others, to do no harm, to own my own behavior and apologize first and deeply because I recognize how frail everyone truly is and I must not push anyone else near their tipping point in my life because it is way too dangerous and difficult to come back. I am much more comfortable being wrong and backing off of my point when I see someone getting upset. I will just shut down the discussion or conflict. It is never worth it. Forgiveness comes easily and so does acceptance – no judgment of others. I am so much more loving to others, and I watch out for myself fiercely.
Our culture needs to have more acceptance and support for people who are depressed, the same way that we support people who have HIV or cancer. It is odd that there are so few public displays of support for people suffering from depression, no parades, no walks, no bike rides, no ribbons or bumper stickers, nothing. People should be able to admit to themselves and others that they are depressed and to get support. Depression is so pervasive yet there seems to be so little acceptance of this common human condition.
We should resist the urge to explain why we are in a bad mood. You might think you are in a bad mood because something bad happened in your life, when in reality you just have a cold or got a bad night’s sleep. It is normal for people to have high and low moods, and there isn’t necessarily any need to expound upon it. Fantasizing about a world without low mood is a vain exercise. Low moods have existed in some form across human cultures forever.
From an evolutionary perspective, there are benefits and costs to being bold and energetic, and there are benefits and costs to being depressed and withdrawn. Animals that are daring might discover new things that benefit them, but they are also more prone to encounter dangerous situations. Animals that are timid and “worry” about danger are more likely to stay out of trouble, but also might miss out on positive opportunities. It actually makes sense for animals in general to become “depressed” during dangerous times, but then to be more outgoing when there are no threats.
It is totally normal to be depressed when life-changing bad events happen, such as the loss of a loved one or a job that you have invested a lifetime of energy into maintaining. Or when you go through a transition period during which you need to adjust to the fact that your life is not how you expected it to be. Other animals besides humans become depressed when they experience great loss. So again, it is totally unrealistic for people to believe that they should never be sad.
Contemporary routines contribute to bad moods. Compared to 100 years ago, we are exposed to much less natural light from the sun, get less sleep, and engage in more activities that are out of kilter with the body’s natural rhythms.
Thinking about why you are sad is not always a good idea. Some problems are not best solved by trying to think about a solution. In the case of depression, thinking about why you are sad can lead to endless rumination, which can make the problem worse. It is often a better approach to just try to distract yourself and “forget about it.”
The author agrees with many others who advocate mindfulness meditation. Rather than ruminating, it is better to engage in a daily practice of just focusing on your breathing and trying not to hold on to any thoughts. When you start to think about something, just acknowledge to yourself that you’re having a thought and then let it pass by like a cloud. In this way, you can learn to detach from your thoughts, rather than engaging in rumination.
One cause of depression seems to be that people are overcommitted to goals that are failing. People have an idea of what their life should be like, and they just cannot accept that their actual life does not match the idea they had. Even if their actual life is perfectly fine and normal, they just cannot let go of their self-perception that they are a worthless failure. Perfectionists are more likely to become depressed than non-perfectionists. Perfectionists literally can’t accept that nobody’s perfect, including themselves.
The profusion of self-help books may increase the number of people who are depressed. People come to believe that there is something wrong with being sad, when it’s totally normal to be happy sometimes and sad sometimes. People believe that all sadness can be “fixed” rather than just accepting that sometimes they are in a low mood and that’s just a completely normal part of life. Being able to accept negative feelings – rather than always striving to make them disappear – is associated with feeling better, not worse, in the long run.
People who have happiness itself as a fundamental goal are less likely to be happy. People who spend their lives pursuing goals other than the goal of happiness itself are more likely to report that they feel happy. And this difference is much more pronounced for people who have objectively non-stressful life situations. So if your life situation is basically normal, you are best off focusing on some life goal other than the goal of happiness itself. You need to create some purpose in your life other than the mere goal of being happy.
The key is accepting a low mood with equanimity. People should strive for equanimity, or contentment, not the type of happiness that is associated with excitement. Sure, you are going to have moments of excitement in life, but that is not the constancy of life. It is interesting that in many Asian cultures, it is not the norm to strive for excitement. Rather, people are more likely to seek personal peace and tranquility. The American emphasis on constant thrills is more likely to lead to people feeling depressed. Eastern religion and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy use meditative practices to help a person tolerate and accept episodes of low mood while avoiding an endless loop of negatively toned cognition.
