Creativity as a Method to Cope With Depression
When Depressive Episodes Strike, Creativity Needn’t Stop
May 31, 2009
Clinical depression and bipolar disorder are serious conditions, but they do not have to stop the flow of creativity or life when they descend. Even though it might take every bit of strength the sufferer has at that moment, getting up and taking action is vital to reclaiming a creative and active life.
Some things to help relieve the clasp of depression on life are:
- Making the effort to do, versus thinking about doing
- The Morning Pages (free-writing thoughts on paper)
- Exercise to release endorphins, even if only for five or 10 minutes
Being Versus Doing
Lana Castle, in her book Finding Your Bipolar Muse: How to Master Depressive Droughts and Manic Floods and Access Your Creative Power (Marlowe & Company, 2006), says one of the clogs that can hit creative people during serious depressive episodes is the idea of “being” versus “doing.”
Castle, who suffers from bipolar disorder, says that many people wish that they were an artist, a filmmaker, a musician, a writer.
“But becoming any of these depends more on doing than being,” Castle says. “When you act, you are an actor. When you dance, you are a dancer. When you write, you are a writer. Being an actor, dancer … or writer means taking action. It means immersing yourself in the creative process by acting, dancing … or writing.
“Succeeding in any creative endeavor is challenging enough, but it becomes much more so with a mood disorder. Being unable to move forward or to stay focused at times doesn’t mean you must abandon your dreams. Just keep your eye on the prize and take whatever steps you can–whenever you can.”
Immersion in Creativity
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992), describes one technique to blast through writer’s block that can also be effective with working through depressive episodes. She calls it the Morning Pages, and this consists of three pages written from whatever is on the writer’s mind. Free-thinking writing gets thoughts out of the head and onto the page.
Whilst this technique’s tools are pen and paper, it is not strictly for writers. It is for anyone who longs to create and break through clogs and blocks to that creativity.
This technique can also help those in a depressive episode. Writing through the darkness, even though it might be the hardest thing ever done to pick up paper and pen to do so, may not yield a breakthrough creative thought, but it can make life bearable until the darkness lifts a bit and a therapist is available.
Depression is especially difficult in the afternoon and at night, when the light is sad and tired and fading into black. Grab a pen and some paper and write, write, write. Focus on the writing and not on the mood.
Bringing Out The Endorphins
Whilst writing the pages can be helpful, for those creatives who have more of a physical art, such as dancers, and even painters moving across the canvas with their brushes and colours, getting up and moving can help lift the mood, as exercise releases endorphins into the brain. Endorphins are natural mood lifters and pain blockers.
Writers also are encouraged to put down the pen at some point and do some mild exercise, whether it is walking around the block, jumping rope for 10 minutes, or running in place for five. The important thing is to get some aerobic activity going, get the heart beating faster, and activate the part of the brain that releases endorphins.
For Those Who Don’t Consider Themselves Creative…
Remember that building a life based on each individual’s idea of success is a huge creative endeavour, whether it means decorating a home or teaching schoolchildren or supervising a crew that builds automobiles. All persons undertake this challenge every morning, when they swing their feet out of bed onto the floor.
Ray Bradbury says, in Zen in the Art of Writing (Joshua Odell Editions, Capra Press, 1990), that action is vital, and people must earn life once it has been granted.
“We must take arms each and every day, perhaps knowing that the battle cannot be entirely won, but fight we must, if only a gentle bout,” Bradbury says. “Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me.
“After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.”
Coping With Depression Through Creativity
Life is challenging for all people, but for those with mood disorders, it can be especially so. And so these people must make extra effort, and have extra faith that their efforts matter, to live in the moment and to take action, whether it is of a creative nature or balancing the checkbook.
For creatives, though, who often lack specific routines in their day unless they hold a full-time job, depression can rob them of their creative energy and make them feel useless and perhaps even that their lives are meaningless.
That is why it is so important to act and confront the blackness, go right into it, whether it be through writing like mad, dancing like a wraith, making the saxophone wail, or painting in a frenzy never before felt. Act and relieve the darkness, even a little bit, and it will become more bearable.
Remember: everyone is worth their life, and acting on one’s own behalf is the greatest act of creativity possible.
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