i have just recently came on here to vent and get how i feel out which i am finding it does help a bit and gets my mind off things,,

when i was a teenager i was depressed but not on anything for it because of the high suicide rate on antidepressants on young people..

i have written poems on how i was feeling and it did help.. i am still here.. i have a wonderful family too but i felt and still do feel like a burden... i am having a hard go but trying to write to distract myself and release my thoughts cause sometimes i dont want to talk and worry my family..

take care

I like to keep \"rambling notes\" (what I call them)

On days when I\'m down or feel the need to write I do just that...ramble (on paper).

I write whatever comes in my head no matter how absurd, incoherent, random, morbid, or obvious.

And I don\'t EVER erase or edit.

I think this helps me because I\'m able to see and follow (on paper) my train of thought, work out a solution to a problem, or sometimes it helps me find the root to why I am feeling a certain way.

Having this site and my journal has been very helpful. I love tracking my moods over the days. Helps me focus on what helps and what hurts.

My experience with writing for depression has been entirely mixed.

On one hand, I\'ve been writing since I was little (I started keeping a diary/writing stories when I was like, 7... I wanted to be a writer), and it has always been the best way for me to examine and understand my own thoughts. However, I feel that writing is very personal, and expresses a lot about who a person is. When one is unhappy with oneself, seeing it on paper can make things even more difficult and painful. By the time I was 11 I was writing poetry and then violently destroying it weeks or months later because I thought my writing was stupid or immature, which meant that I was stupid and immature. I have mostly grown out of destroying my work in this way now, but it took a long time, and I am still very uncomfortable sharing my writing with people, and writing anything for school still causes me a great deal of stress at times.

On the other hand, sometimes my writing is the only thing that makes me like my depression. I know that sounds weird and twisted... but I have written some dark but beautiful things when I have been at rock bottom, and I have also learned a great deal about myself from my writing at those times.

I guess the true judge though, is whether writing makes me better. And the answer is... no, not really. There are times when writing helps me get something out of my mind, helps me sleep at night.. but despite ridiculous amounts of journaling, I have yet to find a reliable way to control my depression. Writing can be a useful tool, but its not a treatment.

My life is permeated with my mother - and not in a good way. I started journaling in high school English class, and she informed me one day in the middle of an argument with her that she had read about my crush on another teacher at school. She said it shamefully to me, and hurt me deeply. It was one of the many things she did to destroy my ability to trust, express myself, and to love others. I know it sounds like I am just blaming her, but she really is a monster. I have two brothers and a sister, and we all think she could be posessed. Anyway, so I got rid of my teenage journals, and I wish to heck I had kept them. But I do have journals I have kept now since 1989. I go through phases, and sometimes I write and sometimes I don\'t, but to me it is very cathartic - it gets my emotions and thoughts out on paper where I can see them. And then I can look back at them if I want, but I don\'t have to. i also have a bad memory, so it is nice to look back and get some memories revived.

I write in my own personal journal. I started keeping it a year ago when I was diagnosed. I would write like I am talking to someone or writing them a letter that never ends. I know it has helped me get alot of things off me. I put feelings into it. Like if I am sad, I write down the sad feelings happy the happy ones and so on. It just feels like someone is listening to what I have to say and I am always right no matter what.

Has it worked? at times it was very good for me, but sometimes I was dishonest with myself. SAD but TRUE - I would write things hoping my wife would read them and respond or change for the way I felt about her actions

Have you had any issues? privacy - our personal thoughts can get us into trouble. threats to harm others or yourself can get you in deep legal problems.


Any recommendations or tips? never assume that what you are writing is the real you - it is the way you feel at that time - extreme high and extreme low will dictate tone and attitude.

In the front of my journel is a page for music, a page for books, a page for movies and a page for web sites that I want to explore more.

for example on my music page was - John Mayer I have since downloaded a lot of his music. and website - www.pandora.com a music site with streaming music and recommendations. This allows me to set things to focus on.

hope this helps

when i do write, i find it very cathartic because sometimes it takes me places that conversations might not. and then i can go there. make sense? i also feel that it sometimes gets thoughts/ideas out of my head and makes them real...and necessary to deal with. i have also found that it seems sometimes i come to unbelieveably amazing conclusions b/c of the conversation i am having. it is almost a written prayer.... it has been good for me. when i do it. i\'m very undisciplined though. wish i had written more throughout this process so i could recall how much things can change.

for another artist to check out... Bebo Norman. i always found his lyrics profound. always connected with them. they always seemed to be written from a place of struggle. struggling to understand himself. struggling to understand the world. and god. you can check out his lyrics on-line by googling. his music is folksy. lot of guitar. love to hear him play live.

man i need to listen to more music and write more. tv keeps me company and it also sucks the life out of me....gah!

Thanks for the new artist to seek out - Bebo Norman - I already found I like him

\"You can\'t understand light unless you understand darkness, because that\'s where life is most often livedsomewhere between the two. It\'s messy and it\'s beautiful all at the same time.\" - Bebo Norman

I am so excited! Is this from his newest? I have had my cd player loaded with Christmas music for the past month and the lyrics from his newest escape me at the moment.

I am also new to DS, been here for about a week or so. I find writing on here helps me. Consider much of my depression was caused by not able to feel. I think from couple bad relationships has shut down my feelings. So everytime I read and respond to some of your post and stories has helped me. Perhaps it trigger my mind to respond through either sympathy and the \"want\" to help. Good therapy! :) Thank you DS!!!! :)

for me writing has always been the way to express myself, my mother bought me this electronic typewriter, word processor thing, a mac, before the internet, to date myself a little, and i created worlds to escaspe to, before i discovered drugs, and through my recover it has been key to progress and enlightement, i dream of being an author, so i really do not have a bad thing to say about writing,i love to read, it\'s a beautiful thing, writng is.

that quote was on his website describing the new album... it could be a lyric - but maybe his thoughts going into creating the album.

I have listened to most of the stuff I can find - but not with 100% attention (5 kids makes that difficult) but I will sound

i find i do my best writing when im depressed, my best poetry...although it doesn always help

Always I make full use of my journal on here and in reality. Most people who read one or the other will know for sure I'm nuts but when I just let it go on paper (or whatever lol) it stops me from freaking out in reality most times.

It fuels my creative writing too but I think that works more in understanding than actually conquering depression personally.