Even though, we are the ‘smarter’ species on this planet, we are still driven by the same motivations as our ape ancestors, such as the Social Rank.
We fight for domination, attention, recognition. One of the most fundamental foundations for our behavior is the drive to acquire a higher social rank aka status.
Doesn’t it sound familiar to you that people want to get more money, more power, more likes on social media? All this is wired in our evolutionary program.
At the end of the day, it’s about the rank order. Domination of the strongest.
But what if I am not the strongest?
Well, then the likelihood is high that I get depressed (in the meaning of depressed/slowed down bodily functions and the loss of motivation to act).
Depression is a survival mechanism. A mechanism that intends to protect us from physical harm a stronger individual can do to us during his dominant rage attack.
This makes sense, considering that once the rank order is established, it’s better to go out of the way of the stronger ape not to get the ass kicked again.
Depression causes us to withdraw from the society, to isolate ourselves.
Isolation leads to an increase in the stress hormone cortisol and inflammatory molecules in the human body.
Interestingly, an evolutionary theory about the origin of depression – the sickness hypothesis - suggests that depression is consequence of infection. This means that increase in inflammation due to sickness, causes us naturally to transition into a depressed state and to isolate. This makes sense from the evolutionary point of view, as this is likely to happen to protect the tribe around us and to increase its survival chances.
Another depression theory suggests that depression is about energy conservation, preventing us wasting energy on currently unnecessary tasks – such as having social interaction – and focusing on processes that makes us survive, such as getting healthy for example.
Well, there are more depression theories out there. I don’t want to go into detail and discuss them at least for now. The thing I want to point out, however, is the connection between cortisol, inflammation, isolation and depression.
It’s a cycle. It doesn’t matter where you enter the cycle, the result will be the same:
Inflammation – due to sickness – leads to depression and isolation.
Isolation – due to social factors – leads to inflammation and subsequent depression.
Depression – for any reason, like being unhappy with your life – leads to isolation and inflammation.
Everything is connected. And this is what causes us trouble in the world we live in now.
If you remember my previous post, I already described there that submissive behavior due to a lower social rank leads to an increase in cortisol and inflammatory molecules, which we now know lead to depression.
In our modern world, being surrounded by social media showoffs, shiny commercial, beautiful photo-shopped peopled who seem to have the perfect life, we are constantly reminded of the things we don’t have.
This is something that happens subconsciously…but dozens of times per day marginal evidence appears in front of our eyes, why we are lower in our social rank than others. Even though, the evidence is so small, so that we hardly notice it - at least not consciously - over time even very small drops adds up and can fill a cup bringing it to over-floating.
Surprised why we have so many mental health problems and depressed people in the world today?
I am not, as I think that our (social) media addiction as one important puzzle piece to the global depression problem.
Every time we look at our phones, we get a reminder that we are lower in our social rank then others. This makes us feel small, release more stress hormone cortisol, cause inflammation in our bodies and become depressed.
We are biologically not adapted to the advanced world we created.
What can we do about it?
Creating new survival strategies and applying them as quickly as possible to survive in the modern world, before the ancient survival mechanisms – depression, anxiety & Co – kill us.
What are these strategies?
Well, I already have a few in mind and I will share them with you in my future articles. Stay tuned!