So ... the only permissible contributions here would be descriptions of one's own mental health issues as they apply to writing? If others can't offer advice, there wouldn't be any point to asking for it. Or would 'here's what was wrong with me and this is how I fixed it' be OK , or ... what?
It's all about how mental health affects writing. It doesn't have to be about your own state of mind. You're welcome to offer suggestions to anybody who articulates a problem. But the problem has got to be about writing. Not relationships, medication, jobs, parents, friends, counsellors, enemies, etc. Writing. If we step too far outside that perimeter on a writing forum, we're in potentially dangerous territory. If people have made particular friends here, and you want to discuss other issues in a private conversation, go ahead. But the chances of somebody saying the wrong thing ...either meaning well or not ...will be greatly diminished if it's not an open thread. So yeah, if you can help fix somebody's writing issue ...they're having a hard time getting started because they're depressed, etc, and you've got some advice on how to get started under those conditions, go for it here. Or they can't finish anything because they are depressed, or suffer from attention deficiency disorders or some other condition—if you've got some writing tips to offer them on how to break through, please do. Or just be sympathetic and understanding, and encouraging, if you can. I know it's kind of confusing, and I'm hoping things will evolve in a good direction, for people who want to write but are struggling to engage with it. Or for people who have found that writing helps. We plan to monitor the thread closely, at least for a while, and we'll attempt to keep things on track using friendly suggestions, etc. I'm hoping this approach is helpful.
All about how mental health affects writing? So.... Are situational things which have connections to mental health issues but are not ones excluded? Are somatic things that have connections to mental health excluded? Are writing things that have connections to mental health excluded? No. Too risky. If someone suffered from stress and I told that even a small amount of aggressive upper body exercise burns stress hormones or that walking does the same but you need to walk quite a lot... That would be general, not writing specific. So it would be against rules. So I can't say it. And... You know... Most things that help writing help it because they have general effects, not writing specific effects. So... Too risky. This is problematic. "How to get started" is not mental health issue. "How to get started under those conditions" might be - or not. And some people seem to think it is even when it's not. Kind of confusing? Very mildly said. "Write what you know emotionally!" If you do that, then everything you write has emotional connections. And border between emotional life and mental health is vague. No... It seems safest to stay far from this area.
I know it's going to be a bit confusing at first. It will take a while for people to get going on this. See if you can keep the discussion to things like how your Aspergers (in your case) affects your ability to write. That would be a great place to start this discussion. What does Aspergers do that makes it easy or difficult to write? How do you deal with these issues when they come up? I know you have listed many writing approaches in the past, on other threads, that seem to work for you. Maybe re-listing some of those here, on this thread, would help others in the same situation as yourself.
I did and I answered. But... Autism spectrum is neurobiological issue. I'm not going to participate in discussing about it if it's categorically labelled under the banner "mental health." And I don't think I have any kind of duty to participate? I can leave that arena to folks who think that's the right and only arena for that topic.
I apologise to Alan and to any others regarding the Aspergers issue. I will remove the mention of Aspergers from the original post. He is correct. Aspergers is not a mental health issue.
Lets just see if we can clarify by example I suffer from clinical depression (what the Americans call unipolar depression I believe). When i was first diagnosed and started treatment I found that my creativity and ability to imagine had deserted me, for a creative that was quite distressing. If I'd asked for help on this thread it would be appropriate to Advise me on ways you'd dealt with the same thing give me tips on ways to stimulate creativity talk about ways in which whatever mental health condition affected your writing assure me that i'm not alone, etc It would not be appropriate to Hijack the discussion into talking about depression in general Tell me depression doesnt exist and that i need to get a grip on myself tell me to take this drug rather than that drug or not to take medicine at all or to give any advice which is not to do with writing Incidentally if there is anyone out there who is in this boat my advice would be that my creativity came back in time, within 14 days i was back to where i was before i started treatment, creativity wise, and that i found the best thing to do was to write without self editing since the condition was making me too overly critical of my work.
