Can blogging decrease depression?
When I become depressed, I often bury myself in an activity to withdraw from the world. 2 years ago it was sports radio. Last year it was Fantasy Baseball. I obsessively entered into incessant babbling about nothing important and constantly calculated inane statistics about things that might never happen. I became relatively numb, passed through the darkness, and when I noticed the light was on, I moved on.
This year (about 10 days now), I’ve been obsessed with blogging. Every moment I can spare I’m crafting ideas, designs, concepts, strategies for promotion. The intensity revs me up such that I forget about my state of depression. As soon as I get off, though, I sink like a rock.
I’m hoping I will find a balance, that blogging can be just a hobby contributing to overall mental health. Time will tell. For now, I just ride the waves.
How has blogging affected your mental health?
more on depression…
Lovely honest and open post. Here’s a trick that may or may not work: take an electronic emission break frequently, go indulge in what’s going on around you and let your mind relax, it allows you to actually trick yourself into gathering more material while believing you are in control of your blogging mania.
I think what you are experiencing with blogging is very common. Most Bloggers go through that at the beginning or when starting a fresh blog (at least many that I know).
As for depression….I wish blogging helped my depression. Some days are just so bleak. I hope you keep sharing honestly and just let it all out. I am glad it helps you. It helps me to read you, your blog title may be intended to apply to you – but it applies to me as well. I like coming over here to this blog. I feel…understood…or something. It weird – in a good way.
[...] as an Antidepressant: A Reply I just read pistolepete’s post about blogging and depression, and I thought I’d share my thoughts on [...]
I find that blogging helps me to sort through the mental gymnastics that are constantly going on in my head. As far as it helping with depression, on those days when I find myself pretty down, I usually withdraw from everything, including blogging. But reading your blog and others where people are honest and open about their struggles and challenges encourages me in mine.
I don’t think blogging necessarily helps depression. And, any sort of obsessive behavior is a means of avoiding the pain.
What I think what does help is that blogging supports journaling. Journaling is a proven way to alleviate depression and provides a means of working through the problems being human presents.
I think blogging is more of a problem for me than anything. It plays into my immature need to be noticed.
Derrick just gently hit the nail on the head… several times. I think the third time was a little harsh, though. If it will help, Derrick, I won’t read your blog at all. It’s the least I can do.
Hmmm…interesting post, interesting comments.
When I first started my weblog, the motivation was escape. There were a lot of changes going on my life, and I spent time on the ‘blog-and-chain that should have been otherwise occupied.
But as I began to sort things out, I found that blogging was a cool way to make connections with people all over the world through discussing things of importance to me. I know, I know—nothing could sound more cliché—but I couldn’t be more sincere. Why does that opportunity seem so ubiquitous to us? It’s really not. It’s quite novel and I, for one, think it’s something worthy of a little excitement. A little pizazz, even. ;-)
User-generated content on the web is in its infantile stages. It’s changing the face of information creation and distribution, very slowly but also very surely, and I think it’s in everyone’s best interests to be involved as readers and as writers and preferably as both.
There’s nothing about blogging that I can see that would qualify as any more detrimentally addictive as, say, television. If someone is blogging simply to watch himself type, then at least he’s interacting with the great big out there in some respect. Any activity can be used as an escape act, and I think that’s generally to be avoided. But those kinds of problems are user-end. They don’t have much, if anything, substantively to do with the medium in and of itself.
Great post. Thank you!
Blog-and-Chain. How funny, and true.
I sometimes feel compelled to comment or post when I really have nothing to say and need to be doing other things. Like right now, I should be cleaning my pig pen, but I’m not. I am here senselessly typing away.
It depends on why you are blogging. Are you trying to get noticed or just trying to get things out? I am a depressive…I have been for many many years. I find myself at my computer the most when I am in the middle of a cycle and feeling depressed…but I write not to get noticed, I write to get it out…to get out my emotions so I can be done with them. Once they are out, they are gone and not bothering me anymore. It is not different than a journal, not different than writing that letter that you never send.
But if you are depressed and trying to get noticed…that is a problem as you are trying to be validated. Validation comes from within, not from without…
http://insaneworld.wordpress.com/2007/03/20/depression/
Pistol fires back: Good distinction. I think I’m doing both. I want to get things out & be noticed. I only hope that when I’m deeper in my depression, I won’t try to find company in my misery.