People who are in deep depression become insensitive to what is happening around them and inflexible. They become flat. Not only do happy events not make them happy, sad events don’t make them cry. In an extreme case, they can even become catatonic. Also, for some people, depression outlasts its apparent source. For example, a person who becomes depressed when they become homeless might stay depressed even after they find a place to live. Some people only have one episode of depression in their lives and then after a period of time are no longer depressed and don’t become depressed again (like the author of this book). Other people, come out of depression and then relapse. Also, some peoples experience post-traumatic growth; they are happier after a really bad thing happens in their lives, because they have more appreciation for when nothing bad is happening.
This book gives a really good first-hand account about how someone named Suzie Henderson broke out of her depression: A doctor recommended I take fish oil, so I started taking it, and didn’t really notice changes until a couple months of consistent use, and then I perceived a more even keel attitude shift within myself. I started meditating, and doing yoga. I began slowly, maybe a class once a week. I started educating myself about nutrition and eating balanced meals. Here is a key ingredient to my recovery, I am constantly observing my thoughts and using positive self-talk. I use a mantra when my mind chatter is especially negative, and it’s really simple. I just remind myself that I am strong, healthy, and beautiful. I say it many times throughout the day, not necessary to keep count. I have done it for years now. Basically crowd out negative habits with positive ones. It is not a quick fix, but if you have the patience, it really helps. Other helpful methods, getting to know how to have work-life balance, enough sleep, eating well, being grateful for the gifts I have. You know it’s easy to focus on the negative, but even keeping a journal where you just write about things you noticed during the day that stirred a sense of gratitude inside you is helpful. Get support from friends and therapists. Work towards goals. My depression has allowed me to declare who I am and screw anybody who doesn’t like it or approve of me. No one’s opinion of me matters. I no longer seek approval AND I will go the extra mile to reassure others, to do no harm, to own my own behavior and apologize first and deeply because I recognize how frail everyone truly is and I must not push anyone else near their tipping point in my life because it is way too dangerous and difficult to come back. I am much more comfortable being wrong and backing off of my point when I see someone getting upset. I will just shut down the discussion or conflict. It is never worth it. Forgiveness comes easily and so does acceptance – no judgment of others. I am so much more loving to others, and I watch out for myself fiercely.
Our culture needs to have more acceptance and support for people who are depressed, the same way that we support people who have HIV or cancer. It is odd that there are so few public displays of support for people suffering from depression, no parades, no walks, no bike rides, no ribbons or bumper stickers, nothing. People should be able to admit to themselves and others that they are depressed and to get support. Depression is so pervasive yet there seems to be so little acceptance of this common human condition.
Want to read
March 6, 2014Description: Nearly every depressed person is assured by doctors, well-meaning friends and family, the media, and ubiquitous advertisements that the underlying problem is a chemical imbalance. Such a simple defect should be fixable, yet despite all of the resources that have been devoted to finding a pharmacological solution, depression remains stubbornly widespread. Why are we losing this fight?
In this humane and illuminating challenge to defect models of depression, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg argues that depression is a particularly severe outgrowth of our natural capacity for emotion. In other words, it is a low mood gone haywire. Drawing on recent developments in the science of moodΓÇöand his own harrowing depressive experience as a young adultΓÇöRottenberg explains depression in evolutionary terms, showing how its dark pull arises from adaptations that evolved to help our ancestors ensure their survival. Moods, high and low, evolved to compel us to more efficiently pursue rewards. While this worked for our ancestors, our modern environmentΓÇöin which daily survival is no longer a sole focusΓÇömakes it all too easy for low mood to slide into severe, long-lasting depression.
Weaving together experimental and epidemiological research, clinical observations, and the voices of individuals who have struggled with depression, The Depths offers a bold new account of why depression enduresΓÇöand makes a strong case for de-stigmatizing this increasingly common condition. In so doing, Rottenberg offers hope in the form of his own and other patientsΓÇÖ recovery, and points the way towards new paths for treatment.
