Wow, it is not everyday you see an honest discussion about deprssions and ADs on a forum. I am on paroxetin once again, and without them I can't function, I just can't get out of bed. On them it's a little better. I function wel socially, but I can't get any serious work done, my brain is to busy.
I still write my blogs, my column and I do some journaling, but major work for university is impossible.
Its dreadfull not to be safe in your own head, I don't like taking the meds, esp since I want to have kids, but the alternative is so much worse. Now I just have to motivate myself to go out there and find myself a god therapist
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Antidepressants and the craft.
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stu1883
- Avid Reader
- Posts: 293
- Joined: April 2009
- Location: I live in Bristol, England with my wife Nicki & our kittens Boomer & Magic
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[quote=""enelya""]Wow, it is not everyday you see an honest discussion about deprssions and ADs on a forum. I am on paroxetin once again, and without them I can't function, I just can't get out of bed. On them it's a little better. I function wel socially, but I can't get any serious work done, my brain is to busy.
I still write my blogs, my column and I do some journaling, but major work for university is impossible.
Its dreadfull not to be safe in your own head, I don't like taking the meds, esp since I want to have kids, but the alternative is so much worse. Now I just have to motivate myself to go out there and find myself a god therapist[/quote]
Wow Enelya, I hope you get better soon.
I suffer with Fibromyalgia and take a lot of medication, including ADs. I must that it can seem to affect my creative juices but I try and put this down to reluctance to start a passage. I think they can affect people differently, it depends on condition/medication/dosage etc.
As for any sexual dysfunction - my wife says she can't tell the difference from before I started on my ADs to now!!!!
I still write my blogs, my column and I do some journaling, but major work for university is impossible.
Its dreadfull not to be safe in your own head, I don't like taking the meds, esp since I want to have kids, but the alternative is so much worse. Now I just have to motivate myself to go out there and find myself a god therapist[/quote]
Wow Enelya, I hope you get better soon.
I suffer with Fibromyalgia and take a lot of medication, including ADs. I must that it can seem to affect my creative juices but I try and put this down to reluctance to start a passage. I think they can affect people differently, it depends on condition/medication/dosage etc.
As for any sexual dysfunction - my wife says she can't tell the difference from before I started on my ADs to now!!!!
Regards
Stuart
My Blogs
http://sir-readalot.blogspot.co.uk/
http://bristolhistorywriter.blogspot.co.uk/
Stuart
My Blogs
http://sir-readalot.blogspot.co.uk/
http://bristolhistorywriter.blogspot.co.uk/
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Chatterbox
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1667
- Joined: April 2009
- Location: New York
I've been on Prozac twice, once in the late 90s and then again post 9/11 and probably should be taking something to cope right now (but that means going out and finding a doc when I don't have health insurance and all that palaver.)
I was writing -- not creative writing in the fictional sense, but still journalism that required creative thought -- throughout. And I would not have been able to function without the meds.
That said... I do know that having a dark 'edge' sometimes helps me. When I worry more about making a sentence work properly, I am more painstaking. On the meds, I would worry less about everything being as good -- and people noticed the difference. Also, I did feel that I had less interest in exploring deeper themes in my extra-curricular writing. The mechanics were one thing, but the emotions? Everything seemed brighter but flatter. That may, of course, just have been the meds/dosage.
Bottom line: what matters more than anything else is your ability to function in your life. Van Gogh was a marvelous artist, but he hacked off his own ear and died insane. Is that a tradeoff you really want to make? 'Tortured genius' may sound like a fascinating job description, but it's hell on you and everyone else. Look into the medications, work with a doctor to get to the right place with the med & dosage, and take it from there. If you find it does impede your creativity, then taper off and see if that helps. I would say that based on my experience, the effect is not major. It's certainly not akin to taking Valium or alcohol or any other system depressants.
I've battled depression most of my life, I think, and also come from a family where that was seen as a sign of being self-indulgent or just 'nuts'. So you didn't talk about it. Oddly, abt 5 years ago I was visiting my father and had one of my most vicious migraines ever, which is saying something. My vision was completely shot, the right side of my face almost paralyzed, and the pain was surreal. Even knowing what was going on, my father called my sis in law (who is a psychiatrist working with eating disorder patients) behind my back and told her he thought I was insane and was thinking of having me committed.... She read him the riot act; I heard about this from everyone except him (!) and still find it hard to forgive him for that.
But meds -- if you need them and they work and they help and the side-effects (physical/emotional), take them. I know there are people who don't like taking aspirin, even, but if you are not well and not functioning the way you know you can, and you're not pregnant/breast-feeding, well, you need to do what is best for your mental health. Deal with that first, come back to the writing later if that's what it means.
I was writing -- not creative writing in the fictional sense, but still journalism that required creative thought -- throughout. And I would not have been able to function without the meds.
That said... I do know that having a dark 'edge' sometimes helps me. When I worry more about making a sentence work properly, I am more painstaking. On the meds, I would worry less about everything being as good -- and people noticed the difference. Also, I did feel that I had less interest in exploring deeper themes in my extra-curricular writing. The mechanics were one thing, but the emotions? Everything seemed brighter but flatter. That may, of course, just have been the meds/dosage.
Bottom line: what matters more than anything else is your ability to function in your life. Van Gogh was a marvelous artist, but he hacked off his own ear and died insane. Is that a tradeoff you really want to make? 'Tortured genius' may sound like a fascinating job description, but it's hell on you and everyone else. Look into the medications, work with a doctor to get to the right place with the med & dosage, and take it from there. If you find it does impede your creativity, then taper off and see if that helps. I would say that based on my experience, the effect is not major. It's certainly not akin to taking Valium or alcohol or any other system depressants.
