“I think most human beings go through some sort of depression in their life. And if they don’t, that’s weird.” Kirsten Dunst

From an article by Josh Patner in Flare magazine, which continues:

Dunst speaks from experience: In 2008, she checked into a rehab center in Utah to be treated for crippling depression.

Things started unraveling in 2006 when critics tore apart Marie Antoinette, which starred Dunst as the French queen.

“The movie was so personal to me, and it was like everyone was stomping on my heart.”

More flops followed, as did a breakup with her boyfriend. But she found herself unable to talk about her pain.

“And because of what I do for a living, I had to keep giving. It can dissolve you.”

She also thought that suffering would make her a better actress. “I would hold on to insecurities, because I thought it would help me. You see in people’s eyes what they’ve been through.”

Dunst is more confident now, and no longer believes that misery is essential to her craft. “I know that I perform best when I’m happy, because you can access those [painful] things and be okay at the end of the day.”

[Source: "Kirsten Dunst’s battle with depression", theweek.com, Nov. 4 2011]

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Related articles:

Dealing with Depression to Access Our Creativity
Many prominent artists experience depression… One of the myths of creativity is that you need to be depressed to be creatively successful. You don’t. But many creative people may be particularly susceptible to mood disorders.

Madness and creativity: do we need to be crazy?
The mythology of the mad artist continues in various forms, supported to some extent by research – for example, studies indicating writers are more susceptible to depression.

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Diet

Many biochemical theories of depression centre around deficiencies of one nutrient or another, and vitamins and minerals are an obvious first place to look, as we need so many of them – usually in tiny daily amounts, but they are vital.

And the truth is, many depressed people do not care enough about themselves to buy and cook fresh healthy food.

Obviously in an ideal world, you would get all your nutritional needs from food, but whilst you work towards that ideal a broad-spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplement can help set you on the right track. …

As well as trace nutrients your diet must contain enough basic building blocks, such as fats.

Fats have a bad press because they are calorifically dense, but the truth is they are an essential part of your diet, as they are an essential part of your body.

Getting enough healthy unsaturated essential fatty acids in your diet is vital for brain health, and it is an EFA called Omega-3 that we are most likely to be deficient in.

This can be taken as a supplement in capsule form, or oils such as flax seed or fish oil. DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, is a good supplement to look out for.   [Continued]

Herbal Remedies

There are a great many herbal remedies available to help you tackle depression.

It’s good to talk to an qualified herbalist or naturopath about these if you are unsure where to start.

Remember that most commercial pharmaceuticals in use today are derived from or modelled upon natural herbs and substances – folk remedies tend to develop their reputation because they work in some way, and the big pharma companies exploit that effect when they can!

So, if you are taking prescription antidepressants, you must NOT mix them with certain herbal remedies, as their actions on brain chemistry are too similar.

A good example is St Johns Wart (Hypericum perforatum) [available from HBC Protocols], which has been demonstrated to have similar effects to many current SSRIs, and clinically proven as an effective remedy for dysthymia and mild to moderate depression.     [Continued]

[Also see related page: Supplements]

Exercise And Activity

When you are suffering from depression, it might feel like the last thing you are capable of doing is taking exercise.

Lack of energy, interrupted sleep, confusion, hopelessness and lack of motivation, all conspire to make getting started on any kind of program incredibly difficult… but the results are so great, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.

Benefits Of Exercise

Exercising regularly brings so many benefits to your health and wellbeing. If you can get over the motivational obstacles, you will…

•    Release endorphins into your bloodstream and directly lift your mood
•    Lose weight, and speed up your metabolism
•    Burn fat and build muscle, so you look fitter and healthier
•    Improve your lymphatic drainage and the removal of toxins from your body
•    Be more resistant to viruses and infections
•    Raise your energy levels  [Continued]

More topics in the ebook:

Sunlight And Melatonin
Realistic Expectations
Social Activities And Support Groups
Bodywork And Treatments

Download the free ebook (PDF) by Cecil Ellis, Psychologist and Nutrition Specialist. “Depression is a challenging condition to overcome, but you will learn that there is much you can do to improve your situation and regain control – over your depression and over your life.”

