Some of the writers explain what they felt like in their depression episodes in their work. Those are the cases of Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 – 1950) and Marie Osmond that describe the senses of hopelessness end erosion of spiritual vitality that have such an impact on creativity, inspiration and expression.



"I'm collapsed in a pile of shoes on my closet floor. I have no memory of what it feels like to be happy. I sit with my knees pulled up to my chest. It's not that I want to be still. I am numb."

Marie Osmond also presented the impact depression had on her sense of self esteem “My mother has always been my role model, and I believe my survival in the entertainment business is in large part due to my desire to be a strong woman like my mother. She is my hero. I can vividly recall what it felt like to be alone and in a crumpled heap on the closet floor. I remember thinking that my mother would never have fallen apart like that. I was sure no one would understand what I was going through. I could have managed the pain. It was the shame that was destroying me.”

Statistics say that more than a quarter of all American women suffered major depression episodes. The Allhealth.com website conducted a study on young women that showed a rate of 50 % of young women that had major depression episodes within five years after high-school graduation.

The book “Touched with Fire” of psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison, who also suffered from bipolar disorder, says that the majority of people suffering from mood disorder “do not possess extraordinary imagination, and most accomplished artists do not suffer from recurring mood swings.” And “To assume, then, that such diseases usually promote artistic talent wrongly reinforces simplistic notions of the 'mad genius.' But, it seems that these diseases can sometimes enhance or otherwise contribute to creativity in some people. Biographical studies of earlier generations of artists and writers also show consistently high rates of suicide, depression and manic-depression”.

Sheryl Crow; Ellen DeGeneres; Patty Duke; Connie Francis; Mariette Hartley; Margot Kidder; Kristy McNichol; Kate Millett; Sinead O'Connor; Marie Osmond; Dolly Parton; Bonnie Raitt; Jeannie C. Riley; Roseanne and Lili Taylor are women artists who publicly declared that they have had some form of mood disorder.

The good news is that depression is easier to handle and manage for most people through medications, cognitive behavioral therapies and different other techniques. Also, physical exercises are shown by a study published Psychology Magazine and republished by Blues Buster newsletter.

Rosie O'Donnell has related her own experience “the dark cloud that arrived in my childhood did not leave until I was 37 and started taking medication. My depression slowly faded away. I have been on medication for two years now. I may be on it forever. The pills did not make me a zombie, they did not change the reality of my past, they did not take away my curiosity. What the pills did was to allow me to deal with all of those issues when and where I wish. My life is once again manageable. The gray has gone away, I am living in bright Technicolor.”

Actress Patty Duke affirms in her book "Life After Manic Depression" that getting the right diagnosis and treatment allowed recovery of her life and spirit: "The rate of growth in my mind and my heart in the last seven years is beyond measuring."