#writing depression

[vulpisnocturna]

Writing tips: How to describe depression with body language

WARNING: may be triggering to some; not meant to diagnose, only as a tip for writing characters suffering with mental health issues

Depression is usually different for everyone, but there are several symptoms that can be expanded upon and explored. Everyone is familiar with the concept of depression, but there’s a lot of physical responses that are visible and can also help in show-don’t-tell writing.

1. Depressed mood: pretty self-explanatory. Downcast eyes, unfocused gaze, downturned lips, sluggish movements, slow or slurred speech

2. Anhedonia (loss of interest in pleasurable activities): your character may be wandering, turning down offers, wanting to do something relating to a hobby but being unable to start or concentrate, other people may notice lack of passion, listless eyes, numbness

3. Loss of appetite/Weight loss or gain: playing with food, not having the energy to cook meals, eating the same thing over and over again, skipping meals, forgetting to eat until stomach is rumbling, eating to fill metaphorical emptiness, eating out of boredom, snacking instead of cooking meals, visible changes in weight and/or strength

4. Insomnia/Hypersomnia: struggling to fall asleep, turning and turning in bed without finding a comfortable position, waking up several times at night and struggling to fall back asleep, depression naps (usually lasting several hours), being sluggish, bags and shadows under eyes, taut, sallow skin

5. Psychomotor retardation/agitation: slow speech and movements, very little movement, delayed answers and physical responses; OR bouncing legs, wringing hands, nail biting, quick replies, nervousness

6. Fatigue: breathlessness, tiredness, weak legs and muscles

7. Diminished concentration: can be shown through character’s hobby (blank page for a writer, rereading the same paragraph over and over again, unsatisfactory work etc.), muffled sounds in conversations, lessons/lectures/work, easily avoidable mistakes slipping past character’s eyes

8. Feelings of worthlessness or guilt: recurring deprecating/horrible comments about skills/appearance/behaviour etc.,

7. Recurrent thoughts of death/ideation: not going to get into it, pretty self-explanatory.

General behaviours:

Again, this changes from person to person. As a generalised theme, people suffering from depression have a hard time with daily tasks. Brushing teeth, showering, food shopping, cleaning, tidying up, chores etc.

Also, don’t say a character feels depressed. Depression often feels like apathy, boredom, frustration, and sometimes, very intense anguish and hopelessness. Imagine the range of human emotions as a line. Depression is a line parallel to that but much lower, more muffled. It feels like a bubble that muffles feelings and the world around someone. It feels like trudging through mud to complete the simplest tasks. You may slow down the pacing to help the reader see just how long and exhausting every little action is, place a lot of inactivity inbetween actions, staring at walls etc.

A character with depression may also have very low libido, with difficulty orgasming, not wanting sex but desiring intimacy, mind wandering during sex etc.

Meds and healing

Medication can take up to 6 weeks to start to show results. Side effects in those 6 weeks range from nausea to dizziness, fatigue, migraines, and most of all, a feeling of constant apathy. Emotions are either not felt or being felt much less. That includes hopelessness as much as joy, excitement, sadness etc.

After those 5-6 weeks, character may notice the range of their emotions is widening. They feel more, more often. They may cry at a touching scene in a film, laugh or suddenly feel hopeful or happy or excited about a small thing. It’s fleeting, but human emotions actually last very little time. Don’t jump into happiness. For many depressed people, healing looks more like feeling different emotions more frequently, having slightly more energy, having inspiration for a painting, a story, a walk in nature. Healing looks very subtle, it’s a continuous process.

[softly-speaking-valkyrie]

Oh! Hello depressive dip and self-doubt! How you doing? Haven't felt ou this bad since last year!

[killjoyang]

no seriously guys idk how to get over this major writing depression and suppression ive been having :( people tell me to just do it, do it cringe free and do it without editing but its so hard:(

[daddypepex]

You must promise NOT TO HARM YOURSELF in any way. You don't see yet your immense gloriousness at this time in your life. You are like a little grain of sand that has become captive in an oyster. You are being tumbled & tumbled, rolling around at a dizzying pace in a un-formed space, that makes you feel captive, fearful, alone, lost, nothing to hold on to. Just rotated by world & others who seem so much more or less than you. Keep your strength tucked in & roll with it. This tumbling, this movement, these scrapes & bruises are from being a splendid spirit in a world that is blinded by such beauty. Like staring at an eclipse of the sun can blind. You can't see yourself fully, only glimpses because you aren't finished yet. So no one can truly see you either & shouldn't. The reflection in others eyes isn't real, only an image of a you they think they see. As you move with the flow of life, the fresh water pulled into the oyster, it turns & turns you into a pearl of such magnificence that the world will never recover if you were not in it. You are a treasure Lovely One.

[imagineality-blog]

#1

Sometimes I become less of a person to myself. Sometimes I become an embodiment of feelings so chaotic and misty. On days like that, my bed becomes the hearth of Hestia. When that does not help, well, nothing does. I am not broken or weak. I am just not ready to face the world today. I am not ready to realize once again that, while everything and everyone else is moving in the speed of light, my steps are not fast enough to reach anywhere.

[all-she-can-be-is-true]

Puppeteer

...My chest felt heavy, like I was walking naked faced in a decimation of a poisonous gas... Every breath I painfully struggled to inhale just worsened that agonizing sensation that was digging its way through my body. I felt a sharp rock lodged in my spine like the devil himself ripped it out of me in my slumber, tied it in a knot and forced it back in. Weak kneed and lungs failing I went on day by day faking it when really, I wanted to fall to my knees and cry to the Moon. To everyone I breath fine, healthy lungs, straight posture, enlightening thoughts, happy smiles. But they don’t know the half of it. Every day I had no will to get out of bed, I still don’t. But one morning my lungs cut me off from oxygen, my back was stinging, the joints in my body ached, my ears ringing a deafening noise and my vision went blurry. And just when I’m about to die his demons stuck strings through my hands and feet. One string for my head, to nod when people ask if I’m okay. Two strings for my eyes so I constantly see what harmful things he makes me do. Three for my mouth, so I don’t call out for help he tightly sewed my lips together, he occasionally snips them undone, with his defiled claws, to make me spit slanders that push people to the breaking point, and in the end only to sew it shut again. And the other two strings? To keep me smiling while he does so. Four strings for my heart, to keep it beating slow. And five for my brain; he screwed holes in my skull not caring if he damaged me and threaded the strings in my helpless brain with his trusty needle. At night he keeps me up, plucking the strings he manipulates me with to form a song that makes me sick. I don't know whether to love or despise what he does to me, because without him I wouldn't be alive. Is it better to feel pain and be alive or to feel nothing at all and be dead? I do, I say, I think, whatever he wants me to; I’m his puppet. Every day he controls me. So today, he wants me to talk, and tell you what he can do to you. Because tomorrow, he wants me dead and he wants someone new.