In this humane and illuminating challenge to defect models of depression, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg argues that depression is a particularly severe outgrowth of our natural capacity for emotion. In other words, it is a low mood gone haywire. Drawing on recent developments in the science of moodΓÇöand his own harrowing depressive experience as a young adultΓÇöRottenberg explains depression in evolutionary terms, showing how its dark pull arises from adaptations that evolved to help our ancestors ensure their survival. Moods, high and low, evolved to compel us to more efficiently pursue rewards. While this worked for our ancestors, our modern environmentΓÇöin which daily survival is no longer a sole focusΓÇömakes it all too easy for low mood to slide into severe, long-lasting depression.
Weaving together experimental and epidemiological research, clinical observations, and the voices of individuals who have struggled with depression, The Depths offers a bold new account of why depression enduresΓÇöand makes a strong case for de-stigmatizing this increasingly common condition. In so doing, Rottenberg offers hope in the form of his own and other patientsΓÇÖ recovery, and points the way towards new paths for treatment.
June 30, 2016
I try to read everything I can get my hands on about anxiety and depression. I don't think I can do the author's argument justice in a short review, but I would recommend the book to anyone interested in the subject. He points out the evolutionary advantages of "low mood," which are that we may reassess priorities and give up on unattainable goals. He refers to "shallow depression" (some would call it dysthymia) and "deep depression" (i.e., clinical, major). He points out that the "disease" model is perhaps not appropriate for shallow depression or low mood.
Lest this sound like he is too forgiving or diminishing of the effects of depression: he is not, in my opinion. He has suffered from himself from a major depression over two years. He neither diminishes depression nor glamorizes it. He's trying to figure it out.
My favorite book on depression remains The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon, but that is more of an overview and personal story. Rottenberg's book is a readable account of his thoughts and research.
Lest this sound like he is too forgiving or diminishing of the effects of depression: he is not, in my opinion. He has suffered from himself from a major depression over two years. He neither diminishes depression nor glamorizes it. He's trying to figure it out.
My favorite book on depression remains The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon, but that is more of an overview and personal story. Rottenberg's book is a readable account of his thoughts and research.
August 20, 2016
If you or your loved ones have ever been depressed, I would highly recommend this book. Lots of evidence that depression is not a defect or disease, but an extension of our normal capacity for low mood. (This idea is really quite comforting in itself.) It's not a self-help book, but it has some suggestions about possible ways to tackle the beast. The author describes his own years-long depression, so he doesn't just have a cool scientific perspective on the subject. I got this book out from the library and am going to buy it, because I want to have it around.
August 26, 2014
Interesting points, but a lot of the argumentation was muddled, and in places seemed to make assumptions or take as given "facts" which I'm not sure I agree actually are givens. Seemed to go on and on on some points and not elaborate enough on others. Presented already available theories but in the end did not feel that it arrived at any unique conclusion in a scientific sense.
December 5, 2017
A good companion read to the Upward Spiral, and a slightly different viewpoint on the meaning and purpose of depression. A lot of it felt like common sense to me, but then again, that's because I don't really subscribe to the belief that depression is something unmanageable. A very pleasant and relatively quick book to read!
September 23, 2025
Awesome. Well. I searched for a book like this, because of many reasons. One of them, is that my dad killed himself 8 years ago. He'd been struggling with depression. The other reason was that I've read a lot of Jonathan Haidt, and evolutionary psychopathology, and really want to know a lot about depression, considering that gen Z, are more prone to this.
The book's main premise is this: up until now, depression is considered as a "sickness". Meaning that, if someone is "depressed" well, automatically "there is something wrong with that person" or "that person in biochemically unbalanced". The author, who suffered from a 4-year long depression, using the evolutionary lens, and quoting many studies related to "affective science" has come here to state another posture: "What if depression is not just a sickness, but an evolutionary mechanism with a purpose”? Evidence is outstanding. Both Marco del Giudice and Randolph M. Neese, have mentioned the possibility that low mood is a strategy to cope with the environment stimuli. Low mood and high mood are just states, meaning that the human brain is able to behave differently depending the environment and even cultural cues that we grew up in.
