When Creativity Meets Depression
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Taking a break from being a smartass to discuss my struggle with depression and how it has impacted my life and my creative process.
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Oh Danny, this was a great video! I too have been struggling with in the past and I can still feel it at times. It really encouraged me and put things in perspective and you talked about your personal story. You came a long way, from not being able to get out of bed and now published author and youtuber! :) Thank you for your take on depression. Really appreciated!
What a fantastic video. As someone working in the field (also dealing with depression among other things) I really appreciate seeing someone people look up to telling their story. Thank you so much! btw... Totally got "Velveteen" for Xmas! So excited!!!
I've had major depression twice related to my late (very late) diagnosed AvPD. Nothing makes life worse than punishing yourself or hating yourself for things you cannot control.
I still struggle with giving myself the little things in life. I think I went a decade and only bought a few books, etc. Self-restraint is not always a virtue. I would seriously ask myself what have you done to deserve that? That thinking escalates into a shitty life very fast.
Now I get whatever I want. I'm my own T.I.
Thanks for doing this video. It's reassuring to hear other people's experiences with depression. I can totally relate to the creative side of things, I get the worst writer's block when I'm not depressed. There's no winning.
Thanks for this, Danny! I was just sitting here nodding my head at pretty much everything you said. Knowing other people experience this and hearing your different ways for dealing with it is very helpful. Gave me a lot to think about when it comes to how I deal. Yes, very helpful :)
In the end you talk about "what is the point" and I feel exactly like that when I try to write. I feel like my expectations are so high that what I'm writing is no where near what I want to see. I think it is just about talking with yourself and finding a good way to deal with it on your own terms. I have also battled with depression since a young age. Over the years you learn the signs and how to cope through them. I'm glad you did a video on this Mr. Danny :P
Great video, sir! I remember last year when you were on the verge of throwing in the towel after Velveteen. I wish there was something I could've done at that time to help you out. With me though, like I told you before, a lot of my depression seems to get tied in with the migraines I got. My times with depression usually manifest themselves with self inflicted harm and/or spacing out. No matter what, keep writing though. That should help alleviate some of your depression. Keep being a good guy.
Wow, Mark. Thank you for sharing your struggles. I especially appreciated when you spoke of setting too high expectations, and how that can lead to widening the emotional hole. You've articulated very well experiences I've had, too, and I very much like the idea of "checking in with yourself" and making needed adjustments to avoid falling headfirst into the pit. :-)
Danny, you might want to check out a Podcast from Writing Excuses. In one episodes they talk about the mental health of writers like sleepless nights, sadness...
As a writer, I can definitely relate to this.Thank you for sharing on such a personal subject. :)
This is a really great video, Danny. I find it really hard to talk about personal problems on youtube, when I posted a video talking about my self injury problems, I had a panic attack as it was uploading.
Personally, I don't like medication, it's always given me really bad negative effects. The last med I was perscribed was Celexa, and it made me sooo sick.
I think my acting suffers the worse due to my depression, it just leaves me feeling no drive to perform.
Great video Dannyyyy :D
This is a great video! I can completely relate to this as I am struggling with the same issues right now. It's probably why I've never finished a novel. I put so much pressure on myself to make it awesome then can't find the motivation to finish because I think it won't be any good in the end despite having the dream of being a writer. Thanks for sharing your story!
Wow.. Very powerful, I've battled with depression for many years, so alot of the stuff you said is so right on I love it. I am also a writer, but not Y.A. though.
Thank you!! Please keep em rolling!!!
Video was very helpful and insightful. Thx Danny
Thank you! this video has definitely helped me more than you know!
Thank you for your honesty.
Very helpful, as you put some universal feelings into good terms. I have a friend who wrote zombie novels that were great but never took off--I think he'd find this useful too.
great video. I can relate to parts of that for sure. Thanks Danny.
Thanks I got a lot out of this.
Great video! I agree with much. With me - where you can't find enough food to fill the whole... I cant find enough sleep. All I want to do is be in bed. I get up, look at email & go back to bed. Get up, cook dinner, go back to bed. I can usually keep it together thru out the year, but around the holidays I can't. Thats why Ive not really had videos a few weeks. Im just, BLUH. I def think the holidays are the worst. For me, anyway. Made it through another year. WHOOT!
I think you're very brave to make this video and hope you hang on to your strategies. I do the expectations thing too, that's sometimes hard to deal with. Also despite knowing that there isn't really a connection between sadness and creativity I have to say I was most productive when I was lost in a bottomless hole. Ever since I left that I expect more of my writing and therefore write less, because it's lacking meaningfulness . is that a word?
this was helpful but i feel that society reinforces my depression, since I constantly go outside my comfort zone but still can not get friends or girlfriends. I feel I am creative though, since I write and have an interesting imagination, so maybe theres something to that correlation between depression and creativity.
Hi Danny! This is my first comment to you so here goes... When I saw this video I quickly remembered Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk on sort of the same topic (that being how intrinsically linked creativity and depression seem to be). I am so very sure you are already aware of this but in the off chance that I am assuming check it out her TED talk and I hope you enjoy it (or not). :)
It's entitled "Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius"
Dear Danny,
You Go Bro!
You have my support. Hang in there.
me ability to create things. i have to be depressed througb my medicine in order to create but its too dangerous for me.
Thank you for this. Everything you said hit with me because my depression sounds just like yours. Instead of writing mine goes with the crafts I make and the craft business I'm trying to start. Also with the author events I set up where I work. I feel like I could have done better, no-one will buy my crafts because they are not good enough, the author events will fail because I didn't do enough.