Thanks, @big soft moose . You articulated the focus of this thread better than I did. I look forward to more contributions from the community at large.
One thing that I think is super important that hasn't been mentioned is that mental illness can serve as a wonderful source of inspiration for stories. For example i used to suffer psychosis a number of years ago. And now as I look back on those states of mind that where so unusual and extreme an bizarre that that I have to write about them. Every thing I have written so far has something to do with madness and psychosis. I think writing about your personal illness is good for a number of reasons. I think it helps you to gain insight into your illness and integrate it int your life, to come to terms with it, to accept it. Secondly the world needs people writing about mental illness because there is so much stigma and ignorance about mental illness. Fiction is a powerful medium for communication and it can be used to break down stigma and educate people. I know suffering from mental illness sucks, I mean it really really sucks. But over time it can turn into a blessing in that it can give you a rich source of inspiration and a world view to communicate that most people don't have.
I am fictionally writing a fictional story about Some Guy who has the full sucky dance card of Bipolar, severe ADHD, and non-GI PTSD, with all the bells and suck-ass whistles and meds that go along with it, thank God. He discovers that any general Mental Illness is a Physical experience arising from physical processes in his fictional brane, regardless of origin (disorder/trauma). He finds there is a way to recognize these physical experiences, and thus, with treatment, can disassociate them from his real (fictional) environment. It's like waking yourself up from a dream that will come back, but you know when it quacks like a duck... There's a neverending source of material: Terror. Drama. Despair. Finality. Hope.
We have two kind of affects: emotions and feelings. Emotions are biological processes. They are millions of years old. They are older that conceptual thinking. That is the reason why we don't have any connections between emotions and conceptual thinking in our brain. When we have emotions we explain them to ourselves and others via conceptual thinking but these explanations have very rarely anything to do with truth. We still believe them. Feelings have two common definitions: 1. Awareness of emotions. 2. Affects we share socially. And in fact those are almost the same thing. It does not sound like it, but it is. We are aware of our feelings. Feelings have connections to conceptual thinking in our brain. We can process feelings intellectually at some part. Emotions are bodily process. Our body remembers them, our mind does not. That is sometimes problematic. Sometimes it helps a lot if we can transform emotions to feelings. Acting out is one common way do that kind of transformation. Different kind of simulations is another. (Word "simulation" in very broad meaning here.) Writing can be that kind of simulation. That is the route which makes phrase "write what you know emotionally" useful in two ways: 1. Sometimes it helps processing emotions. 2. Access to good material for writing. (I think this is inside the rules of this topic and I hope moderaptors think the same.)
I feel like I need to print this out and staple it to my face. Self-criticism has been absolutely killing my productivity, which is directly tied to my self-worth and it becomes this big, nasty cycle. Sending good vibes to the other folks struggling in this thread. The Bad Brains have been kicking my ass lately.
I've found that putting too much pressure on myself paralyzes me. I'm in the process of dialing it back so that I have pressure that will drive me, but not stop me. Easier said than done and all that. Deadlines and that sort of thing I can usually handle (not that I don't procrastinate). It's the fact that one way or another writing is going to be my career. I know you can't be afraid of failure, but like, if I fail then I'm pretty screwed. You sort of, uh, need to make a living. Working 50 hours a week to make ends meet wouldn't leave a whole lot of room for good writing. When I'm just not feeling well, I have to remind myself that the fault doesn't rest in my writing or my ability to write, but in myself. Those are the times I need to take care of myself so that the next day, or later in the week or otherwise ASAP, I can get back to writing. And, as I believe @Alan Aspie said, it's much easier to keep the boulder rolling than to get it rolling. Write every day.
