As someone with a long history of profound depression I know that drawing is the best available treatment for me. Some doctors have referred to my illness as treatment-resistant but I prefer to think of it as medication-resistant. Drugs don't work for me but drawing often does. As for whether a creative mind has made me more or less prone to depression, I simply don't know the answer. But what I do know is that I first became very ill when I was denying my creativity, working in a high-pressured job with no time for anything creative. Losing that job after prolonged illness allowed me the time to be creative again. I'm not a great artist and I certainly don't always want to draw but when I do draw I find that the world slows down for a while, I stop thinking about the things that distress me and i am able to be alone with myself in a positive way.

I think there is some correlation but just when I think know what that exactly is...I change my mind. I have struggled with depression my entire life, and I'm involved in the arts. I think that artists are "putting themselves out there" they are more flypaper for public opinion...but if you don't extend yourself you don't experience what can be good from that as well. More sensitive...hmm...I'm 50 now, and some experience would tell me that nature... and my reaction to it, do me in sometimes...and everyone is different.

For me personally, I find the opposite is true. If I am not true to myself and my need to create, THEN I am depressed. I must be doing something creative on a regular basis, preferably daily, otherwise, I become very edgy, short-tempered, depressed, unmotivated to do anything, and cry a lot! Not someone you'd want to be around! Not even someone I want to be around! So, in fulfilling my need to be creative, the process actually is what saves me and makes me able to function more fully in every aspect of my life.

Check out Eric Maisel's book called the Van Gogh Blues - he addresses depression and creativity and ways to manage them both so that you can keep making work

Thankfully, I do not suffer from depression...feel overwhelmed at times, but not depressed. If you attempt drawing when depressed, the focus for that time is on the drawing and not on one's inner self--thereby serving as a therapeutic distraction. To execute the drawing, one must be less focused on the "downness" and pain of depression..then, when the drawing is done, the person hopefully has experienced a slight lift away from that emotional heaviness. Repeating this over a period of time, then, drawing would help alleviate the depression, not make it worse.

I have known people and read about creative artists who suffer from depression (VanGogh, C.R. Mackiintosh, Hemingway). I have found that extremely witty people, often use it to compensate for a so-called dark side. (Jonathan Winters, Andy Kaufman, my highschool boyfriend, as examples.) As for visual artists specifically, I think those in pain or depression may be drawn to creativity as a way to help them through the dark times. I firmly believe that ART HEALS, and those of us who've gone through difficult times found art as an escape to the right side of the brain and a healing activity.(Danny is a great example of this, as am I, as art helped us both through specific personal crisis.) Now that I have come through the other side, I am extremely positive, and continue to find drawing a joyous activity and a wonderful daily (or semi-daily) practice for creativity, my soul and my spirit.

Like the poster above, art-making is, for me, the best defense against depression and illness. I feel happier, the more I create. But then I create happy things most of the time.... I wonder if subject matters? I suppose it would, whatever you are dwelling on while creating, you are ... perhaps also manifesting... either in your mind or in your world... or some such thing.

I absolutely agree with the enhancement of the consciousness of 'now' when drawing or painting and the meditation-like stillness of working quietly with concentration.

Beautifully put :)

i don't think i've ever been CLINICALLY depressed but, in my experience, drawing is a cure for the day-to-day depression that everyone gets now and then.

when things are at the very worst (the most stressful, the most sad), i actually throw myself into drawing because it cements me to moment and prevents me from dwelling on the bad things that have happened or that might happen.

I've been depressed many times.. and while there may or may not be a congenital root to it, mine has mostly been related to "not accepting reality," i.e., wishing things were different and feeling unable to do enough about it. Drawing, for me, is an exercise in looking at the way things really are. Perfect antidote for wrestling with reality!

I have to agree with many other posters who have commented. Art is very therapeutic. I am not a person who suffers from chronic depression. A few years ago when mymother died from Alzheimer's Disease, I became very depressed. Medication wasn't an option. For months I couldn't even leave the house. One day, I pickd up a pen to doodle while on the phone. I noticed I felt slightly better after completing the doodle. That led me to sign up for a beginner's drawing course. I firmly and absolutely believe that drawing gave me a way back into a normal life style. I still take classes and still draw. It's become an important part of who I am.

