Pressures in the Human Zoo: Are Anxiety and Depression Normal Reactions to an Abnormal Environment?

It is common practice in the field of Psychology to diagnose and treat disorders.  The underlying premise is that the client is lacking some skills, or insight, that therapy can hopefully provide.  But what if there is nothing wrong with the client and it’s the environment that needs adjusting?  What if it’s the mismatch between how we evolved to live and how we currently live, that is making so many of us sick?

From the perspective of the field of Evolutionary Psychology (eg. Crawford & Krebs, 2008; Barkow, Cosmides & Tooby, 1992), humans have an ancient brain in a modern skull. The environment that humans -- and, therefore, human minds -- evolved in was very different from this modern environment. Our ancestors spent over 99% of our species' evolutionary history living in hunter-gatherer societies: small, nomadic groups of a few dozen individuals. They slept when the sun went down, they were physically active much of the day, every day, and they relied on each other for survival. Leda Cosmides, a leading evolutionary psychologist, likened this to a “10-million year camping trip”1, during which, generation after generation, natural selection slowly sculpted the human brain (just as it did the body), selecting for brain circuits that were good at solving the day-to-day problems, like finding mates, hunting animals, gathering plants for food, negotiating with friends, defending ourselves against aggression, raising children, choosing a good habitat, and so on. Those whose circuits were better designed for solving these problems left more children, and we are descended from them. 

The world that we currently live in is nothing like the “camping trip” described above. It’s a world of daily commuting to and from work, of mega-malls, factories, suburbs, computers and virtual reality, mortgages, and being reachable, and in some cases “on-call”, 24hr/day. In addition, this modern world has lasted for only an eye-blink of time when compared to our entire evolutionary history. Natural selection is a slow process, and there haven't been enough generations for it to shape neural circuits that are well adapted to this post-industrial life. Consequently, much behaviour that once served us well is now “maladaptive”. For example, the tendency to overeat comes from a brain that was designed to gorge on fats and sweets (calorie rich foods) whenever it encountered them, because they were rare and precious. However, with a 7/11 around the corner, this drive doesn’t serve us well!  

It is amazing that we have adapted as well as we have, and that more people aren’t clinically depressed or debilitated with anxiety.  When a therapist sees a client who flies around the globe to work meetings, and is regularly jet lagged, who eats in restaurants more than at home, who is unable to invest in relationships because he is always away, who can’t commit to regular exercise, and who is never without his “Blackberry”, and he says he is depressed and anxious, it's wouldn't be surprising.

Although our lives have improved immeasurably in the last few hundred years, the challenge lies in balancing the demands of the modern world against the ancient needs of our bodies and minds. Think of it this way: your brain is like a car engine that was built to run on gasoline. After 10 million years of running on gasoline, you pour in kerosene, and hope it keeps running.  It may keep going, but it will sputter and struggle, because it wasn’t built for “kerosene” (i.e. modern “inputs” such as flying in airplanes, being in crowds of thousands of people or being stimulated by lights and sounds day and night). In many cases, the brain is better at solving the kinds of problems our ancestors faced on the African savannah than it is at solving the issues faced in a modern society.  With inputs that are so different from what we are suited to, and inputs that change too rapidly for us to adapt, one would predict trouble. 

Current trends are beginning to favour a more “natural” world: trends towards environmentalism, towards healthy, local, whole foods (rather than processed empty calories), towards running clubs and gym memberships, towards Yoga and meditative therapies, towards slowing down, and simplifying, and de-cluttering (“less-is more”), towards teaching our kids to play real games, outdoors, with real people. The satisfaction people are getting from making things instead of buying them or gardening and growing their own vegetables, are not accidental. It feels “right” to be doing these things; perhaps these activities, akin to the “gasoline” in the earlier analogy, feed our deeply ingrained needs, that are not being met by the socially isolated, fast paced, chronic stress, sedentary, consumer oriented life style that most of us are living. 

So what is the clinical relevance of these ideas? The fact that most people deal effectively with the pressures of modern life is a testament to the adaptability of our ancient brains and bodies. But in addition, many of those who are struggling with stress and depressed mood may be perfectly “normal” and simply suffering from living in an “abnormal” environment.  Behavioural changes in their lives, which aim to increase physical activity, socialization and downtime, improve diet, and increase mindfulness (i.e. living in the present), have significant effects not just because “they’re good for you” but because they are the right fit for the bodies and brains that we have inherited.

For further information and assistance, contact Maria Watson

References

Crawford, C. & Krebs, D., (eds). (2008). Foundations of evolutionary psychology, Taylor and Francis.

Barkow J., Cosmides L., and Tooby, J (eds). (1992). The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.