I've actually been suffering from depression and anxiety for a little over three years now, and I've realized something very interesting. Writing sage remarks from or to my characters, or giving parcels of wit to my irl/online friends, has helped me in real life. I wrote a drabble about the 'adhesive power of spite' from the perspective of an immortal character, where she goes on about how when you're tired of being broken, glue yourself together to spite those who crush you, or something. Then I realized I'd done the same thing at work, and called a manager out twice for their bullshit. Politely, and in the proper manner, but I wouldn't take such nonsense anymore. I'd stuck myself together with the adhesive power of spite. Thanks, Miranda. Recently I wrote a chapter where my MC interacts with a water spirit who tells him that "Rain passes. All storms do. It is the nature of storms to do so. It is the nature of mortals to weather it," and that storms pass, and that he ought to let this break upon him as the tide does upon a rock. Then I lost my job, and found solace in my own words. In an entirely unrelated situation, I told my husband that I would meet future criticism with 'I am neither responsible for, nor burdened by, your opinion of me.' Then I actually needed to use that line, in a very different scenario than I'd expected to use it--I shared it with a friend, who needed to hear it. I guess what I'm saying is, therapy is expensive. Having a character who *is* a therapist is cheap, and solves problems before you have them. disclaimer: i just write books. don't take medical advice from me.
@suddenly BANSHEES The way i see it, there's no point in having a bunch of immortals interacting with a bunch of mortals if they're not occasionally going to drop some wisdom of the ages on the young lads and lassies they come across. Sure, after the first thousand years it's all sausage, but eventually even the dumb ones pick up on things that remain constant through the millennia. Beyond that, I find that water-based metaphors seem to get the most mileage when it comes to being clever or helpful. Not sure what that's about, but here you see the result.
I have a lot of issues ranging from PTSD to anxiety, among other things. I am actually going to attend an ayahuasca retreat next month and I am hoping to get some closure, but with that said, it is our pain that molds us. Tyler Durden says something to the effect, without pain and without sacrifice, we have nothing. I am working on something right now that is a biography of sorts, only wrote in a way that makes it fiction. It will deal with mental illness/irony/cause and effect.
I've struggled with my mental health for years. It's an insidious beast. I tend to withdraw and isolate. This gives me a slightly skewed idea about being a writer and a reader. I can't tell if it's a passion or an avoidance strategy due to an inability to actually live life. This tension between actual life and writing is always there. The best writer's lived life and plenty of great ones eventually became undone by their inability to do so. I believe great literature comes from a reflection on lived experience. I often find myself wanting to seal myself away into a hermetic existence and use my self-definition as a writer as an excuse. It's dangerous. I could call myself an introvert except when I do force myself to get out there, I take great pleasure from interactions with people once I've established friendship and am able to lower my defenses. The idea of a life of just books and writing is a little horrifying, even though that's what I've reduced mine to several times. The work I've done during these sealed off times has never been my best or even good. The bitterness, anger and resentfulness I've felt towards myself bled onto everything I wrote. A writer needs courage to write and to live. But where does one get all the energy? I feel weak and tired and sad and bored most of the time. I'm in a bad rut right now to be honest. Depression sneaked up on me. What started as 'I need a break' slowly tuned into a dismantling of almost all my connection to my community. Of course I didn't really notice all this happening. It was one small thing at a time. One concession to that sinister voice in my head led to another until that voice became the dominant one over the other one that wants health and happiness for me. I'm slowly trying to rebuild my life. I should say I work a full time job which forces me out there for 9 hours a day 6 days a week. I am grateful for that for without it I'd lose my mind, as I learnt quickly during the christmas break.
To me writing is like medicine. You want to say something to someone but you are just afraid to. You have a sense of humor but yet, nobody finds it funny when you say it, yet when you write it down, you feel like a huge anchor was lifted off of your shoulders and everything. Writing is not just an art, its a piece of you that people get to see!