“…I only hope that when I’m deeper in my depression, I won’t try to find company in my misery….”
It isn’t that you shouldn’t look for support and understanding…but look for it in the right place. If you are depressed, then look for help with a therapist. You don’t always need meds, but a therapist can offer contructive ways to let the depression pass through you and not just run you over like a Mack Truck… Looking for validation can only cause the depression to get worse as a depressive can never get enough or the right kind to make them feel better.
*hugs*
The Pistol fires back: Good points. I agree professional help is important and has kept me functioning nearly all my adult life. Nonetheless, I thank you for the validation (through your comment and “hugs”). It won’t cure me by any means, but it helps me stay sane to know that what I write is read.
Hey…what can I say? I wan’t people to read mine blog so it is only fair that I read others. ;-)
The Pistol fires back: I would agree, in principle. But in reality, my wanting people to read mine far outweighs my desire to read theirs.
See…I am a student of Tibetan Buddhism…and I am also a firm believer in Karma. Therefore, if I want others to read and comment on my stuff, I HAVE to read others and comment. The old what goes around comes around. In order to BE noticed, I have to notice others. Everything is related that way…if you want more money…be generous; if you want people to be good to you, be good to others…that kind of thing.
However depression topics speak to my heart. I have suffered from it for years as well as my one sister has bi-polar disorder (I also believe my mother does too though she hasn’t sought help to be diagnosed) and my other sister has depression and anxiety. I have lived it (and still do) and lived with it.
And though I can only speak for myself…I have found that for me depression is a very selfish dis-ease…and the only way for me to combat it is to force myself to stop being selfish.
The Pistol fires back: It’s nice to have you aboard. I understand the principle of what goes around, comes around. I’ll confess I know very little of Tibetan Buddhism, but isn’t the goal to become self-less & hence, you would not want to be noticed? As for Depression & Bipolar, I can only say if they stems from selfishness, it must be some kind of masochistic selfishness – cause it feels like -
bear stomping on back
racing through the snowy flat
bear returns and CRUNCH!
Selfishness because all your emotions tend to be internalized like the validation. It is all about you even though sometimes you tend to think of others…but even then it is about how they view or treat you. Make sense?
And about Buddhism…yes and no. Buddhism is about being self-less…but it is about being self-less to being good things to you. I know it is hard to understand and sometimes I don’t totally get my head around some of the stuff (I said I was a student not a Lama!)…you do good things to help others…but also to help yourself. It is like taking the long way instead of the short way to get what you want and need. Ultimately (for the best Karma) you do good things because you WANT to…but good Karma happens even if you do it for selfish reasons…you just don’t get quite as much good Karma. ;-)
I would recommend reading a book by Geshe Michael Roach called “The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing your Business and Your Life.” He can explain a lot better than I (he IS a Geshe i.e. Teacher after all.) That book is all about using the laws of Karma to get what YOU want and need out of life…but taking the long road to get it by doing for others. It is kinda like what people say with a “win/win” situation.
The Pistol fires back: You certainly seem to have a pretty good handle on this win/win karma thing. This Holy Week, we celebrate a win/win situation, but it comes at a tremendous cost – death on a cross. Jesus emptied out his life, so we might receive abudant life with the Risen Christ forever.
(p.s. Thanks for the book recommendation, but I have a short attention span. Can I find a good blog summary no more than a couple of paragraphs in length?)
I appologize for any poor spelling…My 2yr old is in my lap and even though I try to proof-read first…it is very difficult!
:-)
The Pistol fires back: Ah yes, but what is the sound of one 2-year old clapping your hand? What would Budda say to that?
Well…You can check out Lama Marut’s blog about Karmic correlations here http://www.lamamarut.org/?page_id=42 and I have a post on MY blog about what I learned when I took Yoga Sutra classes as well as spent time with my mentor…it is here http://insaneworld.wordpress.com/2007/04/05/karma/ .
Lama Marut is awesome and is on staff at Diamond Mountain University (which Geshe Michael started). Diamon Mountain’s website is here http://diamondmtn.org/ though I am not sure if they have info available online as it is the University website where students go to set up classes…though I think they do have a page of links there. I will say though the book really isn’t that big at just a little over 200 pgs. :-)
Even though I am not Christian, I do believe Jesus existed and I think that a lot of his teachings were a lot like the Buddha’s teachings he just presented it in a different way. I also believe he sacrificed himself for the greater good (what good would it have done to fight what was happening to him? Just cause more problems for him and his followers more thank likely).
