In a Shrink Rap Radio interview, Jed Diamond, Ph.D. talks about his book The Irritable Male Syndrome: Understanding and Managing the 4 Key Causes of Depression and Aggression. Here is an excerpt from the transcript:

We used to think that male menopause was metaphorical… a midlife crisis like what women go through. But these hormonally based changes that affect our psychological state, our emotional state, our sexuality really is similar enough to what I think women go through that the term has caught on, and it really has been recognized now throughout the world.

I define Irritable Male Syndrome as a state of hypersensitivity, anxiety, frustration, and anger that occurs in males and is associated with biochemical changes, hormonal fluctuations, stress, and loss of male identity. … We found that depression and irritability are related.

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"I was feeling so sad all the time, and I couldn’t shake it. I started burying my feelings, and it got to a point where I couldn’t even tell my family or my friends, ‘I’m twisted,’ or ‘I’m exhausted,’ or ‘I’m so angry.’"

Alicia Keys [right] added, "I became a master of putting up the wall so that I was unreadable." [People, December 13, 2007]

One of the reasons we need to manage depression as creative people, is so we don’t get too walled off or shut down to create.

For some people, it may be a more severe form, such as the Postpartum Depression that Marie Osmond experienced.

As she described it: "I’m collapsed in a pile of shoes on my closet floor… I have no memory of what it feels like to be happy. I sit with my knees pulled up to my chest. I barely move. It’s not that I want to be still. I am numb."

But probably for most of us, it is a less extreme form, such as dysthymia, and is likely to be an existential depression, as psychologist and creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD describes in his book The Van Gogh Blues .

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From Oprah and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth Online Class:

Sharon (audience member): I have close relationships to people who suffer from depression. And in talking with them, I find that there’s an inwardness and a strong identity that they have as people who suffer from depression.

Eckhart Tolle: Whether it is a physical condition that one suffers from or a psychological condition, there is the tendency to identify oneself with it.

Oprah: [People think,] “And I’m depressed because I’m identifying with my whole story.”

Eckhart Tolle: Yes. If you’re very strongly identified with my sad story, which for many people, yes, the story is sad. I had a sad story for many years until I let go of it… I was depressed.. until one night, I woke up, and I realized that this unhappy self is not who I am.

Continued in article Eckhart Tolle On Depression.

Heather Locklear is seeking treatment for anxiety and depression. “She requested an in-depth evaluation of her medication and entered into a medical facility for proper diagnosis and treatment,” her publicist said. [The Associated Press 06/26/2008]

Musician Shawn Colvin explained on an episode of the Oprah show (Depressed, Mentally Ill and Famous), “Part of the way I’ve dealt with my depressions in the past is I’ve had the ability, if necessary, to just check out. There have been times when I’ve not shown up at work.”

In a press release, Colvin said, “Since seeking help and getting appropriate treatment for my depression, I have felt more engaged with and closer to family and friends, and have been able to fully capture my creativity.”

One of the ways we need to support ourselves is to deal with mental health challenges like depression that can distort our inner life and impede access to our creative thinking and energy.

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From Manic Depression and Creativity – A Book Review, by Paul Bloch, Serendip blog.

Manic depression, also known as bipolar disorder, is a mental disorder, which is characterized by a cyclic shift in moods between mania and depression. Manic symptoms include hyperactivity, inflated self-esteem, high risk activity, decrease need for sleep, distractibility, and flight of ideas (a rapid, uncontrolled flow of thoughts).

Depression is characterized by dysphoria, loss of interest or pleasure in usual pastimes, decreased energy, decrease appetite, and suicidal thoughts.

It is hard to imagine how one would be able to function regularly with such debilitating symptoms.

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By his mid-twenties, Andrew Solomon earned international accolades for his work as a novelist, journalist and historian. At 31 he descended into a major depression. He was helped by a combination of family support, medications and talk therapy.

Andrew Solomon : Depression is an illness of loneliness. And the primary experience is the feeling of being isolated, of being alone, of being cut off from everyone and everything. I knew that the sun was rising and setting, but little of its light reached me….

These experiences of darkness make the light more beautiful, that the pain of being acutely depressed allows you to experience an unbelievable happiness in every day when you aren’t depressed and a sense that each of those days is a gift.

So that’s the real message of hope, is that you can get better.

From his article The experience of darkness and hope .

Related: Depression articles / resources