The Many Origins of Depression

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What Is Depression?

Is depression a flat mood, an inability to participate in ‘normal life activities,’ or unexplained bouts of sadness? In spite of its singular clinical classification, depression looks different for each person. Like Leo Tolstoy noted in his famous novel Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

While all happy families aren’t necessarily alike, this adage speaks truth in terms of depression. Each person’s depressive symptoms - remember, depression is a symptom, not a disease - depend on their unique circumstances, bodily health, emotional history, and held beliefs. As the serotonin model of depression continues to lose its hold on mainstream psychiatry, a theory of depression as evolutionary mismatch has emerged. In this theory, depression is the result of modern living; we did not evolve in the context of environmental toxins, isolated living, and near-constant stress. Some argue that depression is a response to this mismatch, also called paleo-deficit disorder, and depression is simply a message from our bodies trying to protect us from the madness of the modern world.