depression - source of inspiration or creativity killer?

[xox]

can broken legs make you better runner, while broken?

[Candiru]

The romanticism of depression is grounds for public castration, FYI

[dingformung]

capitalism in its present forms produces the depressive like it produces soap and coca cola with the difference that the depressive can't be sold which makes them useless

[Brisbot]

For me, depression kills my creativity. If you minimise the whole depression thing.. just being in a slightly bad mood, or a bored/neutral mood lessens creativity. As mood goes down, creativity goes down.

It's can be fun to listen to sad music when you're happy, because you can put yourself in a happy-sad.. frame of mind. Kind of like watching a show that makes you hate a character, or feel sad when one dies. You are feeling those emotions BUT you're also still entertained. Something similar is going on when you listen to sad/angry/whatever music. It's like your brain knows it isn't real. You're in a good mood, but secondhand experiencing 'depression', and that's fun for some weird reason.

Whereas when I'm depressed because a family member passes away, or like when my house burned down (screw you fate) then music is less entertaining for weeks/months. And I am in no mood to make music. And when I do it's usually shit.

I never got how artists could write break up songs like.. 10 minutes after their SO breaks up with them. I get the feeling they're not telling the whole truth.

[Test Fforet]

melancholy - source of inspiration

 

depression - source of lack of motivation (although you can use it for crateive stuff, but that's really hard for me)

[Danny O Flannagin]

I feel like the more depressed I get, the harder it is to even get in the mood to create, so this whole idea that depression leads to creativity escapes me. 

[cooliofranco]

capitalism in its present forms produces the depressive like it produces soap and coca cola with the difference that the depressive can't be sold which makes them useless

i see this very differently. depression is definitely sold, altho indirectly by pushing notion that subclinical and clinical depression can be treated with consumption. 

[cwmbrancity]

inspiration or creativity killer?

 

it would depend on the individual, mitigating support structures that could influence change for the better, that would include art, reading, therapy, meditation, medication if appropriate, drugs of choice if on the menu and/or any of the daily circumstances that an individual can't change

 

if you transplant depression for an equally disruptive experience like ptsd, a creative outlet is something that can save lives

 

listening to music can lift a depressive mood and music therapy is a vast field now, besides how many people who make sounds on here got inspiration from listening to music as much as an idea popping out of the ether?

 

depression kills full stop if an individual is weighed down beyond their control, so of course it can affect creativity too

 

if anyone has the aptitude for it, reading around contemporary music therapy texts is an immensely inspiring experience, the sheer scope of applications casts a bit of light on the human race and if anyone is looking for a musical experience of a different nature....

 

 

https://www.musicianswithoutborders.org/

 

 

not to regurgitate, but music itself as the main conduit for therapy exists in Guided Imagery & Music programs globally, the bibliographies for the 3 tiered qualifications are accessible online and that might inspire further reading along this thread's subject

 

given suicide is one of the main causes of death for men under 50 and the stigma of societal conversations about discussing it openly, its interesting to read how people approach aspects of depression & musical interactions here

[Candiru]

The Great Depression. Not so great, folks! Nobody in the dust bowl was making IDM. 

[xox]

Depression is not just depressive mood. Itz much more then that.

[cwmbrancity]

hence the broader scope included

[Amen Lare]

capitalism in its present forms produces the depressive like it produces soap and coca cola with the difference that the depressive can't be sold which makes them useless

 

Well, probably it should not be a commodity (though pharmaceuticals do use it in its favor), but rather a means of status quo reproduction.

