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Depressed People More Likely To Get Rejected, Study Finds

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Depressed People More Likely To Get Rejected, Study Finds

Trending News: Depressed People Are More Likely To Get Rejected In Dating

Long Story Short

Sometimes it's hard to remember for the person with the disease, but depression affects more than just the person suffering from it. People suffering from depression have a higher chance of getting rejected in dating situations, because their depression bums others out. Presumably further exacerbate their depression...

Long Story

Sometimes when you're feeling lonely or just down in the dumps, you might tell yourself that you need to get out in the world and mix it up a little. But when you're already feeling down, that's easier said than done. Now imagine suffering from actual, clinical depression and eeking out the energy to, say, maybe try and meet a romantic partner. Despite the happy anticipation of a new fling, that person could actually be making things worse: Depressed people are more likely to be rejected in a dating situation.

The study involved 136 Belgians, and they were screened for depression and surveyed about their current positive and negative emotions before embarking on rounds of "speed dating." After spending 4 minutes each with several members of the opposite sex, they indicated their interest in the people they met and completed another survey of their emotions.

Using something called mediation analysis, the researchers were able to determine if changes in emotion were the reason people rejected others. Sure enough, the more symptoms of depression a subject displayed, the less likely it was that their speed dating partners wanted to see them again. It wasn't that the depression wore off in the sense that their partners felt sadder, but interacting with depressed people led to decreased positive emotions. That may sound inconsequential, but it isn't — while of course actively making someone sad won't endear you to them, failure to make them happy doesn't do well either. Without a positive association, you're just another person they met.

Obviously, this presents a problem for depressed people, because social isolation is a major component of depression. Of course, there's no feeling more isolating than being rejected by others, so it perpetuates this sort of cycle where someone's depressed, craves interaction, gets rejected and gets even more depressed.

“Rejection by strangers likely contributes to their sense of social isolation by preventing them from forming new relationships and developing a broader social support system,” the researchers said. “The experience of rejection… may exacerbate individuals’ symptoms (including feelings of social isolation) and increase their risk of developing clinically significant depression.”

The only advice? Address your depression before venturing out into the dating world, or at the very least avoid dating-concentrated places, like speed dating.

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This would be a horrible cycle to fall into.

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