As a psychologist who draws and also gets under the weather, I must say that drawing is therapeutic in and of itself. Some of us go through life running so we never connect with ourselves. Drawing, as Danny says, connects us with the moment, puts us on hold, therefore situates us with who we are... sometimes what we see is too painful, but that is the genius of drawing! as much as it helps us to see what is wrong, it leads us to the solution through the meditation it entails! I am more sensitive when I allow myself to be at home and draw, but it also makes my life so much better!

When I cannot make art, my soul gets sick. When I'm feeling down but can find the time and energy to draw or paint, I feel considerably better ... The problem is that when I'm seriously depressed (fortunately, much more rarely these days!), I simply cannot create anything. I just can't do it.

I suspect that my depression and my creativity may have sprung from the same place, in that I'm an only child, and without wanting to oversimplify or exaggerate the contribution that has made to "who I am today", the largely solitary nature of such a childhood did have a huge effect on the way that I learnt, and chose, to express myself - just as my relationship with those close to me influenced the very emotions that I needed to express.

I just finished reading a book by Elizabeth Layton who, at the age of 65, discovered the cure for her deep and persistant depression. She drew. In the beginning of her drawing adventure, she drew obsessively for 10 hours a day. After a while,she noticed that she no longer felt depressed and continued on drawing for the reaminder of her life.This is very inspirational stuff.
If I draw when I feel discouraged of if I"m obsessing about some situation, drawing is like taking a mental vacation.

Creating art, drawing, etc. makes me happy.

If I'm having a "blueish" day and I start drawing, I feel better, not worse afterwards.

Writing as someone whose almost entire artistic blog-life revolves around a pictorial exploration of depression, I often worry that drawing downers might in some way reify them as silt becomes rock becomes an obdurate mountain.

However, if part of the pleasure of artistic communication is in the transgressive thrill of being 'allowed' to express ideas/feelings that cannot be communicated (or will not be listened to) through any other medium, then surely it's a risk worth taking.

Pablo Picasso once wrote: "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Many creative people embrace this idea-it becomes a mantra of sorts. Like the rest of you, when I immerse myself in art my spirit swells, by soul becomes lighter, and negativity and sadness dissipate. I go to a golden place-a place of airiness where time melts away and I feel healed.

Okay...but... what about those times when that "golden place" is the last place you want to visit-just because everything becomes "too hard",or "too overwheming", or "too whatever" that day to do? Is that depression or sensory overload? I wonder...

We artists, by nature, are sensitive beings. Our eyes, our brains, our thoughts are in "ON" mode 24/7. We daydream, we visualize, we fantasize, and we seem to be constantly in "design or composition mode". Even when we sleep our dreams are in color(or they have great tonal value)and unbelieveable storylines! I wonder if it is this sensitivity to life around us, this "blessing" of being imaginative and observant and appreciative of creation, that, when left unchecked, becomes a "curse" wounding and scaring our spirits? ...Attacking them with overwhelming vulnerability and laying open our feelings for assault by lonliness and desperation and, for some, bouts of depression.

I wonder...with art in one's life isn't there always the assurance of knowing that there is a personal "light at the end of the tunnel" and a lifeline to hope? Through our love of art don't we intrinsicly know somehow that we have that key to our own inner happiness? Might it then simply come down to a decision of whether we want to use that key to open the door...or not?

I have to agree with every point of view here!
I am recovering from a relapse of my bipolar disorder, and have not been able to draw or paint for ages. However, I tend to express my creativity through poems, or taking photos, and by listening to, and singing music. Also by looking at other people's artwork for inspiration.

Art heals, even when you want to create and can't; because creativity doesn't come in ONE form. In my opinion, making artwork wouldn't make one depressed, but the thoughts and moods in that person's head could be expressed in artwork. For me, art has done nothing but heal my soul.

I could go into personal experience, but on a lighter note: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It is one of those questions that I ask, �Does it really matter?� You still have to raise the chicks or make scrambled eggs. And then again, you still have the chicken. The real question is, can you build a chicken coop or do you have a good frying pan because if you don�t do anything and just keep on questioning it, you�ll just have a bunch of chickens running around pecking at you. The solution: page 104, Everyday Matters. ;)

I'm interested in this discussion, it's something I've always kinda noticed, but now I've had some recent experience with.
I had a panic attack driving thru the mountains to visit over the winter holiday season. Couldn't make myself go back over them to get home! I'm treating my panic with a prescription anti-depressant. It seems to have cured a years-long mild depression. My mood is notably cheerier. I keep a daily journal, and one thing I do is rate my moods 1-10. Used to be my days were 4 or 5 - now they're 6 and even 7! But there's a downside to happiness, even. I used to see faces in the folds of drapery and prints of wallpaper - all gone. Further, I have not had a great day of drawing when I'm really on top of things since I started this drug. I still draw every day, and I love it, but it's never my best, and some days are demonstrably "off"

Hi there,

I just found my way here from the Sarah Wimperis page. It just so happens that I was recently in a struggle period wading through failure and decided to work it out through my art work (which is what I was struggling and feeling frustrated with anyway). You can see the approach I took and the results in my last week of postings at Landscape into Art beginning with Monday, February 18, 2008 "Darkness" and running through today.

