Show notes
Welcome to the Tending Creativity Podcast!
Episode 15: Creativity and Depression, Solo Episode
For this episode I talk about my experience with depression and anxiety and how that has affected my creative expression.
Topics discussed:
- The “tortured artist” trope
- You don’t have to be sad to make great art
- My personal history with depression and anxiety
- The ebb and flow of depression
- Learning skills to deal with mental health disorders
- Anxiety developing as I’ve gotten older
- The importance of understanding my experience with mental health disorders
- Changing my mindset to be more compassionate to myself
- The importance of prioritizing wellness over productivity
- Patterns I recognize that affect my ability to make art when I’m experiencing depression
- Increased self doubt and self criticism when depressed
- Not letting myself pursue creative ideas
- Growing through attempting “bad” creative ideas
- Being harsh on myself and ideas or work
- Lack of motivation for creative work when depressed
- Motivation is not always needed to create
- Feeling a lack of care for things I usually care about
- Shifting the focus from worrying about being productive to wanting to heal
- Lack of stamina and focus for creative work when depressed
- Being frustrated when I’m unable to focus or work as hard as usual
- Trying to force myself to operate at a level I’m unable to
- Learning to accept a reduced ability to work on art or creative projects
- The conditioning to hyper-focus on productivity
- Unlinking my self-worth from my productivity and achievement
- Focusing on opportunities to care for myself
- Prioritizing well being and mental health over creativity
- Your mental health is more important than trying to always create or make art