Creativity: The Best Therapy for Depression

By David M. Delo

I have been BD II for more than 60 years and sincerely believe anyone with a mental illness which includes depression needs creativity in their life. It not only improves one's physical and mental health, it reduces self-generated stress and moves the individual toward the sought-after goal of balance and stability.

This book is a conversational guide, an INVITATION to every person who has depression problems to seek, grasp, and nurture his or her creativity. There are no "shoulds" in the book, so the reader has no way to inject feelings of guilt for non- or poor- performance.

We who have major depression issues are unique in many ways and creativity is the best therapy (aside fgrom medication and psychotherapy) to periodically move us beyond coping with our symptoms to provide us periods of time we are able to distance our daily problems which come with our mental disease.

Almost all of the material in the book has been gathered from the publications of licensed  medical and creativity professionals. I have include a full bibliography should anyone like to check or read the original material from which I have chosen insights. My talent here is to organize the information and create what I hope to be an easily accessible platform for the reader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kingfisher Creations
• Release date: Jan 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215244593

David M. Delo

Bio of author David M. Delo I’ve never been great at anything, but I have been around and have had as many failures as I have successes. After college, I was a C.I. agent for NATO (US Army) in Europe. Back in the USA, I became an educational administrator for the American Geological Institute, in Washington, D.C.; a systems analyst and V. P. at Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco; owner of a guest ranch in Wyoming; a P. R. writer for a university library in Illinois and grants writer for a not-for-profit organization in Montana; owner of a publishing company (Kingfisher Creations) through which I authored 10 books; and a semi-professional photographer for half a century. I have also been an artist since 1993 and I have been bipolar II since the mid-1960s. I guess you could say I have had a colorful life. Since the turn of the century, I have resided within the world of creativity. My books (and paintings) are my children and my heritage. My action-mysteries are based on my years in Europe. My historical novels are all based on places to which I have ventured, and I still love my protagonists with whom I identify–a geologist, an artist, a photographer, and an intrepid explorer of the west.

Book preview

CREATIVITY:

The Best Therapy for Depression

by David M. Delo, Bipolar II 

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Preface

Like too many of us, my mental disease charted the course of my life. I’m Bipolar II. At various points, to keep myself from staying in bed all day, I exercised, meditated, and volunteered my time. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be here had I not found, nurtured, and blended creative activities into my daily routine.

The pain and confusion associated with depression is primarily the same for those with Bipolar Disorder or Major Depressive Disorder. Also, ways to temporarily relieve the symptoms of depression are essentially the same. They include: 1) Self-Help activities, 2) Adjunct (directed) Therapies, and 3) Creative activities. All exist beyond the world of medication and psychotherapy. They overlap one another in terms of how they work, and all have been proven beneficial.

Creative activities offer the greatest benefits. The sensory world of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch they create is built on pleasurable experiences. They offer a world you may live in comfortably without speaking. They can provide periods of greater self-esteem, improved self-image, reduced self-generated stress, and they offer a healthier perspective from which to view your world. In addition, any creative outlet will likely edge you closer to the goals every mentally ill person seeks – better balance and stability.

Why the Book? Creativity has been my life since I was diagnosed Bipolar II, and it has literally saved my life on more than one occasion. This book is my way of sharing the benefits of being creative I received while being mentally ill. I hope it’s an easy, informative opportunity you can use to seek and incorporate the power and beauty of at least one creative activity into an avocational routine in your life. For those who are not actively creative, I have included a chapter called Becoming Creative.

Through my research into creativity I have incorporated a number of neat ideas in the book. You might consider it like a course of study, a reference book you can read more than once while ideas penetrate.

The Value of Creativity.  First, please know that creativity is not limited to the arts; it is universal. More than 20,000 books exist on the subject.Shelley Carson, Harvard University author of Your Creative Brain, says you need to be creative just to survive! The U.S. Department of State says the word creative makes it hard for people without artistic training to believe they can be creators. But, it says, here is the secret: Anyone can be an innovator or creator, regardless of field or occupation.[1]  Yes: everyone is creative.

