I went on a depression bender recently.
I think this is common for musicians as evidenced by numerous posts about such adventures on Reddit recently.
So I made a video about it.
I plan to make more of these since I haven't been feeling like making music at all.
Plus people seem to respond better to my "talking" videos on YouTube.
I'm not a doctor etc. disclaimer.
I'm just someone who's been there and isn't afraid to talk about it.
Here's the link.
Hope it helps.
Thanks.
My mother was institutionalized for depression for months at a time, three times at approximately 16 year intervals. She was bipolar but the manic swings were less severe and we just lived trhough them.
My own mental health has been questioned on those grounds (as well as others! ;-) ), and there may be something to it.
Her father (my grandfather) was institutionalized in the 1930s for "A Mental Break Down" which was a generic term that was widely used in the first half of the 20th century. He recovered well with no noticeable relapses and owned and operated one of the largest, most successful farms in the county. He was affluent enough to give each of his children large productive farms, or the equivalent in cash to my mother who preferred urban life.
With 20-20 hindsight her mother (my grandmother) was also bipolar with pretty wild mood swings every day or so. Even so, my grandmother ran her half of a very successful farm and raised 4 other children who were healthy, successful adults.
The first instance of my mother's depression responded to shock treatments, but the second and third, while not quite as severe, were pretty resistant to all forms of treatment that were available in those days. She again became highly depressed after the death of my youngest son, and never really recovered. In her late 80s, it morphed into dementia probably augmented by Parkinson's. Both my parents died of Parkinson's. Not a nice death to say the least, but at least fairly painless near the end.
Therefore, I've had some long, deep thoughts about bipolar disease since my mother's first episode when I was 16.
One of my recurring thoughts is that being a musician may condition some people for bipolar because composing and practicing can be introspective and personal, while performing often seems to demand a strong outgoing personality.
Now that people can admit to issues like this without being ruined for life, we hear a lot more about it. It does seem to afflict performers, and there does seem to be a lot of related self-medication.