What if you struggle for something that you know is really difficult to achieve? Like being a millionaire by the time you are 25 years old? or having a doctoral degree by the time you reach thirty? Evolution does not care about your happiness. it cared about you being reproduced. These "material" things that I have mentioned, have only appeared recently. In ancient times, (evolutionary times), we had to deal with other issues, and not about onlyfans, Ferraris or stalkers on Facebook. We had to deal with famine, with early motherhood, scarce resources, and actually, with the possibility of dying because of a minor infection, every one of your days, because life expectancy was 30 years old. Activating low mood, is just another way to cope with the fact of navigating through life, a task that is not simple, but probably the most difficult one. As Camus mentioned "Imagine Sisyphus happy".
Now, in modern times, (even Bill Maher mentioned this recently this month), younger generations are growing up with lyrics that ovation "Gucci", "Prada", "Ferrari", "Balenciaga" (stuff that initially belonged to rap artists), to lyrics like this one: "I wanna be a billionaire so fuckin' bad, buy all of the things I never had". Imagine being a 13 year-old, singing that crap. By the time that person reaches 22 years of age, his expectations and economic standards would not be realistic. He's going to struggle. These things happen in western countries, more than in Asian cultures. This is the importance of the cultural setting. At some point, each and everyone of us is going to suffer this, and it is not a sickness, it is like pain; it has a meaning, and a purpose, we may not like it, but life is that way, is complicated, and uncertain, this is why we have religions and rituals, to control our own small worlds in which we live.
At any moment, I'm saying that depression is something "simple". My dad swallowed 30 sleeping pills with vinegar, and died of a heart attack while being induced to sleep. According to evolutionary psychiatry, suicide is "the last resource to end pain; terminating one self's conscience".
I hope this book reaches a lot of people, and it makes me happy that evolutionary psychology is being used to understand our minds, and how we cope with the everlasting pain or joy, of living.
The book's main premise is this: up until now, depression is considered as a "sickness". Meaning that, if someone is "depressed" well, automatically "there is something wrong with that person" or "that person in biochemically unbalanced". The author, who suffered from a 4-year long depression, using the evolutionary lens, and quoting many studies related to "affective science" has come here to state another posture: "What if depression is not just a sickness, but an evolutionary mechanism with a purpose”? Evidence is outstanding. Both Marco del Giudice and Randolph M. Neese, have mentioned the possibility that low mood is a strategy to cope with the environment stimuli. Low mood and high mood are just states, meaning that the human brain is able to behave differently depending the environment and even cultural cues that we grew up in.
What if you struggle for something that you know is really difficult to achieve? Like being a millionaire by the time you are 25 years old? or having a doctoral degree by the time you reach thirty? Evolution does not care about your happiness. it cared about you being reproduced. These "material" things that I have mentioned, have only appeared recently. In ancient times, (evolutionary times), we had to deal with other issues, and not about onlyfans, Ferraris or stalkers on Facebook. We had to deal with famine, with early motherhood, scarce resources, and actually, with the possibility of dying because of a minor infection, every one of your days, because life expectancy was 30 years old. Activating low mood, is just another way to cope with the fact of navigating through life, a task that is not simple, but probably the most difficult one. As Camus mentioned "Imagine Sisyphus happy".
Now, in modern times, (even Bill Maher mentioned this recently this month), younger generations are growing up with lyrics that ovation "Gucci", "Prada", "Ferrari", "Balenciaga" (stuff that initially belonged to rap artists), to lyrics like this one: "I wanna be a billionaire so fuckin' bad, buy all of the things I never had". Imagine being a 13 year-old, singing that crap. By the time that person reaches 22 years of age, his expectations and economic standards would not be realistic. He's going to struggle. These things happen in western countries, more than in Asian cultures. This is the importance of the cultural setting. At some point, each and everyone of us is going to suffer this, and it is not a sickness, it is like pain; it has a meaning, and a purpose, we may not like it, but life is that way, is complicated, and uncertain, this is why we have religions and rituals, to control our own small worlds in which we live.
