Writing Through the Darkness: Easing Your Depression with Paper and Pen

Virtually everyone copes with significant grief and turmoil at times. WRITING THROUGH THE DARKNESS offers a menu of writing approaches--freewriting, memoir, poetry, and storytelling--to alleviate the anguish, confusion, and pain associated with depression. Quotes and writing samples from students provide inspiration and encouragement, and extensive resources direct readers to additional writing prompts, instruction, and accurate mental health information and assistance. Practical how-to discussions and plentiful exercises demonstrate how writing can help those with depression modulate their moods, develop greater insight, feel a sense of accomplishment, and reconstruct a damaged life. A practical and supportive guide to using creative writing exercises to ease the symptoms of depression. One in five people will struggle with depression during their lifetime. Research-based techniques and stories from a decade of results with a Stanford University writing group for people with mood disorders. Cites the latest research proving the efficacy of writing to help people deal with depressive symptoms and emotional trauma. Reviews"The material is wonderfully presented and approachable from many angles."-Fore Word Magazine

ELIZABETH MAYNARD SCHAEFER is a science journalist, editor, and author who has suffered from bipolar depression. She has a PhD in biological sciences from Stanford University and has taught a creative writing course for people with mood disorders through Stanford's psychiatry department since 1998. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 THE AUTHOR SCOOP

Read any good books lately? I read almost everything – non-fiction, fiction, poetry, memoir. I’ve recently loved A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini; Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley; and Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh.If you had to boil your book’s message down to one sentence, what would it be? Don’t hesitate, just write; you’ll feel better.Tell me a story that other people might not know about you. My husband and I are adopting a child from China – hopefully very soon!How do you cheer yourself up when you're feeling down?Go to a coffeehouse, read a book while I eat a scone and sip coffee, then write out what’s on my mind and plan how to cope.Where were you when you found out your book would be published?I was by a very noisy hotel swimming pool in Las Vegas, where my husband and I had gone to rendezvous with his parents for a few days. It was so loud I could hardly hear my agent on my cell phone!