Did Ancient Humans Get Depressed?

It's 2 a.m., you're watching a stranger renovate a kitchen, and you feel grey. So here's a question: did a caveman ever lie awake at 2 a.m. thinking "what is the point of berries"? In this video: why you can't excavate a mood (there's no bone that means "he was fine"), elephants and chimps proving grief is older than our species, the four ancient JOBS of low mood — winter mode, the thinking cave, the Thag protocol, and sick mode — why researchers keep finding surprisingly LOW rates of chronic depression in hunter-gatherer communities like the Hadza, how a forager's normal day is literally your therapist's entire whiteboard by accident, what the band actually did when someone went dark (the all-night San healing dance: a support group, a therapy session and a rave, all at once), and the one thing the Stone Age structurally refused to let anyone do: carry it alone. If you're struggling, talk to someone — findahelpline.com lists free support in most countries. And as the video says: therapy and medication are the modern band. Reach for it. Watch next — What Did Ancient Humans Do When They Got Old?: [LINK TO VIDEO 2] CHAPTERS 0:00 2 a.m. and the brightness setting 0:50 You can't excavate a mood 2:07 Sadness is ancient (elephants, chimps, graves) 3:04 The settings menu: low mood had four jobs 3:21 Job 1 — winter mode 3:46 Job 2 — the thinking cave 4:07 Job 3 — the Thag protocol 4:36 Job 4 — sick mode 5:13 The twist: the people with the leopards are less depressed 6:09 Your therapist's whiteboard, by accident 6:42 Losing to four billion Thags before breakfast 7:01 What the band did when someone went dark 7:35 Grief was a group project (the all-night dance) 8:12 The honest part 8:39 The prescription in the dirt 9:13 Not a joke: the modern band 9:36 Nobody gets left in the dark (watch this next) #ancienthumans #prehistory #humanevolution