I understand. I think. I've become jaded with every one of my friendships (in a few cases, for entirely rational reasons). I no longer believe I have the capability to form them. Out of distrust for humans, especially weak and belligerent ones, I have grown so aloof that I am a stranger to people who have known me for many years. I am a zombie that goes to work and has the odd hobby (I certainly don't work as much as you do, however). I understand the recluse temptation and I give in to it far too often. Sometimes it's like my mind has floated away. I am always the least present person in the room. I don't find jokes funny or most conversations engaging. The more logical voice in my head says "You know that's neurosis, don't you?" The emotional side of me says: "To hell with all of them. They're sheep." I'm fortunate enough to be in a great relationship. I don't ever tell her this, but she keeps me from sinking too low. I've also found regular exercise to be invaluable for getting through the week. Further, I'm skeptical of the "oh, you're just introverted" line people like to throw around. In my horrible opinion, "introvert" just means self-absorbed. I see it as a reason to loathe the self even more (ironically, self-loathing is a form of self-absorption, so I can't win). Writing is intensely therapeutic for me. I think some people are just burdened with too much emotion, or don't know how to get rid of it. Some people abuse substances, other people, etc. Writing is an outlet with low negative outcome. As long as one keeps it from being too self-serving, it's a productive pastime. Anyway, good luck on the rebuild.
I have deeply seated impostor syndrome. I do believe I have a voice but I fear I would come across as phony. Do I have something to say? Do I really have something to say to the world? I feel so paralyzed around this question. The idea of a premise and working around a premise is a big relief. This is the idea, I will toy around with it, like I used to toy with shiny stones I found in the sand when I was a kid. Somehow the feeling of doing something fundamentally unreal has stuck. That is why appreciation and admiration matters so much. Without an audience, it is all a waste. But no one around me is interested in someone writing. Except my wife but she won't read anything until it is finished. And I am so damn scattered in my process. I start things and I do not finish them. I so want to write poetry, keep going on. I have written some over the years. I would love to make writing poetry a habitual thing irrespective if it comes out well or not. Something is amiss. I don't have an audience. I don't have an audience would would look forward to my writing. That would have been so wonderful. Some friends, some relatives. . . no one! no one bloody takes an interest. I feel wronged and then I feel wrong about feeling wrong. Back to square one. Does anything I feel matter?
Taking this in a slightly different direction. You say your wife is interested in your writing, but won't read anything till it's finished. What would you be looking for, from her, if she did read only a few paragraphs? Would what she says encourage you, discourage you? Would you want her to be truly honest, or would you just want her to say, 'that's wonderful, darling, oh, do keep going?' And if she said that, WOULD you keep going? What are you looking for from her? I think impostor syndrome is something that attacks all of us at times, unless we are incredibly narcissistic, and think everything we touch turns to gold. Maybe the trick is to accept that there will always be writers out there who are 'better' than you. Just like somebody who loves to do marathons will probably accept that they won't win one. But they ARE running, and proving to themselves and the world that they can go the distance. I guess focusing on going the distance, rather than achieving perfection, might be an attitude shift that could help you. And also be aware that no matter who you are or how good you are as a writer, there will always be readers who don't like your work. Maybe focus more on what YOU want to say in your stories. Focus on bringing your favourite characters to life. Focus on setting them difficult problems, then getting those problems solved. In other words, focus less on what others are going to think of you, and more on what you're actually creating. And have fun. This isn't serious business unless your livelihood depends on it. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland (since 2014) admitted in a recent interview that she suffers from Impostor Syndrome all the time! If she can work around it, so can anybody.
My depression has been hitting me really hard lately, and it's making it really hard to do any writing. I want to write, but whenever I try it becomes the most exhausting thing in the world for me. If I do manage to get anything written, it's always really dull. No flair or excitement behind it, you know what I mean? Hopefully my doctor will make some progress on finding an antidepressant that works on me soon, but in the meantime does anybody have any advice for writing when depression is smothering you? Thanks!
Just asking. You say you 'want to write,' but do you mean you just want to be writing something, or do you mean you have a particular story that you want to get written down? I think there might be different ways to handle each of those two scenarios.