 

Mark Fisher (who killed himself last year, he was very influential in UK music journalism too) wrote a lot on this subject

 

https://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=12841

 

 

For some time now, one of the most successful tactics of the ruling class has been responsibilisation. Each individual member of the subordinate class is encouraged into feeling that their poverty, lack of opportunities, or unemployment, is their fault and their fault alone. Individuals will blame themselves rather than social structures, which in any case they have been induced into believing do not really exist (they are just excuses, called upon by the weak). What Smail calls ‘magical voluntarism’ – the belief that it is within every individual’s power to make themselves whatever they want to be – is the dominant ideology and unofficial religion of contemporary capitalist society, pushed by reality TV ‘experts’ and business gurus as much as by politicians. Magical voluntarism is both an effect and a cause of the currently historically low level of class consciousness. It is the flipside of depression – whose underlying conviction is that we are all uniquely responsible for our own misery and therefore deserve it. A particularly vicious double bind is imposed on the long-term unemployed in the UK now: a population that has all its life been sent the message that it is good for nothing is simultaneously told that it can do anything it wants to do.

[auxien]

*interesting stuff there Amen.

[xox]

one of theories of depression says that it's an internalized (auto)aggression

[IOS]

Yeah Amen, that article is immense, thanks a bunch for sharing.

[dingformung]

 

capitalism in its present forms produces the depressive like it produces soap and coca cola with the difference that the depressive can't be sold which makes them useless

 

Well, probably it should not be a commodity (though pharmaceuticals do use it in its favor), but rather a means of status quo reproduction.

 

Mark Fisher (who killed himself last year, he was very influential in UK music journalism too) wrote a lot on this subject

 

https://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=12841

 

 

For some time now, one of the most successful tactics of the ruling class has been responsibilisation. Each individual member of the subordinate class is encouraged into feeling that their poverty, lack of opportunities, or unemployment, is their fault and their fault alone. Individuals will blame themselves rather than social structures, which in any case they have been induced into believing do not really exist (they are just excuses, called upon by the weak). What Smail calls ‘magical voluntarism’ – the belief that it is within every individual’s power to make themselves whatever they want to be – is the dominant ideology and unofficial religion of contemporary capitalist society, pushed by reality TV ‘experts’ and business gurus as much as by politicians. Magical voluntarism is both an effect and a cause of the currently historically low level of class consciousness. It is the flipside of depression – whose underlying conviction is that we are all uniquely responsible for our own misery and therefore deserve it. A particularly vicious double bind is imposed on the long-term unemployed in the UK now: a population that has all its life been sent the message that it is good for nothing is simultaneously told that it can do anything it wants to do.

 

 Definitely agree with thkis article. There is so much ideology forced upon us through media and colleagues, schools, universites and finally ourselves that we aren't aware of. A society that producs MUCH MORE than it needs rivals down sourrounding societies with their production surpluses (which is basically a kind of economy war) sees unemployment as one of the worst things that can happen. How ridiculous is this? We work too much and produce too much and still there is poverty in the same countries (and even more so in other less priviledged countries) and the idea that work determines the worth of a person is prevalent. In fact it's all matter of distribution, capital accumulates in a suspiscious manner on certain points while there is too little of it on the other ends although overall there is more than enough for everybody to live a relatively wealthy and stress-free life. We are told over and over again that economy needs to grow and grow otherwise our standards can't be maintained and the Chinese will guzzle us or whatever bullshit so we finally believe it. In fact it's a relatively new phenomenon in world history that a society thinks it needs to produce more every year in comparision to last year or otherwise terrible things will happen. It's ideology. And it's this exact ideology that helps to accumulate ressources on one end and takes it from the other end which makes a lot of people suffer both physically  and mentally.

[dingformung]

one of theories of depression says that it's an internalized (auto)aggression

yep, it's the colonialist in our head that says "you're not good enough, work more!!!". It helps to run the worker, make them run themself, until they get too exhausted and collapses. Then they can serve as a consumer of pharmaceuticals

[cwmbrancity]

one of theories of depression says that it's an internalized (auto)aggression

 

 

aka anger deflected inwards

[cwmbrancity]

 

capitalism in its present forms produces the depressive like it produces soap and coca cola with the difference that the depressive can't be sold which makes them useless

 

Well, probably it should not be a commodity (though pharmaceuticals do use it in its favor), but rather a means of status quo reproduction.

