Anyone who has suffered from any sort of mental health issues knows how hard it can be sometimes to keep going with everyday life. Sometimes you lack motivation, sometimes you end up in a stage of paranoia where you feel like no one likes or values your ideas, and sometimes you just end up blocked, no matter how motivated you are push through it. Writing is difficult enough at the best of times and when you're also dealing with mental health issues on top of this seemingly impossible task, it can be difficult not to give up. Difficult, but not impossible.
Since leaving university, I've always been very vocal about my battle against a poor state of mental health, and very active with trying to help those in my life who also suffer from similar issues. Most of my issues come from anxiety and occasional bouts of depression, both of which can be very harmful to creative productivity, but I am living proof that you can push through it and come out as a stronger person on the other side.
I wish, as a child, that I had been more vocal about the internal battle going on at times inside my mind. Maybe, if I had, my issues would have been easier to overcome. I wasn't though, and so here I am. A grown woman of 25 who sometimes struggles to leave the house due to my anxiety. I know, it sounds stupid when I put it like that but I'm not going to lie - I don't see the point. The important thing to note is that even though it's still difficult sometimes, I get up every day of the week and go to work, no matter how bad I'm feeling. Somehow, I found a way to deal. Somehow, I found a way to hold down a full time job, and work on my personal writing, while dealing with what used to be crippling anxiety issues. In this blog, I'm going to go over some of the strategies that have helped me over the years, in the hope that it can help anyone else dealing with the same issues to push through and write that novel or achieve anything else they desire.
It's all in your head
I will admit, this is something which, while it irritates the hell out of me when someone else says it, can actually really help me if I say it to myself. It sounds simple and probably a little daft, but nowadays, whenever I'm struggling to leave the house because of my anxiety issues, I tell myself that I'm being daft, that the feeling of impending doom is all in my head, and that the world is most definitely not going to end if I open that front door. While it doesn't necessarily make me feel better, it helps me to get out the front door and trust me when I say that 90% of the time, that is the hardest part of the battle.
What's the worst that could really happen?
This is one which can really backfire if you aren't in the right mindset as trust me when I say that someone struggling from anxiety can always come up with 101 terrible things that could happen if they do that thing they're dreading. However, if you're struggling to keep a firm grasp on reality, make a list of the worst that could happen both if you do this thing you're dreading and if you don't. For example, if you're dreading going to work, while it is easy to imagine all sorts of horrible things that could possibly happen if you leave the house, not going to work will almost definitely result in you losing your job. Although you might be able to imagine worse things if you leave the house to go to work, the latter is infinitely more likely.
Applying this to writing; what's the worst that could happen if I work on writing my novel? Honestly, I'm struggling to think of one, aside from potentially boring people to tears but I'm assuming they'd stop reading before it got to that point, no matter how much they liked me and wanted to support my writing. I guess there's also some risk of a bad review, but while potentially upsetting, it's hardly earth shattering. On the other hand, what's the worst that could happen if I don't work on my novel and other personal projects. Honestly, still nothing drastic, but I would be pretty disappointed in myself. I would also run the risk of never achieving my dreams, which would be pretty sad.
Try free writing
Usually when you're feeling anxious or depressed there will be an underlying reason. It might be buried deep and not all that obvious, but it will be there if you dig deep enough, so sometimes it's worth just writing about nothing in particular, getting all those negative thoughts and feelings down on paper. They always say that a problem shared is a problem halved and, while it is definitely good to talk to someone you trust, it's not always that simple. I get anxious about talking to other people about my problems, even though I know it would help, worried that either they will think I'm strange or get fed up with me. In this case, writing about your problems can be a good compromise - you're still letting it out rather than bottling it up, and sometimes it can be a useful way of sorting through things and seeing them from a different perspective.
Go easy on yourself
This one may seem obvious but it's actually the most difficult thing to do. If writing just isn't happening for you one day, don't force it and don't be angry with yourself for failing to do anything. It happens to everyone and you're not alone. Equally, if you're determined to write through the 'blah' as I call it, don't put too much pressure on yourself to create a perfectly crafted masterpiece. No writer can be Shakespeare every day of the week, not even the great bard himself.
Equally, if you manage to actually get something published, pace yourself when it comes to reading reviews and remember that all art is subjective. While critiques of your work can include useful advice for future work, not all reviews are going to be constructive and you have to remember that not everyone is going to like all of your work and that's OK. They don't have to. What matters is that you're proud of the work you put out into the world and everyone else's opinions are just secondary. While you won't necessarily get rich, you will be happier in the long run if you focus on you.
I hope that you found this blog post interesting and informative. If you want more tips for getting through writer's block when your mental health issues get the better of you, feel free to read this blog post, which is full of tips for overcoming writer's block.