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DanArmak comments on Open thread, May 17-31 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Depression causes inactivity, helplessness, not dealing with problems, cutting social ties, and sometimes suicidal behavior. It's hard to see how any of that could be evolutionarily beneficial in any scenario. (Which is not to say it's not an evolved behavior due to some different mechanism, like being tied to otherwise beneficial genes.)
I've often thought the symptoms of depression seem similar to those of hibernation. Depressed people usually sleep more, decrease activity levels, cease romantic/sexual efforts, withdraw/hide from others, etc. That behavior pattern seems like it might be adaptive during temporary hardships (drought/famine/winter, etc.) where you really are helpless to change circumstances, and nothing you can plausibly do would help.
If depression was hibernation-like you'd expect oversleeping and undereating. Melancholic depression causes insomnia and undereating, atypical depression causes oversleeping and overeating.