Move it or lose it.

Vincent is really not in the mood for your crap right now

The artist as a tortured soul . . . suffering for one's art . . .

Pure unadulterated bunk? Could be.

Stereotypically, “creative types” - the author, the dancer, the musician, the painter, the sculptor and more – are looked upon as more prone to depression than the average person.

Where does this cliché come from? Some recent studies are suggesting that depression doesn’t make you creative, it's really quite the opposite. That creative person, pondering and thinking all the time, is more likely to suffer from major depression. The link is an effect of a creative person's ability to think with more intent than others.

But the question remains: why?

University of Virginia psychiatrist Dr. Andy Thomson and collaborator Paul Andrews believes depression could have a kind of evolutionary advantage.

Another dick move by Darwin

The pain of depression alerts you to the fact that you have a problem, to stop “business as usual” and focus your attention. It forces you to think (not something that modern life encourages). Thomson and Andrews looked for evidence that focused meditation on a problem, common in depressed people, might confer some advantages on those who are depressed people – and they found a few. But other experts caution that clinical depression is a very different thing, and hardly a beneficial adaption.

So, where's the upside then? According to Dr. Shelley Carson, an instructor on creativity and psychology at Harvard University, it is the motivation to produce immense amounts of work.

Really?

According to Dr. Carson, most poets, artists and composers have reported over the years that they are decidedly unable to work during episodes of profound depression. And truth be told, I struggle myself, sometimes evident in the frequency of these blog posts. So if depression inhibits creativity, why the long-standing connection between the two? Research suggests that it ain't the depression, its the recovery that inspires creative work, with that productivity happening when the artist is transitioning out of a depressive episode – in other words, creative productivity is linked to upward changes in mood.

So, it appears that creativity is a journey after all. As long as we keep moving.

PLEASE NOTE: I am a novelist and therefore not to be trusted. If you feel you are in a crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 now.