Hello everyone!

I’m picking off where I left off in the two-part series dealing with Writer’s Depression.

 As a writer how suffers from depression, I know first-hand how devastating the effects of it can be.   The symptoms in and of themselves are enough to weigh a person down like an anchor, but how can  we fight against it? How can we win a battle raging inside of our minds?

One therapeutic strategy for depression is exercise!

Given that quite a few writers live a somewhat sedentary lifestyle (I mean we do sit down and write…a   lot!), it’s no wonder that we don’t really do much in the way of formal exercise.

I’m guilty as charged.

I find it to be a very daunting task to exercise. Mostly because of physical ailments/conditions which limit my mobility at times. However, at least two of my current conditions could be all but eliminated with moderate exercise and a proper diet.

Another part of the equation is that if you’re depressed already, any task which you find daunting in the first place can become even more so if you’re already in that dark place mentally and emotionally.

Experts recommend at least 30 minutes to an hour a day, 5-6 days a week of moderate exercise, coupled with eating a healthy diet, something which is also therapeutic for depression.

Often writers keep a daily journal and this also is a way in which to combat depression. Think of it as a way to daily exercise your inner demons and purge those thoughts and emotions which contribute to your depression in the first place.

Many of my writing peers have told me that they began writing in the first place to cope with depression. They found it to be an escape from this stresses of day to day life, which they felt were the culprits in their depressed states. But taking into account the stresses of deadlines and the task of developing a story draft that a writer feels comfortable with, can lead them back into the dark place they had sought to escape.

The most important component in dealing with depression for writers and everyone in general—in my opinion—is to first identify that depression is real and serious. Then seeking professional advice or at the very least seeking a writing group which allows you to express your feelings in an open, non-judgmental forum.

In closing, I’d like to say that I’ve employed at least two of these strategies at some point in my journey and some worked better than others for me. It’s all a matter of doing what’s best for you as an individual, but the most important thing is to DO SOMETHING!!!