Do you ever struggle with life, dear readers? Feel aimless or that you have ambition but cannot focus? A sense of despair? I’ve been there too and can be challenged by life, almost unexpectedly it seems.

Today’s post is a more serious one, so I’m giving you all some fair warning.

I often wonder about the mind and the incredible potential for both success and failure.

And I dare say it, but I have a theory that someone who is creative might experience depression and other kinds of mental illness just a little more vividly than we’ve been led to believe in the day-to-day. And I also believe that those creative types are not more likely to experience it either.

Check out this article for a little more information on the topic.

The hard reality is that mental illness does effect a lot of people, and it is more common than we want to admit, while we are spending more time on educating ourselves about this particular health issue, it’s so intricate and complex, and there are so many forms of mental illness that we need to look into, but we generally fear the unknown.

I’m fortunate (I would never say unfortunate, but I would say highly sensitive to and conscious of) having loved ones in my life who have experienced different kinds of mental illness, so I think on this aspect of life quite often, and I have a great deal of compassion for those who live with it and their loved ones as well.

This article from the perspective of artist with depression is quite good too.

In it the author outlines some very important points for us all to remember.

1) Depressives are empathetic to everyone but themselves
2) There is no cure for depression, but exercise and work are excellent treatment
3) Depressives don’t choose to be sick, and suicidal thoughts are very real and not black and white
4) If you love someone who has depression, physical touch helps; as does being around them and choosing accepting silence
5) Depression is a result of your waking life, and addiction comes with it. The culprit is the mind.

In short, people who struggle with depression are fighting a battle of the mind, a battle of life over death, and your love is enough. Never take responsibility for their depression, and never blame them for it. Love them as you would love someone who has experience a physical loss of health.

Pulling from the article I just referenced, some depressives intimately understand the principle that Descartes wrote about

I think, therefore I am, said Descartes. Therein lies the problem. Some depressives conclude, as Robin Williams did this past week, that not thinking and not being is preferable to the alternative. I’m shattered that he lost his battle, but I’m also glad he’s free of his pain… You couldn’t have prevented their death and there’s nothing you should have done differently. The suicide’s logic has nothing in common with yours. In the end, death makes mad, perfect sense to them.

So in light of this topic, I want to share a beautiful site that I used to frequent quite often in the past, and while I haven’t looked at it regularly in recent years, it can be a place of solace for troubled thoughts, whether you are experiencing temporary depression or suffer from the mental illness.

It’s called The Quotations Page and is an exhaustive source of famous quotes which has been around for over 2 decades. The list of quotes is upwards of 30,000 quotes, so you know that there are excellent choices not only by author, but also by subject.

This can be especially helpful for moments when you need motivation, inspiration, or to share a sweet moment with someone you care about.

I’m going to close out today’s post with a favorite quote of mine from a brilliant modernist painter, which you can find on The Quotations Page, and I hope gives you a source of light that you benefit from using this resource yourself.

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day’s work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.

Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954)

And that my friends are all of the theories and wisdom I can impart for the day. Please leave some comments or send me an email at timotheories@outlook.com if you have something you’d like to share. I’d love to publish it in my next Wisdom Wednesday post.

Tim!