[stylist] writers and depression

[Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter]

Firstly, lots of people suffer from depression, so it stands that writers,
among many others, would have varying levels of depression. In the scope of
history, not all writers have been depressed. But when you focus on a
handful of writers, there's a good chance many may have depression, but the
same goes for any other group of people.

It's also a stereotype that writers are alcoholics, but obviously, not all
writers are. Again, you highlight a handful of people, it's likely you will
find some alcoholics, but you can't generalize, thinking therefore all
writers are alcoholics.

Having said all that, studies have been conducted, and a vast majority of
people in the arts arena struggle with various types of depression. Artist,
dancers, actors, musicians, writers, etc., seem more prone to have
depression than some other types of people. Not sure why this is.

And interestingly enough, for many artist to have depression, it seems
incongruous that our work is, in a way, a piece of us we put out there for
public consumption, to be judged and criticized. We deal with a lot of
rejection. Odd how that works.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Vejas
Vasiliauskas via stylist
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 4:37 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] writers and depression

I've always found it interesting that many writers-Hemingway, Dickens,
Huxley and many of the Lithuanian authors that I read when I used to go to
Lithuanian school had depression.  Does anyone know why it is so common?
I'm thinking that maybe the concept of the writers having depression is a
bit overplayed, and they could have just felt down some of the time.  I
personally don't think that being a writer means you have it or vice-versa.
Just curious if anyone suspects a reason for this?
Vejas

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