In the worlds of science, technology, and business, the value of creativity is immense. More than half of employed Americans believe their job requires them to be creative and believe that the more creative and innovative they, the more successful they are in the workplace.[2] Fifteen hundred who reside at the top of their corporation (CEOs) ranked creativity above vision, integrity, and management discipline for the future success of their business. 

In essence, creativity is a door to a making of meaning of our existence. A playwright and screenwriter wrote that humans exist to make meaning, and that without our meaning making there would be no meaning, only a sterile, machine-universe. If the process didn’t require ambivalence, doubt, mistakes, confusion, and striving, we end up only with uninspired flatness. So, he added, maybe creating meaning is an end in itself. [3]

Creativity is the path by which we solve our problems. It helps you and me maintain our well-being and promotes our success if not survival in our society’s accelerating rate of change. The demand for creativity today exceeds the degree to which it is available and developed,[4] so it’s well worth looking at.

As you read, you will see I have grouped ways to relieve depression into categories that include creative activities. All exist beyond the world of medication and counseling, and all help delay or thin the effects of many of our depressive symptoms. You may have your own favorite source of relief. I have tried exercise (I jogged for 40 years), meditated when necessary, and volunteered my time over the decades in a number of ways. None have contributed to my mental health like creative activities. They have been shown to improve my self-esteem, help minimize my self-induced stress, and provide me periods of great personal satisfaction. Creativity is by far the best form of lifelong therapy. 

Yet creativity plays third fiddle for the majority of Americans. Is it because most of us spend an average of ten hours every day passively engaging in social media like Facebook, Twitter, and television, or twiddling with our smart phones? (Have I stepped on your toes?)

Nearly all of us seek assistance from medical professionals. We rely on psychiatrists or psychologists for medication and often counseling. I wouldn’t change one element of that universe nor remark on how well it may work for you. Nor do I have any interest in trying to substitute any part of the creative world for the assistance you (and I) currently receive. Nonetheless, representatives of the professional medical world focus primarily on managing your mental health problems – changes in your mood(s), and the effectiveness of your medication.  All to few recognize the value of creativity.

In my research  I read a volume about Bipolar Disorder written by a prominent American psychiatrist. The author said hypomanic moods led a third of his bipolar clients to be highly creative. He described examples of their productivity and included the words Boost Your Creativity in the title of his book. Yet he failed to offer one sentence to describe how his patients might approach or utilize creativity as adjunct therapy to help them become happier, healthier, and better adjusted to society. So in spite of what his patients already possess, he, like nearly all psychiatrists, apparently believes effective therapy begins and ends with medication and psychoanalysis.[5]

Then I read a research project designed to investigate various aspects of creativity which involved seventeen college students who had BD. The authors correctly assumed their participants’ disease was somehow related to creativity. Many participants described their patient-doctor relations as negative and lamented how doctors lacked an understanding of how important and beneficial creativity was to their recovery. More than half of the group proposed that their treatment could be improved by incorporating creativity into their sessions!

Those same participants claimed creativity was a therapeutic mechanism. One conveyed his frustration, saying his doctor thinks that he has [a] well-rounded perception of bipolar but when he comes to treating me in therapy...he doesn’t get it... Another said creative expression allowed BD people to communicate in a way you wouldn’t normally communicate, specifically to aid communication with medical staff. A third observed that, . . .in terms of treatment, it’s just getting the message out there that this can be a blessing, that there are advantages in many ways to living with this cluster of personality traits and tendencies.[6]

I agree with experts who say the current practice in psychiatry is geared more towards controlling the symptoms of your mental health problems than striving to understand your true needs and potential capabilities, and since I believe that at least half of you are not actively creative, I urge you to seriously consider adopting a creative activity into your routine.

Becoming Actively Creative. Has anyone discussed creativity with you, that it might benefit you in spite of your mental health burden? To those of you who complain, I don’t know how to draw a straight line or I don’t have a creative bone in my body I say, Wrong: Everybody is Creative! 

