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But treating depression isn’t what this article is about.   It’s about writing through depression.   Here’s a bit of advice on how to do that: As a teen suffering from bipolar disorder, I never received medical treatment.  The wisdom of the time was that you just had to tough it out.  Things have changed, and I know several writers who live with it now, thanks to the proper medications.  Having bipolar disorder is an emotional roller coaster.  I recall one day walking down a street.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I felt so alive that I almost imagined that I could take flight.  A few days later I was walking down the same street.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I felt so terrible that I thought, “I wish I had my shotgun.  I’d make those damned noisy birds shut up for good!”  That’s when I realized that there was something wrong with me. By then I was already writing, so what did ...

The Artistic Mind: Staying Creative through Depression By Da vid (Wolverton) Farland Depression is a common ailment.  At one time or another, the average person suffers through at least one episode of major depression in their lives.   Among writers, according to one article in the Scientific American, rates of depression may be as much as ten times higher than in normal populations, the rate of suicide as much as 18 times higher.   So what can you do about it?  I’m not a doctor.  I’m just a writer who has suffered through depression a number of times in my life.  It runs in my family.  Both my father and my grandfather attempted suicide on multiple occasions. You should know that there are several types of depression, and each needs to be treated differently.  I suffered with bipolar disorder as a teen and into my early twenties.  By my mid-twenties it went away, but in my early thirties I began to suffer from seasonal affe...