Tips To Treat Depression

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Writer nochnoch (Enoch Li) admits that she never thought she “had any creativity” – but rediscovered her talents in dealing with depression. Here are some excerpts from her article Depressed Creativity

I equated creativity with artists, innovators, entrepreneurs, designers, fashion… I was none of that – until I sunk into depression last year.

And over the course of a few months, I rediscovered my creativity, which spurred my recovery.

I had always classified myself as ‘not creative’ till I met my fiancé.

He could visualize colours, designs, and spaces. He made little crafts and redecorated the home. He had innovative ideas for businesses.

Equally, his friend, a graffiti artist and graphic designer, is what I call creative – all the scribbling and sketches that magically appeared on the canvas. I was in awe.

But it was a limiting belief that I was not creative myself.

Out of many disguised blessings from the period of illness, one is rediscovering my creativity. I say ‘rediscovering’ because in fact I was creative when I was younger – I constructed mumble-jumble poems, short stories, drawings, even a book about Mr Caterpillar having too many feet when I was just 5 years old. I made bookmarks, and ‘laminated’ them with my special tape, I made clothes for Barbie, and I made up stories for my bears.

This is all creativity at play. It’s in the heart somewhere.

Continued in her article Depressed Creativity.

Also see her article Regaining Control Over Depression.

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Related book: The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression, by Eric Maisel, PhD

Related pages and sections:

Healing & Art

Also see Depression Relief Products / Programs and Depression relief resources

I’m a lot like you… I was depressed for a LONG time and I didn’t like it.

As a matter of fact I’ve personally experienced 30+ years of chronic depression with at least two episodes of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

Here are some of the things I’ve encountered during my life’s journey:

* sexual abuse…
* abandonment issues…
* becoming a mother at age 17…
* 2 bankruptcies (one personal and one corporate)…
* loss of home that was a primary residence…
* diagnosed with rheumatoid and osteoarthritis at age 34…
* 2 divorces…
* abusive spouse who was an alcoholic…

Things got so bad, I almost couldn’t get out of bed, didn’t want to see anyone and wanted to pull the covers over my head and hide from the world.

Fast-forward to today and I now live a life FREE of depression, and have been depression free for more than 5 years, because… I had a burning desire to feel better.

My perseverance led me to the answers I had been searching for.  What I discovered helped me to put all the pieces of the puzzle together into a coherent structure.

In the beginning I learned techniques which I applied in my daily life that brought a feeling of relief, but would last only a short time.  Then I would feel discouraged and get depressed again.

But, I refused to give up.  I continued to try new and different techniques… I studied NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), took the Silva Method of Mind Development course, studied with Native American Indians, and even became a certified hypnotherapist.

These studies did not give me all the answers, but I learned something and gained benefits from each one.

From her article: Finding a method that works to relieve depression.

> Order her book You Can Heal Your Depression Now.

non-drug depression relief, dealing with depression, treating depression, drug-free relief for depression, alternative healing for depression

The first of these two videos is from her post Snow Blizzard 2010 and MENTAL HEALTH.

She notes, “Here’s the video I made that talks about ‘Getting Through the Rough Spots.’ I hope it’s helpful for you … whatever your obstacle du jour is.”

..

Getting Through the Rough Spots

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Writer Amy Sullivan interviews Borchard about her new book Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes.

Here are some excerpts from the TIME article :

The story you tell is very raw and can’t have been easy to share. What made you decide to write this book?

I didn’t write it for about 18 years because I thought that writing about your own life was self-indulgent. But then I thought about what kept me going through the darkest days, reading memoirs by other people who have struggled with depression — Kay Redfield Jamison, Anne Lamott — and who emerged even stronger and more capable.