 

Mark Fisher (who killed himself last year, he was very influential in UK music journalism too) wrote a lot on this subject

 

https://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=12841

 

 

For some time now, one of the most successful tactics of the ruling class has been responsibilisation. Each individual member of the subordinate class is encouraged into feeling that their poverty, lack of opportunities, or unemployment, is their fault and their fault alone. Individuals will blame themselves rather than social structures, which in any case they have been induced into believing do not really exist (they are just excuses, called upon by the weak). What Smail calls ‘magical voluntarism’ – the belief that it is within every individual’s power to make themselves whatever they want to be – is the dominant ideology and unofficial religion of contemporary capitalist society, pushed by reality TV ‘experts’ and business gurus as much as by politicians. Magical voluntarism is both an effect and a cause of the currently historically low level of class consciousness. It is the flipside of depression – whose underlying conviction is that we are all uniquely responsible for our own misery and therefore deserve it. A particularly vicious double bind is imposed on the long-term unemployed in the UK now: a population that has all its life been sent the message that it is good for nothing is simultaneously told that it can do anything it wants to do.

 

 

 

its irresponsible and narrow minded to see depression as underpinned by class anxieties, particularly if you cast a wider net beyond Britain (as an example)

 

never in human society have we been bombarded with so many images of contentment, purchase-based consumer induced states of happiness, bodily perfection etc etc, where in the US the grading of attainment is the prerequisite of even being human, just look at Girls for a critique of frustrated entitlements denied post-2008 financial crash

 

this pressure exerts a far stronger influence on younger women and mature women too, that daily drip-feed of marketing pseudo-portraits of how to be &  how to lookis metaphorically endless, but that article completely skirts (no pun intended) around that aspect

 

Fisher should have been intelligent enough to know the distinctions between class anxiety in the UK & millennial narcissism elsewhere, to blanket the subject of depression as "know yer place, peasant" doesnt address the complexity or spectrum of issues that contribute to depression in humans

 

pharmacology is big business these days & "medications" exist for a range of human emotions (some of which fall within the normal frame of human experience) that therapy CAN address & his dismissal of CBT as +ve replacement of -ve emotions is the most damning of all

 

a good read but spurious at best

[chim]

one of theories of depression says that it's an internalized (auto)aggression

There's a lot of theories on depression and it looks to me like you have to balance the psychological and physiological aspects. Modern psychiatry mostly theorizes various chemical imbalances with little accuracy, but there's lots of interesting research being done. The serotonin hypothesis is a bit shaky since only about 40% of depressed patients remiss when being treated by a serotonergic agent. Studies show that prolonged release of cortisol, a stress-hormone, has an inhibiting effect on serotonin and dopamine receptors. Cortisol crowds out the brain, prevents serotonin from being produced and deregulates dopamine receptors. Dopamine seems to suffer most from stress, and is associated with action initiation, psycho-motor function and pleasure.

 

Stress is the epidemic of our time and it's no wonder depression is so rampant.

 

There are plenty other areas of the brain that are related to this subject but haven't been explored until recently, such as the Kappa opioid receptor, glutamate and NMDA-receptors. The latter are usually engaged in alzheimers treatment but lots of interesting results have come up when they are being used in depression treatment. Most cutting-edge antidepressants and treatment combinations don't really activate but rather block these areas, allowing over-feedbacked systems to relax and the brain to "forget" destructive patterns.

 

The hippocampus is associated with mood and is really vulnerable to chronic depression and anxiety, it actually atrophies. Luckily, it is one of few only areas that can regrow from proper stimulus, such as a glutamatergic agent or certain antidepressants. Long-term psychotherapy is also implicated to have an effect. Even ancient herbal remedies like the Indian Ashwagandha has displayed neuroprotective qualities.

 

Then there's various vitamin and mineral deficiencies such as magnesium & b12...

[dingformung]

 

Oliver Sacks on music & depression