Following yet another tragic case of suicide, my cousin asked a question.
“But what is it with writers and depression?” In other words, why are writers often depressed/suicidal?
This question pushed me to think long and hard, and what I’m going to share in this series is a product of this quest.
We must first establish that we’ve come to a point where we can no longer deny the connection between artists (people who create art) and depression. To the question of why, here’s one thing I found.
Mental Health in Nigeria: A Shortcoming
We live in a country that grossly undervalues therapy and mental health. What does an average Nigerian know about mental health? Very little, I tell you. Not nearly enough.
As a result, we self-medicate. For a person who carries great trauma (emotional) from a childhood experience and never really got professional help, he/she has to figure out a way to stay sane, to sleep at night, to drive the monsters away, and in the simplest of terms, to return to sound health. And they try to figure it out BY THEMSELVES.
This is how some develop a connection to art. Art provides an avenue where they can express themselves and get commendation for creativity. It offers them a stage to tell their stories and to hide them in plot twists and the”fiction” tag, so there’s no judgment; only reviews. And should they do it well enough, they get a whole lot of people to listen. Finally, they get your attention. It feels like something.
What most of them don’t know at this point is that it will fizzle away. It won’t last, that feeling of fulfillment, of being heard. The comments, appraisals, and awards are often not enough. If they were, therapy would not be such complex a practice as it is.
By the time they get to find out, the depression would have grown to a more critical stage. Remember, they still aren’t getting appropriate help for it.
For people in this category, they didn’t become depressed because they were writers (artists), they became writers because they were depressed.
They had something to say and they desperately needed for you to listen. You did listen, after which you smiled and said, “Great story! Well done.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t solve their problem. The problem grows.
And this is one of the many ways a writer ends up on the news for committing suicide.
to be continued…
– Tochukwu Precious Eze.
founder, MeHaa