I've battled depression most of my life, I think, and also come from a family where that was seen as a sign of being self-indulgent or just 'nuts'. So you didn't talk about it. Oddly, abt 5 years ago I was visiting my father and had one of my most vicious migraines ever, which is saying something. My vision was completely shot, the right side of my face almost paralyzed, and the pain was surreal. Even knowing what was going on, my father called my sis in law (who is a psychiatrist working with eating disorder patients) behind my back and told her he thought I was insane and was thinking of having me committed.... She read him the riot act; I heard about this from everyone except him (!) and still find it hard to forgive him for that.
But meds -- if you need them and they work and they help and the side-effects (physical/emotional), take them. I know there are people who don't like taking aspirin, even, but if you are not well and not functioning the way you know you can, and you're not pregnant/breast-feeding, well, you need to do what is best for your mental health. Deal with that first, come back to the writing later if that's what it means.
Your writing is always clear, cohesive and interesting, Chatterbox, so clearly your combination is working well 
On a slightly different tack, I was recently in a car crash and took a good bang to the head. I'm doing the best I can, but every now and then my concentration and/or co-ordination gets a bit stuffed up. As I look perfectly allright, I'm getting a bit of impatience from people who don't understand about head injury trauma. What's not immediately visible, but in the head, seems to be hard for others to deal with.
On a slightly different tack, I was recently in a car crash and took a good bang to the head. I'm doing the best I can, but every now and then my concentration and/or co-ordination gets a bit stuffed up. As I look perfectly allright, I'm getting a bit of impatience from people who don't understand about head injury trauma. What's not immediately visible, but in the head, seems to be hard for others to deal with.
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Nell_Gavin
- Scribbler
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- Joined: May 2009
I once read that 80% of all writers suffer from depression. I didn't make that up, but I can't provide the source. Once I posted that as the title of a forum topic, and I couldn't believe how quickly and how many writers responded!
Before you try medication, PLEASE try vitamins. A few years ago researchers in Norway learned that some folks have "Vitamin B Deficiency Depression," and can't process vitamin B properly. It does something to the brain chemistry, resulting in depression. Google it, if you don't believe me. You can save yourself all kinds of grief by buying a bottle of B complex vitamins, and seeing if you feel better in a week or so. If you do, it isn't your imagination. You may have that condition (I do, and will need to take vitamins for the rest of my life), and save yourself the grief of finding the right medication dosage.
The kind of vitamins I would recommend for that condition, and also for stress, are Nature's Sunshine Nutri-calm. It's mostly vitamin b's with other relaxing things.
Before you try medication, PLEASE try vitamins. A few years ago researchers in Norway learned that some folks have "Vitamin B Deficiency Depression," and can't process vitamin B properly. It does something to the brain chemistry, resulting in depression. Google it, if you don't believe me. You can save yourself all kinds of grief by buying a bottle of B complex vitamins, and seeing if you feel better in a week or so. If you do, it isn't your imagination. You may have that condition (I do, and will need to take vitamins for the rest of my life), and save yourself the grief of finding the right medication dosage.
The kind of vitamins I would recommend for that condition, and also for stress, are Nature's Sunshine Nutri-calm. It's mostly vitamin b's with other relaxing things.
Last edited by Nell_Gavin on Fri May 15th, 2009, 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm a bit late to this thread but I think it is a very important one and on a topic I have quite a bit of experience with.
I have suffered from depression (or so I thought) since my teens. In the past two years the diagnosis has changed to Bipolar II (the emphasis on depression rather than mania in the disorder). I have been on ADs for years, luckily without the serious side affects from them that many with BP have. Prozac did not suit me - it made me lack any form of feeling, but now I am on Escitalopram, without which I could not function. Combined with a course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which I highly recommend, I am now able to remain balanced for 95% of the time (I still have my down days and high days, but they are nowhere near as severe as they used to be). For the first time in my life I can function normally for more than a few days!
As for my creativity, when I was down I had no creativity at all. If I wrote anything it was really dark poems about loss and death!!! On the other hand, when I was having a hypomanic episode, I was so full of energy that sitting to down to write, or read was impossible. Instead I preferred to go out and about socialising or shopping or starting impossible projects. Now I can actually sit down and write - and my creativity is all the better for the meds!
But everybody is different. What works for one may not for another, especially with depression. Also one med may do wonders for one person and do nothing or worse for someone else. It is important to have a close working relationship with your doctor, if possible, and if one med isn't working, try another, or a different dose until it is right. Also try things like counselling or CBT. Life's too short to live it in misery.
I have suffered from depression (or so I thought) since my teens. In the past two years the diagnosis has changed to Bipolar II (the emphasis on depression rather than mania in the disorder). I have been on ADs for years, luckily without the serious side affects from them that many with BP have. Prozac did not suit me - it made me lack any form of feeling, but now I am on Escitalopram, without which I could not function. Combined with a course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which I highly recommend, I am now able to remain balanced for 95% of the time (I still have my down days and high days, but they are nowhere near as severe as they used to be). For the first time in my life I can function normally for more than a few days!
As for my creativity, when I was down I had no creativity at all. If I wrote anything it was really dark poems about loss and death!!!
On the other hand, when I was having a hypomanic episode, I was so full of energy that sitting to down to write, or read was impossible. Instead I preferred to go out and about socialising or shopping or starting impossible projects. Now I can actually sit down and write - and my creativity is all the better for the meds!But everybody is different. What works for one may not for another, especially with depression. Also one med may do wonders for one person and do nothing or worse for someone else. It is important to have a close working relationship with your doctor, if possible, and if one med isn't working, try another, or a different dose until it is right. Also try things like counselling or CBT. Life's too short to live it in misery.
William Styron
Probably the finest book I've encountered about writing and depression is William Styron's Darkness Visible, a true account of his own battle with depression. It's a quick read, but says a great deal.