"Why does Jim exist?" Forgive me for being blunt, but I think it might be winter.
Using resources to chase low-probability goods in a sharply resource constrained environment is a lethal strategy. See also: why being rich makes it easier to strike oil when investing, aka the Risk Premium.
We've had such a fortunate run the last few decades that we've forgotten just how potent a skill "holing up" was, and likely will be again. Psychological illnesses like depression, maybe a similar reason for passing the great evolutionary filter.
Oh! Not now, no. No it is all bad. Definitely maladaptive. But how did it make its way through the millennia without killing everyone it touched and disappearing? Because a lot of the carriers survived, and maybe because of it, or - more likely - because of some trait related to it, like fat metabolism or some form of environmental tolerance. Sickle cell is the poster boy for this kind of thing - we though it was just all bad, it turned out to be adaptive for a particular environmnt.
If my understanding of history is reliable, there are times when being in such a state can help your odds of survival, like if your country is occupied by an insane murdering tyrant. Your body wants to keep you alive much more than it wants to keep you happy.
Using resources to chase low-probability goods in a sharply resource constrained environment is a lethal strategy. See also: why being rich makes it easier to strike oil when investing, aka the Risk Premium.
We've had such a fortunate run the last few decades that we've forgotten just how potent a skill "holing up" was, and likely will be again. Psychological illnesses like depression, maybe a similar reason for passing the great evolutionary filter.