How to deal with Depression and Stress through Writing?

Photo by Kat Stokes on Unsplash

Yes, you read the title right, Depression/Stress can make you a writer. You might be asking “How"? Well, in today's blog, I will walk you through. It was a time when I graduated from Union County college after getting my associate's degree. I came to Kean University as a transfer student. It was my second year in university as a transfer student when I got into depression. And writing has helped me to overcome it.

Now, let's talk briefly about depression. Depression is “is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest.” Many people take depression as a disease, but it's not a disease. It’s just that sometimes because of too many things, stress, negativity is happening around us that we get lost in ourselves. And that’s when depression takes place. The most important thingI learned from my experience with depression/stress is that it’s ok to feel sad, low, lost, weak, etc. These are the same emotions as when we are happy, excited, joy. Also, I learned that this is the part of life and I am not the only one in this. I need to stay strong and reach out for help if I need to.

Coming back to my depression, I wasn’t sure why I was depressed because too many things were happening around me. But, how I overcome it, is the thing that I will share with you today. As I said before, it was my second year at Kean University as a transfer student. During that semester, I took a Creative English course, which was about writing scripts, dramas, poetry, plays, etc. Along with that, I took an English Writing course in which I had to write weekly journals. The journals were only about what I did weekly. So, I had to do a lot of writing in both of these classes. In Creative English, my professor was very open when it comes to writing. She wanted us to write whatever we want in our writing, as long as it is in the same format as she guided. 

So, the first assignment I did was to write a poem about anything related to yourself. Therefore, I wrote a poem about the emotions I was feeling in my depression. Firstly, I wasn’t open to my poem, it was just briefly some words. The professor liked my poem, but she wanted me to express more and to be open about everything as much as I can. The more the professor pushed me to express myself, the more I started to be expressive in my poem. I expressed all the emotions that I was holding back in the poem which changed my life forever. Firstly, the poem became a wonderful piece, as it was true feelings that other classmates can relate to when the poem was read to them. Secondly, after I put all my emotions out on paper, my heartfelt, less burden which relaxed my body and my soul. That was the time when I first started to feel much better about myself.

The second assignment she assigned was to write a play. The professor gave an open option that we can choose whatever the genre we like and write a script following her guidelines. When I started writing the script, it took me to another part of the world because everything was in my hand. I was the one who built the characters, the story, the narration, the situations, the problems, the solutions, the emotions. The power of having everything under my control was magical. Moreover, in some parts of the story, I used to add my life events that I was distracted by which led me to overcome the pressure of stress I was having. As I kept writing my play, I started to go deep into it. Additionally, it felt like I am that part of the world when I start writing the story. This led me to forget and come out of the anxiety, stress, and depression I was in at that time. Additionally, it helped me to be creative in my story.

Another class that helped me was English Writing. The professor assigned us to write a weekly journal about ourselves. So, in those journals, I started to write about my everyday struggle of depression. The more I write weekly in the journal, the more I felt free, happy, and confident in myself. This was because I used to drop everything that I was holding inside me on the paper. This way there wasn’t anything to hold back inside me. This helped me to expect the problems/issues I was having and bring confidence in me to solve those issues. Furthermore, it helped me to be myself in writing And to be able to share my personal experience with others. 

The important and easy tip that I have learned throughout my writing experience is the “free write”. I will talk more about this in my next blog. But in this blog, I will briefly explain free writing.  Free write is when you write everything that is in your mind on a paper without worrying about grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. You keep writing and writing until you feel that it's time to stop. Doing this, it will distress you because you openly express out all that you were holding back. Also, it helps you to put all your thoughts out. 

Writing has helped me so much in life. It has helped me overcome my anxiety, stress, depression, etc. Through depression and writing experience, I have become a better writer. It has helped me to be more expressive in my writing. Additionally, be more open about issues that are happening around us. Also, to be more creative in my writing. I even have my blog account on WordPress. In the blog, I talk about the social issues of women's rights and violence. Through my blogging, I try to reach out to the audience and try to connect with them. So, whenever I am low in my life, I start writing to relax and to be myself at the moment when I am writing. I hope my experiences with writing and tips will help you in your life. Tell me about your experience with writing? Do you feel distressed when you start writing? Do you have any tips that you would like to share? Comment down