The Art of Depression

My attempt at drawing my feelings out of my brain.

The drawing  is about my depression blocking any positive light around me.  Drawing  it when I was in a down mood actually made me feel better.

The point is getting out of a depressive mind set may be achieved by creative means.

Art Therapy has been used for almost all age groups. Especially with children.

Please note, I’m no professional. I’m only offering what I’ve discovered that works for myself. However, the work finished by kids is part of an actual therapy session. My scribblings are more like a personal journal entry.

For a while, I debated about posting something about my creepy squiggles. I decided to go ahead after Googling “art” and “depression”. The web sites used follow at the end. I discovered that it’s actually called, “Art Therapy”.

The National Library of Medicine stated, “These findings suggest that art therapy cannot only be served as an useful therapeutic method to assist patients to open up and share their feelings, views, and experiences, but also as an auxiliary treatment for diagnosing diseases to help medical specialists obtain complementary information different from conventional tests.”

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-link-between-depression-and-creativity-5094193

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8397377/

https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/6886228-illustration-vector-graphic-of-depression-people-mental-issue-brain-art-suitable-for-background-print-etc

https://www.learning-mind.com/define-depression-arts/

Two 6-Word Sad Short Stories

Samuel smiled sweetly secluding his soreness.

True story, I came into work and a co-worker innocently asked, “How are you?”

“I feel like shit.” I muttered.  “Like a zombie.”  From her response,  I must have sounded like the “undead”.

Her eyes flew open. Her mouth ajar open. “WHAT!?” spewed out.

Now I’m “Swell!” “Fabulous!!” “Fantastic!”

For me acknowledging my state of mind, body, or conscious is the first step in improving a problem.

Once alone, I faced my depressed state.  Currently however, I’m really not facing depression

In years past, I kept a journal of all the daily problems I had.  Now I discuss the drama that crops up in my life with friends.  I’ve found that it’s harder to tell someone the issues plaguing me, which provides more a relief and piece of mind.

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Love + Respect = Growth

A small wave of happiness may be influential beyond expectations.

I have peace in my world, my nation, my community, my neighborhood, and my family only after I accepted and educated myself on my problems.  Once addressed, I was able to love and respect myself.  Once established within myself, I was able to apply it to others.

For example for years on end, I felt like an inhuman, immoral, beast with no redeeming value.  My inner dialogue continually stated, “Ted, you stupid mother f#cker. No one would give a f#ck if you were dead.”  Truely, I hated myself more than anyone else.  At this low point in my life, I planned out my death so that it was not obviously a suicide.

This conclusion follows along with my psychiatrists’ prescriptions & therapists’ instructions.

I suffer from epilepsy, depression, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, have suicidal tendencies, plus several addictions. 

For years on end, all I did was blast out complaints in a few seconds. My rants ranged from why am I so unfortunate to others behavior, which I found disagreeable, and the world in general.   Mentally I was completely self-absorbed.

The single turning point, which caused me to say to myself, “No, I want to get better”, for other people’s sake,” came after a prayer that was all about myself.  At which point, I sought help and was prescribed my medicine, received therapy, and found support groups.

Afterward I slowly started taking recovery steps towards a life I’ve dreamed of living.  Anytime profanity, or I degraded myself, within my mind, I quickly stopped myself.  Now, I say, “crud”, instead of “crap” and the f-word is substituted with “rats!”.

Sarcastic? Certainly, however being positive is always preferable to being suicidal.