You know, I have never really been able to articulate that feeling before, and I thank you so very much for doing so. Now that you touched on that I now realize that is the truthful answer as to why I am not prolific in my compositions. Coming down from
writing a great song makes me feel fairly horrible because l buy into the idea that I will never be able to do it again.I am very weak that way and I guess that I would rather wallow in my self created misery than to feel good about myself and my inborn abilities and talents. This has handicapped me for as long as l remember.

 

ok , I'll toss in a little curve here ......

So long as what your 'refering to' , as being a musician. Because Im hearing ALOT
of rappers , DJ / VJ fella'z calling theirselves musicians ! ??

NO ... 'YOUR NOT ..... your professional "karaoke" !!

So , with that disposed of , you could say musicians are a bit manic in their
outlook of the world or life in general. And yes , of course ; the engery it takes
to be creative and to get a real composition with meaning across to the masses
is sometimes daunting !!

Wouldnt this be enough to drive any person insane , or cause some kind of Imbalance !?
Let alone , just being a musician ....... lol !!

 

A rapper is a musician for sure! He needs everything a musician needs, from rythm, timing, tuning up to reading (however simplified) music sheets.

The classic DJs and VJs are not musicians from my point of view, but modern producer DJs are.

 

When I was just a young boy (20), I came close to having a successful career in 1982. I wrote an album and was signed to a major label and had a publishing deal. My manager tried impose his sexual feelings towards me. We fired him and he sued me for loss of potential income. The court case ran two years and the album was shelved and the band broke up and I was told to pay him $120,000. I declared bankruptcy and a condition of this was that any money I made as a musician had to be declared and a percentage given to him. This was my first nervous breakdown. Having recorded my album at EMI studio I learnt everything about engineering from the studio manager who had worked with The Beatles. I got married and built a recording studio and placed it in my wife's name. It was very successful, so much so, I took on a partner 50/50. When I came home one night after a cancelled session I found him in my bed. Naturally I figured out thta the two of them owned everything. This was my second breakdown. The year was 1990 and I took up drink and drugs and and said I'd never go back to music. But after ten years of couch surfing, I settled down and built up a nice home studio. Also at the same time I realised I had lost my creativity. Having self medicated for ten years, I was depressed that I'd forgotten how to write or even what to write. I stopped eating and became quite sick. I was diagnosed GAD and began seeing a never ending line of therapists and prescribed anti-depressants and Valium, then later Xanax. I felt better but the music stopped. A lame suicide attempt (bottle of Vodka and 20 Xanax) failed. It was a failure because as a cry for help, nobody seemed to notice how miserable I was as a non functioning musician. I moved out of the city and lived a reclusive life in the country. It changed my music, slowed me down and eliminated the need to be seen as a success and although still on meds, I make a track for myself when I feel like it. But I know I'll never have the drive again and as others have pointed out in this very interesting topic, do I not write because I'm depressed or am I depressed because I don't write.

 

YES. I mean no. Maybe....

But seriously. It doesn't matter why you don't write, but it is rather the fact in itself that you are not writing which is the real issue. It is not something that you need to understand outside of that that is in itself an excuse not to write. Just start writing and you will be writing again. You do not need to be successful or the best. You do not need to do it for any reason. You do not need to please anybody. Just pick up your guitar and play, just like yesterday.

 

See! This is why I advocate for this place being a "safe space" even for newcomers.

(I wrote this at the original post, I didn't even bother to read the comments)

 

Last edited: Nov 19, 2016

@tooloud I didn't want to like your post because I didn't want you to think that I liked that all that fucked up shit happened to you. That's real as fuck, though and I know exactly what that feels likes


Also it takes a lot less effort in a lot of ways, way back when. The parts of music that you used to need a band for are def no longer needed. I hope you still continue to write more <3

 

Vitamin D deficiency associated with heightened depression
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...-severity-mental-health-effects-a7369781.html

The ***BEST*** "source" of Vitamin D is the sun!
Time in the Sun: How Much Is Needed for Vitamin D?
https://health.usnews.com/health-ne...e-in-the-sun-how-much-is-needed-for-vitamin-d

I highly recommend you guys take a Hair Mineral Analysis Test
Almost everybody have imbalance and SERIOUS deficiencies!!!!!!!!!
No JOKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://blog.bulletproof.com/hair-analysis-test/
Attention, make sure the test includes iodine.
https://draxe.com/iodine-deficiency/

Coconut Oil is your brain best friend
https://bebrainfit.com/coconut-oil-benefits-brain/

 

Wow! if people spend more time outside they get less depressed!?
sure science has come a long way!

 

Speaking of vitamins for depression, C vitamin is your best friend, too, but not in a pill form. *Never* forget to eat your fruits in between meals. It doesn't have to be anything too fancy, just lemon, oranges, mandarines, kiwi and apples. Even though apples don't contain a lot of vitamin C, their health benefits are incredible. Melons are also incredible. Watermelon and rock melon. Grapes are great, too. On the fancy side, all kinds of berries are incredible for your health, but they are expensive.

A bit of advice regarding health: never think you're "as healthy as an ox" and untouchable by illnesses, because you will get surprised sooner or later. Like myself.