To those of you who are severely depressed, who distance yourself from life by staying in bed, it may be a new topic for your consideration. It certainly is optional. Or you may believe you are fully occupied with survival, and wedging creativity into your life may be – not ridiculous – but perhaps inadvisable. If so, I fully understand. Nonetheless, doing something creative could be your first step to a better world if not significant recovery.

Some of you may dismiss the intent of what I offer because you think it might require too much effort or a it’s pie-in-the-sky offer. At the moment, I cannot determine your interest level in creativity as a life-changing force, but I hope  the content I offer between these covers is positive, motivating, and uplifting. As I mentioned earlier, I have included a Chapter called Becoming Creative as a quick start guide for the uninitiated.

If nothing else, this book may introduce you to a latent pocket of energy you have overlooked, didn’t care about, or rejected. Finding and nurturing creativity may surprise you as much it did when I first discussed the possibility with my inner child. I was 50 years old. His first words to me were Finally, David; for thirty years you never gave a damn! 

To those who are actively creative, I still advise you to read the book. I guarantee you will learn new things about the creative process, how other creative people function, and you may find suggestions to help you make the most of your creativity.

Who wrote Creativity for my Peers? As an author, I don’t know you but I don’t need to because I have lived for decades as one of the mentally ill (it will be my burden till I die) to include being severely depressed. One difference between us? Socially, I’m a dinosaur. While I have been writing books and painting for the last several decades, two new generations of humanity were tweaking their cell phones. 

I own neither a cell phone nor a television set. I don’t need them. Creativity, not social media, has become my compass and my savior. As one afflicted with Bipolar Disorder (BD II), creative activities have made a huge difference in my stability, peace of mind, and productivity. For the last half of the fifty years I have been ill, I have referred to myself as a Creative Bipolar. I’d love to learn you want to become one as well.

As you read, please remember the offering between these covers can only lead you to the door of the creative world. Regardless of what you find once you are there – hopefully when you decide to explore it – you have my support and belief that the power within that world of creativity will be uplifting and improve the quality of your life.

Introduction

The relationship between creativity and mental disorder has

been well researched and is proven to be a fact.

–Psychologist Arthur Jensen

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I have selected two basic topics for this book: depression experienced by those with Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) plus the potential benefits of securing a creative activity to reduce some of its symptoms and improve the quality of your life.

The book has three parts. Part I:  The World of Creativity. It  offers you definitions of creativity, a discussion of the creative process  (where you will find the subject much more complex than you might expect), and a discussion about who is creative, and some of the habits many creative individuals have in common.

Fart II: The World of the Bipolar and the Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) Here I first examine the notion that creativity and Bipolar Disorder have a symbiotic relationship. (I encourage all of you with MDD to read this chapter because there are elements that apply to your problems and I don’t want to repeat myself  more than I have to.)

I then discuss medication for those with BD using my personal experience and thoughts I have accumulated on how medication affects the creativity and the sought-after goal nearly all of us seek – a balanced medication. Because I am not MDD nor a member of the medical profession, I have not attempted to offer information about medication for those with that affliction.

I have, however, provided a full chapter that discusses both Adjunct (directed) Therapy activities and Self-Help activities noted to relieve MDD depression to one degree or another. I have set aside creativity Part III.

Part III: Assessing the Value of Creativity. To ensure full disclosure, I discusses the role risk and stress play in your option to becoming creative. I then offer the beginner thoughts on how he or she might adopt creativity (Becoming Creative) followed by a chapter on the Benefits of Becoming Creative. Two chapters round out the assessment: Ways to Boost Your Creativity and a discussion of the Importance of Pace.

To drum home the message(s), I provide a summary – a repeat of what I consider the book’s highlights. For those who don’t react positively to what I have written, I have included an escape clause – a list of books they may find more beneficial.

Beyond the bibliography, I have included a series of appendices. The first is due to my desire to underline the quality of what my research – a sketch of the background of the authors of my book references. After a scanty bio I provide  a series of glimpses from my Bipolar life before and after my BD diagnosis.

The last two include thoughts on what currently works for me as a Creative Bipolar and thoughts for those readers who have a personal or professional concern for my