Is There a Selective Advantage to Depression, Mania, or Anxiety?
For Mental Health Month, I intended a linear progression through history. I began with the Dawn of Man, and it seems I’m still stuck there. Who knows? I may never get past 700,000 BC. The reason speculation about our ancient ancestors is so important is that it forces us to think differently about mental illness. According to evolutionary biologist Randolph Nesse MD of the University of Michigan: “Psychiatrists still act as if all anxiety, sadness, and jealousy is abnormal and they don’t yet look for the selective advantages of genes that predispose to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.” The key word here is “tradeoff.” The sickle cell gene, for instance, is protection against malaria. I heard Dr Nesse speak several years back at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting. The selective advantage of anxiety was his focus. Obviously, sufficiently anxious cave men and women were able to steer clear of predators long enough to find an opportunity to pass on their genes to the ne
