Many people are not aware of the term of depressive realism yet are mildly aware of the concept; depressive realism is when the depression of an individual makes them more realistic in comparison to their non-depressed comrades. According to findings, people with depression are more accurate and objective about their abilities, judgments, the perspective of life, and much more.
Jan Wong, a journalist talks about depressive realism in Out of the Blue, saying that “…depressive realism. Depression is not the near-death experience described by so many, [Kayla Dunn] suggests, but a rebirth in which the new psyche has removed self-delusion. Compared with so-called healthy individuals, depressives are more realistic in their worldview.”
It might seem to be a bit contradictory since depression is thought to make a person irrational and illogical so much so that they become pessimistic and there is no lack of evidence supporting that. It should be noted that there are some controversies about depressive realism but scientists do not yet know where to land on it.
What do phrases like selective abstraction or catastrophic thinking mean to you? These are a few of the cognitive illusions that a depressed individual might experience. A cognitive illusion is when there is an error in thinking. These kinds of errors can be found in the normal population but not everyone experiences them as they remain asymptomatic.
Despite all of that, depressive realism exists and has been researched. This raises an important question; does depression lead to a person being realistic? Or is it that realism ultimately leads to depression? The notion seems quite scary but one that needs to be pondered on.
The Interdependence of Depression & Realism
There seems to be a certain kind of link between our two factors which has been proven by research too. An experiment was conducted to check for the presence of realism and depression; mood inductions were used to induce a depression-like state in non-depressed participants and elation was induced in depressed participants. Afterward, they were asked to solve a problem that in reality had no solution. All of them were bound to fail the task so their moods were assessed before the start and after the completion of the task. During this time and after a month passed, every participant was asked to fill out a checklist of depressive symptoms that they experienced or did not experience. They were also asked to list down any stressful events that they had faced in the previous month.
It turned out that individuals that had a positive illusion of control were not susceptible to depression as much. Moreover, the students that had a strong illusion of control over the results of the first task did not fall victim to depression even after they faced failure in solving the problem with no solution neither did they feel depressed when they experienced stressful situations in life. But the students that had a real sense of control over the outcomes of the first task did experience depressive symptoms at every turn. Hence, this proves clearly that there is a strong interdependence between the two forces.
Is There a Silver Lining to It?
Whether to stoke egos or to maintain some semblance of positivity, depressive realism is often portrayed in a heroic light. Often, it is said to have a realistic sense of self than be gullible and unaware. There is no doubt that there are some ups to it, one with depressive realism has an exact sense of self of their abilities hence they can predict the outcome of a lot of their efforts and life events. They have a low chance of facing disappointment about their efforts and they are prepared for failures even. Furthermore, depressive realism should not be portrayed in a negative light as it often proves to be uplifting for people with depression, just knowing that they possess it.
Talking about the phenomenon, Andy Baker, Ph.D., a cognitive psychologist at McGill University commented, “Msetfi and her colleagues have shown that depressive realism is potentially a consequence of differences in simple information processing and not other more complex processes such as the protection of self-esteem,”
Normally, people have positive illusions about life and their abilities which often render them useless when it comes to judging reality and making important decisions of life that require a clear perception. In the longer run, having an undue sense of self will lead to unrealistic expectations and goals personally and from life. Due to that, people often suffer from emotional and behavioral problems when they face failure. They also are not prepared for difficulties and tragedies which can be traumatic.
In light of this, Daniel Gilbert writes in Stumbling on Happiness about people’s non-depressed future selves and the associated delusions and wishes, “Shouldn’t we know the tastes, preferences, needs, and desires of the people we will be next year – or at least later this afternoon? Shouldn’t we understand our future selves well enough to shape their lives – to find careers and lovers whom they will cherish, to buy slipcovers for the sofa that they will treasure for years to come? So why do they end up with attics and lives that are full of stuff that we considered indispensable and that they consider painful, embarrassing, or useless?”
The reality is that people who suffer from mild to moderate depression and possess depressive realism do have something to feel good about themselves as it allows them to capture quite a lot in their life. Such people do not see the world through a rose-tinted glass that normal people do.
End Note
We do not propose that one should hold onto depression just to have a sense of realism as depression is detrimental; frankly, the romanticism that some people hold about depressive realism is appalling and plain wrong. But just for the sake of portraying it in not such a bleak light, it can be said that it gives the individual power and control over their life and emotions to a certain extent whilst helping them understand their selves.