When you mentioned you stare at the wall for hours it made me realise that I'm not the only one who does that. When I do it my body feels numb and a weight is holding me down and I can't move.
It's a constant battle to stay out of the dark hole of depression. So thank you again for speaking out about a subject that most never want to talk about.
Thanks for posting this. Things at work are changing and hours have been cut drastically. I find myself stressing about how I'm going to pay rent or how my co-workers will support their families. I know that if I'm not careful that stress will lead to a giving up, "what's the point" depression. So I've been trying to keep myself busy. I'm planning to pour myself into my book, because if shit goes to hell and I lose my apartment at least I'll still have my book. Something good should come from it
Danny, I too suffer from quite severe depression and anxiety. So much love and respect to you for opening up about your experiences. Hugs
This is really interesting. Thanks! It actually reminded me quite a lot of how I felt in high school and college and... actually, until quite recently. I was never on any medication--was never diagnosed--but would self-medicate with sugar and, of all things, Harry Potter fanfic.
The biggest factor with me, I think, was sleep deprivation. For YEARS, never got enough sleep. Now have started resting more, and it's incredible how much it helps. Hope things look better for you soon!
You seem so nice, it's no fair for you to have depression. I should probably not give advice given your previous job. But I would say, focus on all that is positive, and try to observe yourself from the outside as if you were somebody else. Then you will see that you are not perfect, but very good (which is ultimately the best). I wish you, and anybody else with psychological problems, all the best :)
I like how you described your depression. I've suffered from it since puberty and it's like you said, it's always been there. My problem is I'm not social, so those settings tire me out. I say that I'm a functioning depressive because I can hold down a job, but when I come home, I don't have the energy to do anything else. On rare occasions I have the energy, so I do it while I can. I craft and it's frustrating to not be able to sew or paint because all my energy goes into my job.
It's important to fill your inner well (hole) by doing positive things, depression or no depression.
In my own personal case I found diet and perspective were what got me out of the funk. To begin with I just ate more wholesome foods and did lots of volunteer work. You can't help but feel better when you help someone else feel better.
Now it's as easy as reading, doing a wide range of crafts and if all that fails I'll hit the city and do some people watching.
Good Luck everyone.
Thank you for doing this. So much of what you describe, I can completely relate to.
Man, do I know about being good of something that is not something I wanted to do. For me it was spin-doctoring, not psychotherapy. It's that whole -- just because I can do something doesn't mean I should be doing.
Did you find that you're ability to deal with your depression rose when you left the psychotherapy field?
That hole -- and the food. I hear ya. Cooking, for me, too, was a way to take control.
Ex-Celexa here. Giving up my day job as a nurse helped a lot. Still have my battles though. I really identified with the "high expectations" letting you down and feeling like you are never measuring up (even when you are experiencing clear success). Thanks for sharing. I think it will resonate with a lot of people.
Hello, my friend, and thank you. I never experienced depression until AFTER my book was published. The hole that was waiting for me truly was entirely based on expectation. And I fell into it . . . headfirst and hard. It took the better part of a year to claw my way back out of the hole again. But I did it. Anyway, thank you for getting vulnerable for us.
I have a copy of Velveteen already and thought it excellent!
On this topic, I'm not prone to depression but it's close to me. I have friends, relatives, had a husband (now ex) all who've had/have depression and it makes it simpler to understand and perhaps to help.
Thank you very much for posting this.
I think a lot of people turn to art as a coping mechanism to deal with their depression and they end up loving it. It's hard to write without depression sometimes because, since depression takes over your life and your writing, you don't know what to do without it. But you can adapt.
they said that sitting down all day is one factor of being depressed, that is why I take a break from sitting down and take a walk around the house and look at the sky that sort of thing when I am depressed, helps a lot sometimes the walk kickstart my brain to write. thanks for the info.
You may not have known it but this video came at the right time. Thank you Danny. All the best in all that you do.
Giving oxygen to the fact that you can be normal and even extraordinary despite depression is always worth doing, thanks for the video and best of luck, Loved Velveteen by the way
Thank you for this post. I do find it helpful to hear that other people struggle with these things and to hear how they cope as well.
I have been on medication for two years now. I am a painter and a writer and I will testify that meds have ruined
This was an amazing video. Please don't stop making videos any time soon. I look up to you
Thanks. I could really relate to this. Also I really enjoyed Velveteen.
Thank you for making this video.
Thank you. This was way helpful!
And that's probably why I'm studying psychology and want to be a psychologist in addition to letting my creativity pour out by other means with writing, tv/film, theatre as a side job. So that I can try to keep myself in line with reality and connected to other people in a physical environment with real issues, and a creative imagination with the opposite which is filled with dreams of what I hope I can achieve to do. (I make no sense here; just stream of consciousness writing.)
Danny. When you said 'I never feel like I'm successful at anything' is how I always feel, and broke down back in December because of that. It was that however much I try to be successful at what I do and want to succeed at what I love and am passionate about, I just don't and most of the time fail. I put so many expectations on myself that they blur what I want to do or happen and what i can do or what can happen together.
This video is gold and it resonates to me incredibly.
Thank you for this, it is certainly helpful for where I am right now. It is very interesting what you said about the link between depression and creativity. I will definitely buy Velveteen now, you are a great guy :)
Thank you
Thanks!
Thank you for your honesty and openness. The part in particular that really struck me was when you were discussing wondering what the "point" was. That's something I feel very deeply in my depressive episodes, a pervasive, all-encompassing sense of pointlessness or meaninglessness. I'm the kind of person that thinks and thinks and thinks, so my depressions are very existential i would say.
Holes suck.