It's incredibly important not to live completely sedentary life. Go out regularly, walk the dog or something. Walking is incredibly beneficial, especially climbing and getting your heart race and becoming puffy a bit every day.

I've lost too much to atherosclerosis and only after I got it I've started researching nutrition and "healthy stuff" that I kinda made fun of before and changed my lifestyle. Too late. Don't let that happen to you.

Changing lifestyle like that is *very beneficial* for depression, too. Not just for your general health.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2017

It bears saying that are multiple types of depression and that some kinds are genetic chemical imbalances (not defects) that can only be managed by psychiatrists with the aid of chemicals. This isn't the kind of depression you get when your favorite show gets cancelled or when you worked real hard and at the last minute your boss tells you there will no Christmas bonuses this year cause he bought his wife a Ferrari.

Clinical depression has nothing to do with being sad no amount of positive thinking will cure it, though high physical stress and physical excretion do seem to have a relieving effect on the downsides of people with clinical depression and bi-polar patterns. Clinical depression and bi-polar patterns are very common, they are usually associated with sociopathy (which isn't a defect as well) and some of the most celebrated people in history (because it takes a borderline crazy person) show signs of being effected by severe depression. . . .

This is beyond the scope of this forum, but I do not think personally that musicians are per-disposed to depression or that depression per-disposes one to be a musician. Clinically depressed people often feel numb and disconnected from others while still being social animals this tends to push them into either deep introspection and can cause them to behave as severe extroverts, ramping life lets them feel a bit of it, so they tend to be thrill seekers as well. The rest comes as a consequence of that... Though when you are talking about 20% or so of the population, it isn't anything special.

As someone who been dealing with it all my life, and see it in family members some of which are musical people but most who are not I seriously doubt there is a link. Besides being from Finland, Japan, or even a judge or a large animal veterinarian makes a lot more likely to commit suicide than being a musician.

Psychiatry is still a mysterious but also very rapidly growing field of study, and the knowledge coming out is not only astonishing but also very interesting. Without depression and schizophrenia we might still be living trees, picking ticks out of each others asses to eat them.

 

Could it be that depressives may be up to three times more likely to be musicians ??

 

The correlation between money and happiness is naive in the extreme and usacentric in origin. Just treat each piece you write as a journey ......enjoy that and if the destination is not 'the hit single', you have still had fun .
Another incorrect correlation.....success and self worth. Just plough your own furrow in life ignore everything else, especially trends in music.

 

Now that I'm mentally sane, my music sucks!

 

I think there is no connection between musicians and depression.
what depression is connected to is mental health, ( healthy thought process) physical health, psychological health.

Regarding music, it can def be used as a tool to help boost your mood and help you in times of need.

I can't think f where being a musician would nurture depression. ( maybe not taking care of one's self because of obsessing over music hahaha?) the problem with that it the same could be said about anything! obsessing over money too much, obsessing over relationships too much anything!

 

Being a depressed musician and actively playing music to help deal with said depression is akin to self medicating.

 

The only fountain of depression for me was thinking that I'm doing wrong in the music production and why my music doesn't sound mellifluous to some listeners, so opened this thread and found out the major problem isn't me but the listeners. They're not ready for my style yet and I'm feeling so good right now because I've lost that diffidence. Thank you @jayxflash for that wine logic.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 16, 2017

It's interesting, I was having thoughts along these lines just last night. I have been having a rough time these last weeks due to health problems my wife is having. It's hard because it is something that is so beyond your control. I've fell into the thinking that my life sucks and it's not fair, and we can't do what we want to (MUSIC!!!) because I'm caring for her and she's so sick. Then suddenly it hit me. Live in the present, not the past and not the future. My wife is still here with me so I've definitely got to appreciate that. If I sit back and account for things in my life that were important to the past me, I've really come along way. So appreciate that too! I mean my home studio has gotten really really good in the past year alone with the addition of a new board, a Faderport, I'm currently upgrading the PC, new headphones, etc. The list is really quite large when you take an inventory that way. Plus I've gotten a new (to me) truck for hauling the band's equipment trailer, etc. I think the problem people fall into very often is lamenting over what they haven't got versus appreciating what they do have. I figured out along time ago that for me, my mental well being is all about my mindset. I can choose to be unhappy or I can choose to be happy. Life goes smoother when you choose to be happy. Then you are more apt to make choices that will make you happy.
Of course, chemical imbalance based mental illness is another matter entirely, but ask any therapist and they will tell you that mindset is key to successful recovery for these people as well, they have more of a struggle with it due to the chemical imbalance.

 

Our considerations VS. her consideration:




The main reason of depression in the life is bearing the unbearable persons around us. Other than that in the true freedom there's no depression IMHO.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 16, 2017

I have a generally fairly calm, even mood. I'm telling myself >___> Since moving (massive stress) into one of Trump's luxury resorts (firetrap tenement that is also mouldy somehow) I've had a few days with wild mood swings but this has generally come when talking to other producers about how many sports cars they can fit on their yacht. Anyway, I think that better diet & outdoor exercise are good checks to time spent in basements / studios. I would recd yogurt & prolly only taking supplements liek 5-HTP, maybe? Christ, not xanax! The yogurt is prolly a placebo effect, but makes me feel good in morning, quicker than coffee. So is defo a placebo effect, in retrospect...