Are depressed individuals inherently creative, or are artists more prone to depressed tendencies?
I know many people, myself included, that deal with mental illness through creative means. The activities vary from music, dance, theatre, writing, and drawing, but I can’t deny the relationship I’ve noticed between depressed emotions and cathartic artistic experiences.
“Creative types – the writers, musicians, inventors, dancers, scientists, architects, students and teachers, and any other creative type you can think of – are singled out more often than not when it comes to depression… Why? Is there really a link between the two?”
I’m interested in the relationship between depression and photography because they are both obviously a large part of my life. I understand in the simplest terms that photography has helped me to cope with my negative emotions, but I am interested in discovering how exactly it manages to do so.
Depression put in the simplest terms is a lack of necessary chemicals in the brain (serotonin, here’s looking at you). This results in anhedonia, the lack of ability to feel pleasure, intense negative emotions, fatigue, hopelessness, and a long list of other debilitating symptoms.
When an individual experiences depression, they usually are unable to continue their daily activities with the same amount of vigor and lose interest in pursuing dreams. I noticed this in my own life in particular when I dropped out of college and moved back in with my parents. I no longer found my own life (or the path I was walking) of any importance. I tried another semester of college after many months of moping but failed most of my classes and fled to my childhood home once more.
At that point, photography was the last thing on my mind. But I noticed that when I did pick up my camera, I felt temporary relief. After a bit of research, I believe that this is due to a little something called “rumination.”
According to Creative Something, “Countless psychologists and psychiatrists tend to agree that major depression is amplified in those who tend to ruminate on their thoughts.”
Well, rumination is one of the main traits of a creative type!
“Creatives naturally tend to think more, and think about their very thoughts too. When we ruminate, however, our brains are naturally drawn to things that are vital to our health. Pain and suffering are such immense experiences, even if they’re short-lived, that those who ruminate tend to loop through those painful experiences more often than those who don’t.”
So basically, focusing on the negative emotions tends to enhance them and exacerbate mental illness.
Then our answer to the question posed at the beginning of this post is technically that creative and artistic people are more prone to depressed emotions due to their tendency to ruminate!
If you want to put it in absurdly simple terms, I’m simply an over thinker. Great…
But now I realize that this can be my salvation as well as my curse.
Photography, as well as ANY type of artistic experience, requires an insane amount of creative thought! We simply must learn to harness this ability and use it to our advantage.
After much deliberation (again, I’m an over thinker), I’ve discovered that I can harness this excessive amount of creative intention when photographing with purpose. I try to capture emotions in images (especially negative ones) so that I can accurately portray my struggle. I feel the best, the most complete and successful, when utilizing my rumination of negative things in positive ways.
Image from Pexels and used under CC0 license
So the main thing I’ve learned?
“Depression, while seemingly a hindrance to a healthy and happy life, is really a balancing act that helps us focus on the areas where we need to improve most.”
What are your thoughts? Do you utilize creative experiences to combat negative emotions?
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