Depression and Creativity

 Depression, the word alone triggers a response from both those who have experienced it and those who live with those who experience it, and  a third group who hope it never knocks on their door. The depression I want to write about today is that low grade grey feeling  that is sometimes accommanied by anxiety , and a decrease in energy for the creative side of life. It is different from the clinical depression that may require medication, that black feeling of hoplessness that almost freezes the personality and needs clinical intervention.
It is often described to me as a grey veil surrounding the person, they know the sun shines on the other side of it, knows life is going on outside it but the veil separates them from taking part, and anxiety impeding any action that might lift the veil or at least draw it back somewhat so that the other side can be viewed more clearly. It has been my experiencing in working with clients that creativity plays a signifacant role in breaking through this, it has the capacity to loosen some energy that like wind can blow, and lift or open the veil enough to create a momentum to move the client to the other side of it.
Sometimes anxiety gets in the way of creativity. We want to write, paint, play an instrument, take a photograph, plant a garden, whatever creative idea that stirs us, but our anxiety seeps in and through us and we procrastinate, make excuses, erode ourselves and the grey veil thickens. It just takes the first line, the first stroke of a brush, the first bar of a tune on an  instrument and yes,  anxiety sniffing at our heels  but the courage to keep going, that releases the energy for the next line, the next burst of creativity and the slow yet increasing release of energy for more. It is as simple as taking the first move, however minute to begin the process of lifting the veil. There is no doubt that not using our creative energy can lead to the low grade depression I often meet and it is in the smallest steps that we release ourselves. The lid gets lifted on the energy source and a slow wind begins to blow lifting and opening the veil and letting us glimse what is on the other side and as the sun comes into view we might just turn our faces to meet it