At any moment, I'm saying that depression is something "simple". My dad swallowed 30 sleeping pills with vinegar, and died of a heart attack while being induced to sleep. According to evolutionary psychiatry, suicide is "the last resource to end pain; terminating one self's conscience".
I hope this book reaches a lot of people, and it makes me happy that evolutionary psychology is being used to understand our minds, and how we cope with the everlasting pain or joy, of living.
December 1, 2023
On the verge of working with a client who was experiencing repeated bouts of depression and as part of my studies with Sarah Peyton, I read Matt Haig's book, Reasons to Stay Alive. In it, I spotted a recommendation of Jonathan Rottenberg's book The Depths, looking at the evolutionary origins of our current depression epidemic. I don't quite remember Haig's language; in essence, he identified Rottenberg's book as the best book he has read on depression.
In his book, Rottenberg makes a revolutionary case - that depression is not the result of some kind of personal or biological deficit but, instead, has its roots in our evolution, stopping us from the relentless pursuit of impossible goals or dreams.
Throughout the book, Rottenberg lays out current science with care and precision, drawing on a field that is new to me - mood science. This includes pulling apart theories that have held sway for years and also introducing current science, drawing on the work of a range of colleagues. The book is carefully indexed and has twenty pages of notes on his sources as well as recommended readings. I was not surprised to find Jaak Panksepp's work amongst the reading recommendations.
I read Rottenberg's book in parallel with other books, taking approximately three weeks to get through it. This is no reflection on the book. It is, in fact, quite a slender volume, about two hundred pages in length plus all the "goodies" I mention above (notes, recommended readings, index.)
In writing, Rottenberg weaves the science with stories and example, including stories of his own deep depression and recovery. This is consistent with his case for embracing depression as part of our experience as opposed to stigmatising those people who experience depression. This adds to the readability of his book as well as deepening understanding.
Ultimately, Rottenberg makes a case that leads to more optimism about recovery, which is something he explores in his final chapter. This is consistent with my own experience both as an individual human navigating my own life and as a coach working with men and women who choose to reflect on and adapt their approach to life, careers and especially leadership. Sometimes, our strategies (including those we inherit from our families and wider culture) for meeting fundamental human needs are flawed and need revising. Rottenberg's book suggests that it is part of our evolutionary design to hit a wall when our strategies don't work. The experience can be truly awful. At the same time, it can - over the long term - open a path to learning that leads to renewed purpose, multiple and significant adjustments to our approach, and deep fulfilment.
I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who grapples with depression or supports those people who do.
In his book, Rottenberg makes a revolutionary case - that depression is not the result of some kind of personal or biological deficit but, instead, has its roots in our evolution, stopping us from the relentless pursuit of impossible goals or dreams.
Throughout the book, Rottenberg lays out current science with care and precision, drawing on a field that is new to me - mood science. This includes pulling apart theories that have held sway for years and also introducing current science, drawing on the work of a range of colleagues. The book is carefully indexed and has twenty pages of notes on his sources as well as recommended readings. I was not surprised to find Jaak Panksepp's work amongst the reading recommendations.
I read Rottenberg's book in parallel with other books, taking approximately three weeks to get through it. This is no reflection on the book. It is, in fact, quite a slender volume, about two hundred pages in length plus all the "goodies" I mention above (notes, recommended readings, index.)
In writing, Rottenberg weaves the science with stories and example, including stories of his own deep depression and recovery. This is consistent with his case for embracing depression as part of our experience as opposed to stigmatising those people who experience depression. This adds to the readability of his book as well as deepening understanding.
Ultimately, Rottenberg makes a case that leads to more optimism about recovery, which is something he explores in his final chapter. This is consistent with my own experience both as an individual human navigating my own life and as a coach working with men and women who choose to reflect on and adapt their approach to life, careers and especially leadership. Sometimes, our strategies (including those we inherit from our families and wider culture) for meeting fundamental human needs are flawed and need revising. Rottenberg's book suggests that it is part of our evolutionary design to hit a wall when our strategies don't work. The experience can be truly awful. At the same time, it can - over the long term - open a path to learning that leads to renewed purpose, multiple and significant adjustments to our approach, and deep fulfilment.