Either way, it always pays to be nice to ALL people, whether you think you are going to Heaven for it or rack up good Karma…it pays off for YOU in the long run…so being selfless IS being selfish.
The Pistol fires back: Plugging your blog. Now you are speaking my own language. I’m not always nice, but I agree being respectful/loving towards all persons is a Christian imperative (and a Buddhist teaching). As for who Jesus was/is – be sure to check my post tomorrow. (How’s that for a plug?)
I don’t know what the Buddha would say about 2yr olds. :-) I wish I could ask him though…man…terrible twos is an understatement!
All I can say is I rarely make him get out of my lap when he wants in it…even if I am typing…it is more important to me that he knows that he is allowed in my lap when he wants than to have proper spellling.
The Pistol fires back: Good for you. Spelling is overrated. Parenting is underappreciated.
I have to get visitors somehow! LOL
And for the record I check your blog every day. ;-)
And parenting IS underappreciated.
The Pistol fires back: Thanks for coming for your daily therapy. Maybe I can send some karma your way.
There is a thing called “age cheating” in this world. And there is a thing called learned helplessness.
And there is a thing called social politics that attempt to make people that haven’t gained a true sense of social independence through the years, knowing how to pull away from parents (and wanting to) feel more and more useless and more and more helpless.
You have to read between the lines of what these entertainers tell you. Oprah Winfrey recently said “50 is the new 30″. Today’s 37 is like yesterday’s 21.
37 is your legal age meaning that in a legal paperwork situation you have no choice but to accept it, but in a social sense, you can be young at any age if you can change your perspectives on life.
The trouble with the post WW2 world especially in free societies, is children (for well over 30 years) being brought into the world believing in the idea of the free ride and too much dependency on a parent or caretaker and not enough dependency on understanding their rights and developing some greater social responsibilities.
They lie to kids especially in these early years when small children often cling to their caretakers and are terrified of teenagers, college students and post college students, and many believe that it would be light years into the future if at all before they reach and pass that age.
And with all of the gaudy products businesses sell to parents to give to their dependent children to show that they unconditionally love them, gives them false ideas that this is the world they are always going to face. The school system forces kids through for marks and when they get out and life is once again more abandoned and serene, obsessional thinking of the world of yesterday (the good and bad) and fearful thinking of the present pulling deeper into the world of the future causes many former helpless dependent children (who never even mastered adolescence) to develop into a state of depression, social withdrawal, more co-dependency and co-morbid psychological conditions. Pulling through fear socal anxiety and depression with a true sense of of a basic world of accomplishing and doing.
Feeling comfortable doing this independently and with others for long hard days for a sense of personal worth and growth can be very difficult. Society in general does not want children (and even teenagers) to believe they are goiung to have to grow up, and that as they get older younger generations will follow them into the future.
For retail sales (big buisness) and recreation programs (small business) administrators attempt to capitalize on internal family bonds in the first eight years of life, and the fears associated with slowly breaking these bonds in constructive productive ways for their own profits. In life you only get older and older and older and you have to accept this truth in order to survive, and truly understand that you developed from a totally helpless dependent individual into a productive member of society. The first thoughts that hit many people’s minds especially small children are learned helplessness and allowing these weak dreadful submissive emotions to get the better of them when their caretakers are not in their present environment.
If constructive, productive emotional and physical levels of functioning can not intinctively overtake these emotionally weak feelings of abandonment and stress, a fight or flight syndrome appears threatening your physical health ultimately causing you to socially withdraw from the here and now and take the easy way out.
My opinion is that hospitals at birth are most responsible for developing a plan for parents within the scope of the family genes for their newborn children, since they hold over 100 years of birth certificates of living individuals.
The hospitals are most responsible for investing their money on interrelational workshops for young families in similar situations, to help parents understand that babies and small children have to face reality every day and eventually grow up and take some personal responsibility for their actions.
There is always going to be a next day, deeper into the future. Families get older. Familes perceive the world differently, and there is always going to be all sorts of people you have to deal with. Hospitals are most responsible for coaching children and young people into this understanding, since they hold the birth certificates of them and their parents and their grandparents. Personal responsibility is important, preventative medicine is important, social engineering for profit is not.
The Pistol fires back: You said a mouthful, Jay!