Did you read this before posting, or even care?

A moderate depression? Forget it! With a bit of ‘luck’ (according to those people), you’ll have a recidivisme. And another one, even if you have/ had CBT!! So that means: another 6-9 months (or longer: a recidivism is more difficult to treat) of pain, of being afraid, crying for hours and being desperate… Have you ever been afraid, really deadly afraid for ‘nothing’? Nothing, except the conviction (!!) that this is your destiny? Have you ever been so afraid, did you ever cried for hours, day after day, month after month, that it hurts, it really hurts, you really feel physical (!!!) pain? So you’re sure the only thing you can do is killing yourself because you can’t stand it anymore? Because you know (!!) it won’t change anymore? Even if it will change, that’s not how somebody with a depression thinks: he knows it will never go better!
That is depression! So this article is really really bullshit!

So you have to make a distinction between someone with a depression (not being sad!) and someone who is chronically depressed?? That’s humor! About 50% of the people who had 1 episode will have another.

Depression is the hell on earth! And now, there are people who claim: oh, look, depression isn’t as bad as it looks…
It makes me sick, because they don’t even know what they are talking about!

By the way: this is not personally against the writer of this blog! A first look is telling me that you’ve posted some interesting articles. ;o)
But, it’s shocking to see how some (!) researchers (scientists!) think about depression…

That’s not to say we are ill unless we are completely happy. But we are probably ill if we give up the striving to be happy. It is the striving that sustains us, even though the goal is unattainable. And to preserve the striving, we can’t afford to admit to ourselves the impossibility of the goal. We must keep insisting that lasting happiness is just around the next corner, and keep feeling puzzled and frustrated when it eludes us again. This is why “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” is the most profound statement ever made about the human condition.

And now for my anecdotal evidence Thankfully I’ve never had to cope with it myself but my significant other went through several months of severe depression last year, brought on by a variety of factors. And although it may have indeed helped focus his attention during his finals, it also meant I was watching someone I loved just diminishing in front of me, entering a state where they simple could not cope with anything. And when he actually went to get medical care, he didn’t dare tell anyone, afraid of the stigma of the whole issue.

But I do agree with your point that there is a lot more to life than just being ‘happy’, and a lot that you can get out of emotions usually seen as ‘negative’. In the same way when people try to cheer me up by saying ‘don’t be sad!’ it tends to irritate me. I *am* sad, there is usually a good *reason* for me to be sad, and all I want is for you to maybe sit with me until the sad goes away, not tell me I shouldn’t be feeling it.

People do have the right to be sad, miserable, or even a little depressed. It’s when they get to the stage where they can’t *cope* with that, I think that no benefit should be worth it, and it’s probably worth seeking medical advice.

And congrats on the editor’s choice!

If we look at it from a “the mind is what the brain does” aspect, we can see that multiple species are capable of producing the symptoms of depression. And I think arguments of ignoring the issue just because it may be (emphasis on the ‘may’) an evolutionary advantageous trait (which is not to be confused with individually advantageous) are a bit off.

Even one-off or rare episodes of depression should be addressed. I don’t think the researchers’ point was to say “ignore depression, it’s natural.” But rather, “let’s look at it in a different light in view of these findings.” As a person who has had the rare occasion of depression (as defined by the dictionary quote offered in my comment above) I found a lot of what they had to say spot on. Perhaps this is anecdotal at best, but it was followed by some extreme changes (positive ones, I think) in how I looked at my roles, identity and what I wanted to accomplish.

Acute or chronic depression needs some form of addressing, as we can see the debilitating effects it has. Episodic depression generally has a tapering off period. Lots of people get depressed but I think because of how we talk about it in society, it’s seen in the realm that really should be reserved for the most extreme cases.

This is where elements of positive psychology come into play, but there are other takes on that that I think deserve some caution as it’s looked at by some as a way of doing away with large swaths of human emotion seen as “negative.”

I too am a little wary of studies that talk about brain size. Even mice get depressed, as most people who’ve worked with them will tell you. Interestingly Desmond Morris in ‘The naked ape’ books pointed out that the emotional states seen by humans is mimiced most closely by zoo animals, rather than big-brained animals, suggesting this is an issue as much about situation than anything.