The Crumbling Path

Creative work and depression

I have a few things to say about depression, both by itself and in terms of how it interacts with creative work. I’ve had a tough few months—not the worst ever, but hard—and I’m gradually emerging onto more solid ground where I can look at the experience with a little more insight and detachment, and there are three points I want to make. These are born of some frustration around the language we use for mood and mental health struggles. But they have also become useful thoughts for me to keep fairly present in my mind as I navigate trying times.

1. When you are depressed, if you want to do a thing—no matter how small or “easy” that thing is—you must always do another thing first. And that is to move the barrier that depression puts in the way of doing anything. It’s an invisible task. No one sees that you need to do it, so it’s easy for well-meaning people to suggest that instead of trying to do normal size things, you try to do smaller things; that somehow if the task is small enough it …