Poets and depression/alcoholism

[Stephen Whiteside]

Not feeling anything must be a bit spooky, and doesn't sound like much fun.

There also seems to be a link between intelligence and depression. It's been confirmed with rat studies. Don't ask me how you can tell if a rat is depressed, but apparently there is a way.

[keats]

I seriously take offence to the topic of Bi-Polar and depression being thrown around so freely and in jest and focusing purely on the field of Poetry. Spending my days fund raising for BeyondBlue now seems trivial and placed in the pettiness basket. I really do pray that you folks actually are qualified on throwing around you personal opinions on depression, or else this is a thread which should never have been created in the vein it was created in.

Neil

[Heather]

No, no, no Neil, this is in NO WAY meant to be trivial and is absolutely not in jest. I have met people who cannot write when not depressed or are on medication for depression. There is no offense intended. It is a serious discussion..

Neil there are many here who know depression for one reason or another and it is a relevant topic. I have experienced it in my family and would never trivialise it.

Heather

[mummsie]

I'm with Neil on this one. This is a subject that should not be bantered around lightly, neither here or any forum.


Sue

[Stephen Whiteside]

Sometimes I worry we become too precious about mental health, and I wonder if that is part of the problem. Although I am a medical practitioner, I certainly don't claim to be an expert, and I have certainly faced my own share of demons over the years. I think it's good to flush some of these things out from under the rug and expose them to the full blast of sun-light. Flippant? Perhaps a little, but I don't necessarily think the occasional touch of flippancy is such a bad thing either.

My brother-in-law, a GP with an interest in mental health (and sadly recently deceased), had some very interesting things to say on the subject of mental health in western society. He argued that in many ways the third world dealt with psychosis much better than we do in the west, in spite of our fancy hospitals, doctors and medications.

One of the reasons was that mentally ill people were still expected to work, even if it was just fairly menial work in the fields, and this tended to contain many of their symptoms. In the west we bend over backwards to be sympathetic and understanding, which can bring out the worst in people. He argued that patients displayed symptoms in psychiatric wards that were far more florid than what they would demonstrate in any other context.

I think it's a fascinating discussion, that of artists, drugs and mental health. It has occupied my mind more or less all of my life, and it's wonderful for me to have an opportunity to toss around a few ideas with like-minded people. It is also, of course, a very painful subject, and perhaps a little humour (or flippancy?) eases the way a little. I hope the discussion is not shoved back under the carpet...and if somebody wants to tackle it again - make a new start in another tone - fair enough, I'll try to go with that, too.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Nothing ever suffered from a good airing - de mystifying a subject considered taboo in polite society often goes a long way towards giving those who have no connection with it greater understanding and willingness to help, and Aussie humour usually manages to shed a little lightness onto a dark subject. By no means trivialize it - it is far more common than most realize, but the twists and turns of the disease will never be understood if there is never frank and open discussion on it, warts and all.

And before anyone jumps down my neck I am all too familiar with some of the ramifications of Bi polar having lost members of my extended family to it and fund raising for Beyond Blue would NEVER be considered to be trivial, any more than collecting for RSPCA or Cancer Council or Guide Dogs for the Blind. Our society is full of people and animals who need a hand up and help. Nothing trivial about that at all - I wish the new carbon tax was being directed towards those numerous black holes. It would do far more good there IMO..

Cheers

Maureen

[Wendy Seddon]

I wonder if these poets lived in chaos, worked better under pressure, blotted out everything until a fleeting thought was recorded? Thoughts flying around faster than one could catch them? Thoughts not finishing before another takes its place? Praying for a switch that could be turned off, the merry-go-round spinning out of control.

I did.

Balance.
Then I thought…

Balancing the ups and downs each day has challenged me,
fighting blues and dark ravines is not how life should be.
Seeing people passing by in blasé normalcy,
question why it is that I from anguish can’t be free.

Counting on a little pill to get me through the day
balancing the chemicals inside the matter grey.
“Pull your socks up, shake it off, think positive,” they say,
but they don’t know it’s not my choice that I should feel this way.

But now I think…

I’m glad I held on to a hope so faint but not devoid
I’m glad I waited patiently for help to be deployed.
Fortify the balance and adjust the status quo,
now so close to normalcy, no longer ruled by woe.

Counting on a little pill to get me through the day
balancing the chemicals inside the matter grey.

Wen - 2002

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks for this, owly.

In spite of all the stigma that persists around mental health, and the limitations of treatment, it seems to much that things must be much better now than they were a hundred years ago. I can't even begin to imagine the suffering that somebody like Henry Lawson must have gone through, when he was more likely to be treated like a criminal than a patient - or client, as we say now. We've come a long way - but there's still a long way to go.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thinking more about Owly's comments, it has never ceased to amaze me, reading the biographies of some of the worlds' greatest writers - not just Australians, and not just poets - the level of domestic turmoil many of them lived with on a daily basis. So much for the notion that you need a settled life to bring out the best in you! (Or perhaps they would have been even greater without all the drama...) I wonder in the case of somebody like Henry Lawson to what extent he compartmentalised his mind, and simply ignored a lot of the stuff that was happening around him, and just ploughed ahead with his writing.

I agree with you, too, Maureen, that a good airing does a lot to de-mystify.

[Heather]

I fail to see how this discussion can be seen as flippant. I split off Stephen's comment from the "Children in poetry" topic because it seemed to be heading in a different direction and I thought it was important enough for it's own discussion. Stephen's first comment may seem a bit light but that's because it followed on from something else in the other topic.

I have two children who've had depression, I have a 25 yo son who is an alcoholic. Those days have caused me and my family the greatest pain imaginable. I do not take depression, alcoholism or any other mental illness lightly but we should not shy away from discussing it and thereby de-mystifying it because it is when it is in the open that people can feel that they are not so "different" and just might seek some help if needed.

I started to read the bio on Henry Kendall last night before sleep got the better of me and it would seem from his comments that he would have been more productive if he had not been depressed. He had a great strength of character though because he overcame the depression and alcoholism and got his life back together and was re-united with his wife. He still died a very young man from consumption - 46 I think.

All power to you Wendy! xx

Heather