When you’re in the midst of depression, that’s the scariest thing — it seems that you’re going to feel like that forever. The pain created by depression kills almost 1 million people a year. It almost killed me, and it did kill my aunt.

If I can give just one person hope that there’s an end to depression, that it is treatable, then that made it worth it for me to write the book.

.

.

You argue that depression is still stigmatized in a way that physical illnesses aren’t. Have you experienced that?

Yes. People judged me when I was in such pain. They would lecture about how if I just ate organically or meditated this way or went to yoga more often, I’d be fine. When I tried medication, people on the holistic side told me I was copping out, taking happy pills.

And when I focused on yoga, people on the other side warned me against doing anything in Eastern medicine.

What advice do you have for people in the midst of depression right now?

Get enough sleep. Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. Exercise: it has an antidepressant effect. I’m not going to be like Tom Cruise and say you won’t need antidepressants if you exercise, but it is enough for some people.

And watch what you eat. For sugar sensitive people — which many depressives are — sugar can be like a drug.

But the No. 1 thing is to have hope. It’s hard to believe it when you’re struggling, but depression does go away. William Styron says, “It is conquerable.” If it wasn’t, everybody who is depressed would commit suicide. I had to keep reminding myself of that when I was on my 23rd medication combination.

From TIME magazine Jan 15 2009

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Related:

Therese Borchard is mentioned in my post (and related video): You’re crazy. Or maybe not.

For more about diet and mood challenges, see the article Confession: Anxiety Cause Revealed, by Jen Crippen – which includes a link to her book on the topic.

You might also benefit from the eBook: Natural Cures for Depression – contents include:
# Exercise and yoga can help cure depression
# The best type of yoga for depression
# How and when to exercise to help cure depression
# How hypnotherapy is used to treat depression
# How traditional Chinese Medicine can help you get over depression
# Emotional freedom techniques can help regulate emotional stress
# How to use the herb St. John’s Wort as a natural cure
# The role that Omega-3 fatty acids play in regulating moods

depression relief, dealing with depression, relief for depression, creativity and depression, depression and anxiety

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.

Continued in article Irritable Male Syndrome interview .

“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 .

He writes, “The cliche is that creativity and depression go hand-in-hand. Like many cliches, this one is quite true.

“But creators are not necessarily afflicted with some biological disease or physiological disorder… They experience depression simply because they are caught up in a struggle to make life seem meaningful to them.

“People for whom meaning is no problem are less likely to experience depression. But for creators, losses of meaning and doubts about life’s meaningfulness are persistent problems — even the root causes of their depression. … Virtually 100 percent of creative people will suffer from episodes of depression.”

One of the artists quoted in the book is Caroline Bertorelli. “I get depressed quite regularly and often,” she notes. “It used to distress and frustrate me that I have such a tendency. But as I grow older, I see my depression as a valuable time for introspection and deep thinking about life.”

In our interview, Eric Maisel commented, “I believe that it serves us best to learn how to reduce or eliminate both depression and anxiety from our lives, as I do not hold them as useful in any way. I think that pain is overrated.

“That isn’t to say that the following might not happen: you work honorably and well on a creative project, you finish it, you are depleted and no new project wants to come forward, and after a certain amount of time the blues strike, since you aren’t making sufficient meaning and don’t feel quite up to making new meaning.”

He adds, “This sort of depression can creep up on any working artist. The depression is not useful in and of itself but it is a clear signal that the time has come to see if new meaning can be made.

“It is the time to get back on the horse and back into the studio. Maybe there is nothing there yet and maybe you will experience days or weeks of nothing particularly generative happening.

“Be that as it may, the depression was not a gift; it was merely the warning sign that a meaning crisis was brewing or had erupted—and that action, even if futile at first, was now required.”

From Investing meaning in our art – an interview with Eric Maisel .

The action to take to relieve depression may be to “get back on the horse and back into the studio” – or it may require some more formal help.

