Goodnewsforpeoplewhoalwaysfailtoseethesilverliningonclouds.AreportinNewScientist,suggeststhatatendencytogetdownwhenlifeknocksyoudowncanbegoodforyou.Agrowingnumberofwarningvoicesfromtheworldofmental-hea
Good news for people who always fail to see the silver lining on clouds.A report in New Scientist,suggests that a tendency to get down when life knocks you down can be good for you.A growing number of warning voices from the world of mental-health research are claiming that it isn't a good idea to use antidepressant(抗抑郁剂)to help do away with unhappiness caused by marriage breakdown,death or redundancy(下岗)because"they fear that the increasing tendency to treat normal sadness as if it were a disease is playing fast and loose with an important part of our biology.Sadness serves an evolutionary(进化的)purpose."
Jerome Wakefield,a clinical social worker at New York University explains that depressive feelings are part of our biological makeup."When you find something deep in us biologically,you should believe that it was selected because it could bring us some advantage,otherwise we wouldn't have been burdened with it.I think that one of the functions of strong negative emotions is to stop our normal functioning,to make us focus on something else for a while."While Paul Keedwell,a psychiatrist at Cardiff University claims that ever full-blown depression may have its purpose,saying the sufferer from the effects of long-term stress."Without a mental pause,"he argues,"you might stay in a state of chronic(慢性的)stress until you're exhausted or dead."
Although it is important to be careful when talking about depression,having the upside traced in your downside will have an irresistible(不可抵抗的)appeal to all those who take the phrase"cheer up,love,it might never happen"as a personal insult(侮辱).It will be manna especially for creative types,who have long doubted that crying a lot is a sign of their inward genius(天赋).In the tests at Harvard,New Scientist reports,people with signs of depression performed better at creative task,especially after receiving feedback that was designed to reinforce their low spirits.Alt