I suspect that symptoms of depression may be rather frequent among rationalists.
Most people are more optimistic than would be epistemically rational; they systematically underestimate the risks and overestimate their abilities. However, this kind of bias may be instrumentally useful: it makes people do things, even if most of the things will not bring the outcome they imagine. Because of some quirks of human brain, people who perceive reality better often have problem to motivate themselves. This hypothesis is called depressive realism.
But I believe that is just a part of the story, and maybe the less important part. It is the part of the story that fits into the just-world narrative. You get something (precision), you lose something (motivation), the harmony in the universe is restored.
The other part of the story is that better epistemic rationality can bring you some social problems. If your friends are not interested in being epistemically rational, you will feel alone with your thoughts. If you perceive how things can go wrong, and others deny it, of couse you see a danger where they don't. The danger is real, the helplessness is real (if a larger cooperation is needed to prevent the danger), the feeling of being alone (in your mental landscape) is real.
I am not merely using different words here. Here is the anticipated experience: -- If we create a rationalist community in real world; under the hypothesis of depressive realism, nothing should change. Putting more depressive people together should probably just make things worse, as they would confirm each other's depressive thoughts. But under the hypothesis of "epistemically rational people are alone, there are real problems, and the cooperation is needed to overcome them", rational people in a rationalist community would be more happy, because they wouldn't be alone, could make other people see the same problems, and could cooperate in overcoming them.
(I also consider it likely that LW readers could actually come from both groups. If we would bring all of them to one village, some of them would focus on debating the end-of-the-world scenarios, and some of them would focus on becoming stronger and changing the world.)
However, this kind of bias may be instrumentally useful:
I agree, but I think there is another bias at work -- not understanding one's own motivations. In this case, Zohar doesn't seem to understand why exactly he wants to be inducted so badly. People have a tendency to choose the most flattering explanations for their own actions and desires and believe them. Or at least to avoid thinking about the unflattering but likely true motivations.
(In this case, I suspect what's really going on is that Zohar is worried that he has serious mental problems and...
So I've been rejected for conscription in the IDF because the psychiatrist thinks the Asperger's diagnosis I received as a child means that there is something wrong with me. Never mind that I've been examined very recently and been recommended for enlistment, he thinks that even though I probably don't have Asperger's, there must be something wrong with me because in the past I've had trouble socially. Of course I have no such problems now, but it's not as if he's going to risk his job in the face of anything less than perfection.
(This, btw, is what I meant when I said there was no such thing as a competent mental health professional- the entire system works against evidence-based methods.)
There has to be something wrong with this, some way that I can appeal. I have no idea of the Israeli legal process and I'm not sure if I could just write a letter to someone, or if I might need a lawyer. I can definitely prove that there is nothing psychologically wrong with me. I just have no idea where to turn, no idea how to do anything, and have no allies whatsoever. I feel like my life is collapsing, and I do have very good reasons personally for wanting to join the army. It's not just something I felt like doing.
This community obviously has better things to do than this sort of thing. But I feel like I'm going to explode if I can't talk to anyone, or get some idea of what I can do. I feel almost as if I'm becoming mentally ill.