Christina Ricci fought anorexia and depression in her younger years, and says she overcame her problems with the help of a psychiatrist.

“These are things you can’t always deal with alone, so I went to therapy,” she said. “Sometimes people need to seek professional help. Along the way I discovered that you can choose to be happy.”

[From (Manic) Depression Confessions: Christina Ricci and Mel Gibson , by Liz Spikol, HuffingtonPost.]

On the excellent blog Storied Mind, in the article Creating a Way Out of Depression – 2 , is this quote about creative work:

“Near the beginning of Julie Fast’s Get It Done When You’re Depressed , she quotes an artist suffering from depression who made an important discovery.

“Although she had been thinking she could not work when depressed, a friend asked her if she could see any difference in the quality of the work she produced when feeling good and when feeling bad. She realized that there was no difference.

“That was an eye-opener. She realized that even when she felt low and lacking the will to get to her creative work, she was still capable of producing the painting that gave her such deep fulfillment. Now she’s focused on her work, rather than on her feelings about whether she’s able to get started. For her, this realization has made all the difference, and she’s painting whether she’s excited about her work or unable to stop crying.”

Another perspective is provided by Andrew Solomon in his book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression : “It is possible (though for the time being unlikely) that, through chemical manipulation, we might locate, control, and eliminate the brain’s circuitry of suffering. I hope we will never do it.

“To take it away would be to flatten out experience, to impinge on a complexity more valuable than any of its component parts are agonizing.

But pain is not acute depression; one loves and is loved in great pain, and one is alive in the experience of it. It is the walking-death quality of depression that I have tried to eliminate from my life; it is as artillery against that extinction that this book is written.”

depression relief, dealing with depression, treating depression, relief for depression, creativity and depression, depression and anxiety

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.

There are, of course, many kinds and degrees of depression. There are ‘the blues’ – the ordinary sort of reaction to a distressing event such as not getting a film role you wanted, or a book deal, or leaving a relationship.

You may feel that kind of non-clinical depression intensely – especially if you are a highly sensitive person – but can get over it with time, and new challenges to get involved with, like another audition, a new publisher.

But many creative people experience more serious levels of depression. 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.

See his article The experience of darkness and hope.

Eric Maisel, PhD, author of The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression, says that meaning issues are of deep importance in dealing with dark moods, for creative people especially. He says, “When we fear that we do not matter or that our efforts do not matter, we get depressed.

“Similarly, the places where we make large investments of meaning, for instance in our performances, paintings, or books, are places of great anxiety, because there is more than our ego on the line, there is our very sense of the meaningfulness of our life.”

> From our interview Investing meaning in our art.

In addition to medications and formal psychotherapy, there are many self-help approaches to managing depression, including books and supplements such as hypericum, or St. John’s Wort, which I have been using and finding beneficial for a number of years.

Even a simple strategy can help. Eric Maisel suggests, “It isn’t of life-and-death importance that the house be clean or that you remember everybody’s birthday, but it is vital that the chaos of ideas that start to flood your brain when you open up to your own creativity have a place to be sorted and saved.

“Many of us feel depressed, defeated, and incapable of creating for just this reason, that the swirl of ideas inside our head keeps swirling with no place to go. But something as simple as organization can turn that around. Investing in large erasable bulletin boards is an excellent starting point.” [From his title The Creativity Book.]

Related:
Depression and Creativity
Depression articles / resources.

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.

Hence, I was surprised when I discovered that my favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, suffered from manic depression. I was equally as surprised to learn that my favorite guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, also suffered from manic depression.

To my astonishment, many accomplished men and women throughout history had suffered from some form of bipolar disorder.

This has caused many to wonder whether there is an association between bipolar disorder and creativity or whether it is a coincidence that so many geniuses had suffered from the mental disorder.

Hershman and Lieb seek to answer this question.. and they do a great job. They explain how both sides of manic depression (mania and depression) both enhance and inhibit creativity.