Are You An Amazing Problem Solver? You Might Be Depressed!

Pictured Above: Man analyzing his hate for the world.

Just kidding! But on a serious note, if the title statement were reversed (i.e. Are you depressed? You may be a good problem solver.) it would hold true in a lot of cases. New studies done at various universities across the U.S. found that people who suffer from depression are much better candidates for analyzing and making good decisions when confronted with high-stakes situations, such as buying a new home or hiring someone. The reasoning behind this is that sufferers of depression are often pessimistic, driving them to further investigate and analyze a situation before 'jumping the gun'.

Depressed people were also found to be especially apt at sequential decision making (i.e. situations where a decision is made, then an event occurs, then another decision is made, then another event occurs, so on and so so forth). For example, patients were found to make better decisions on whom to marry and when, for the same reasons mentioned above.

Tip of the Day: If you've been with your partner for a while and are thinking of popping the question, get depressed for a few days.


Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/73973/title/Thinking_better_with_depression