I think a creative mind makes us more aware of things, whether they're positive or negative. I find myself always thinking, always contemplating, always observing. I love this, although it can be tiring (sometimes one wishes for an 'off button' ;-) ). The only times art gets me down is if I don't do it. I get cranky and impatient with myself and life just looses its glow. When I do art I always feel better afterwards. Visual art is important to me, writing is even a necessity. I have kept journals (a combination of writing and visual art) for years now. When I leave too much time between entries I start to feel a distance between me and my life, and the longer it lasts the harder it is to get back to it, but when I do there's always this huge relieve and I can't believe I didn't take the journal up again sooner. These days that hardly happens anymore. I write daily and make art almost daily. It makes my life better and way more interesting!
I just think that as artful people we feel more, and if our outlook is more prone to the negative we could get more easily depressed. A way to deal with this might actually be making art, it gives shape to our emotions. I suppose there's positive artsy people and negative artsy people and this gets reinforced by their sensitive nature. The art in itself does, in my humble opinion, not cause depression, it may however make it more tangible/visible.

I have a university diploma in psychology, but I'd rather talk from my own experience. For me there is no better way to feel happy and healthy than to create. As others have mentioned above: The moment you focus on your drawing, you are not focused on your depression or whatever else might not be the way you would like it to be. I have just finished an inspiring book that touches on this issue of art & healing.

I believe being sensitive is a gateway for letting our emotions occur, both positive and negative. The depression occurs, for me, when I dwell on the negatives and can't get past them.

Being intensely immersed, being in the here and now, in an activity like drawing really draws you out of that negativeness and gets you past the depressive episode.

Also, it is fun and cool.

I have three kind of disjointed thoughts.

1. I think that if you are making art or writing or doing something creative and can get into that fantastic FLOW state that it actually alleviates depression, releives stress and enhances mood.

2. I think that people sense things differently and sometimes a more sensitive person can be more prone to depression. Perhaps instead though, the key is how a person handles the issues that come their way not so much just being aware there is an issue. In other words if you get angry with someone the issue is not that you are sensitive and got angry but the problem lies in how you process that anger or what you do with that anger. I feel that repressed anger turns to depression. Others have said that depression is "suppressed anger turned to rage which is turned inward instead of being released outward". It is someting to ponder.

3. Being more aware and having a keener sense of observation can both make you more aware of bad things happening but more importantly it can make you more aware of the good things happening in life. Seeing a bird nest in a bare tree, the way the light comes through branches and very simple things like that which I now notice while going about my regular day make me smile and bring me happiness. Before when I was not as aware, when my creativity was suppressed more, I didn't even notice the light or the branches. Now I do and it is fantastic. I'm more happy about the 'simple things in life' now than ever before.

The sensory overload makes a lot of sense. I believe you can be overly stimulated by constantly thinking about design and art, or doing it everyday. It is sensory overload. Sometimes the brain can't handle it.

Then there are depressed people who use art to lift their depression.

There are also people who are depressed and tapping that side of the brain constantly also taps into the emotional centers in the brain, which could overwhelm it. This is the book I was reading about that spoke of Jonathan Winters.

I've suffered from chemical depression off and on, and have been an artist since childhood. I agree with many of the viewpoints here, if I don't draw, paint, sculpt, write, do something creative I feel as if I am evaporating into brittle dust.

That said, I think there are also down times from doing creative things. Times when ideas, thoughts, etc. need to be left to simmer on the back of the brain's stove so that when I get back to doing creative work I have something to say. Usually these non creative times are during or right after I've been physically sick and need to recover. It seems my body and mind can't do both at once. I've been in such a phase lately.

Coming back to this discussion, I can now second Sam's recommendation of "The Van Gogh Blues" by Eric Maisel, having recently read it. Maisel talks a lot of sense about the relationship between creativity and depression.