I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who grapples with depression or supports those people who do.
December 5, 2017
If you are professionally interested in depression, have a family member with depression, or now or previously have lived with depression, this will be a helpful read. It encourages us to think differently about this condition. In particular, chapters addressing the biological antecedents and benefits (yes) of depression are quite fascinating, though not completely thought out.
A description of the "black hole" of major depression follows, and the emotional/physical/spiritual paralysis many people with depression experience. Currently, I have a family member who is trapped in a deep, paralyzing depression, and hope her parents will read this book for a better insight into the "choices" she has been making that further trap her in despair and inaction.
Much of the book fits what I have experienced during the ups and downs of major depression over the past few decades of my life. Finishing reading this book, I feel a deep gratitude for my dogs - they have been lifesavers of the most wonderful kind.
A description of the "black hole" of major depression follows, and the emotional/physical/spiritual paralysis many people with depression experience. Currently, I have a family member who is trapped in a deep, paralyzing depression, and hope her parents will read this book for a better insight into the "choices" she has been making that further trap her in despair and inaction.
Much of the book fits what I have experienced during the ups and downs of major depression over the past few decades of my life. Finishing reading this book, I feel a deep gratitude for my dogs - they have been lifesavers of the most wonderful kind.
July 21, 2020
An interesting take on the evolution of depression in humans. Why is something that is seen as bad meant to be good for us? Those with depression are not 'broken' or 'defective' let's be humane about how we treat people with depression (in everyday life and clinically). He sites studies, and personal experience, it's not a step by step how to book by any means, but it does make you think, and I enjoyed that. Changing thinking can be a good thing, especially when that thinking has been unhelpful. Some people create an opportunity from their depression - reflecting on their life, and how they can change, finding a purpose, connecting with people in a meaningful way, that's who I want to be. He provides hope that attitudes can change. Both clinically and socially.
August 5, 2018
No Longer Hopeless
This book shows a side of depression not commonly evangelized, but real nonetheless. While depression is real, we are not hopeless slaves to its oppressive self. It is not that our brains are defective, rather there are other factors at play - namely mood - that can be subjected to the life we desire. It takes those who personally deal with depression (either self or a family member) off the defensive and gives them power to return to an offensive mode when dealing with depression. That to me is called FREEDOM.
This book shows a side of depression not commonly evangelized, but real nonetheless. While depression is real, we are not hopeless slaves to its oppressive self. It is not that our brains are defective, rather there are other factors at play - namely mood - that can be subjected to the life we desire. It takes those who personally deal with depression (either self or a family member) off the defensive and gives them power to return to an offensive mode when dealing with depression. That to me is called FREEDOM.
March 12, 2019
I highly recommend this book to anyone who struggles with depression, or knows someone that does. Rottenburg provides a perspective on the depression epidemic far different from the typical explanations of “oh, it’s just a chemical imbalance”. He instead approaches it from the perspective of, depression and general low moods have evolved for a reason. He offers new explanations and methods of coping that are extremely informative and useful to anyone who’s tired of feeling broken or weak.
March 11, 2023
I feel like this was just a prequel, explaining why as a society we're "losing the fight" with depression. This explored evolutionary reasons for depression, and to a lesser degree, anxiety. Author skirts around the fact that "modern life" (artificial lighting, sleep cycles vs work shifts, etc...) exacerbate symptoms of depression, but then doesn't really acknowledge all those things are made worse under or exist only because of capitalism. Like that's what the sequel has to be about, right?🫠😂
April 11, 2024
I really appreciated this author exposing how culture affects how we talk about and view depression, and even low mood. We can be so driven by reaching some level of happiness or unrealistic goal that we aren’t present and at peace with who we are and what we have to offer.
Insightful, more statistics than I was expecting, and the author provides his own experience with depression and how it turned his life into something to give back and be more empathetic.
Insightful, more statistics than I was expecting, and the author provides his own experience with depression and how it turned his life into something to give back and be more empathetic.
November 18, 2018
This is an excellent overview of depression and an effective challenge to the defect-based approach that permeates mental health today. I think this is a great read for those in mental health, but even better for those experiencing depression.
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