Shankar Vedantam

Withdraw, be careful, be afraid.

Something is dangerous here.

So when we think about emotions as predictors as opposed to reactions, that fits very well with your thesis that moods in some ways are a guide telling us what to do next.

To bear down on this just a moment longer, you told me how debilitating your depression was, how you felt like there was no end in sight.

You even had thoughts of ending your own life.

How could a condition that is so disabling, a condition that prompted you to consider suicide, how can this be understood as a beneficial adaptation?

So in some ways, what I hear you saying, John, is that, you know, as you discussed, the capacity for anxiety is a good thing, which is that it's important to be on the lookout for predators or threats.

And in our evolutionary history, this was a very useful adaptation.

But in the modern world in which we live, we are inundated with stories about things that could be threatening.

We're reading blog posts.

We're reading stories.

newspaper articles, we are watching cable television, we are on social media, and we are constantly being told about all the threats that are in our environments.

And this natural, healthy adaptation to experience fear, to be wary of threats, now gets put into hyperdrive because we are in an environment that is constantly pressing that button over and over again.

Is that the point that you're making?

So here again, the problem might not be social comparison per se, because again, as you point out, in our ancestral environments, perhaps some social comparison was useful.

If somebody figured out how to build a better hut than your hut, then you learned to build a better hut yourself.

But now we're confronted with social comparison with millions of other people, people who are better athletes, people who are eating nicer dinners, people who are in happier relationships.

And we're constantly asking ourselves the question, why is it that I have fallen short

short.

You also observed, John, that our modern culture leads people to pursue happiness in ways that may set themselves up for unhappiness.