Guest Bloggers

Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan

Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan What do I have to be depressed about? I am blessed with friends, writing colleagues, housemates, spouse, family members, coworkers, a half-time day job, health insurance, my intellectual properties . . .  and what friends call a sense of humor.  But I don’t feel like laughing in my condition, maybe later. I may have inherited the depression gene (or genes) from my loving mother. While I sympathized with my mother’s illness (my novel Love Made of Heart was inspired by her), it would take experiencing the illness myself before I could gain empathy. Poor health of the physical nature (especially with overt symptoms) alerts us to seek help; poor health of the mental nature (especially the first occurrence) usually has no clear signals. Depression snuck up on me, in my forties. The symptoms didn’t look like my mom’s. I had…