Five Mental Health Tips for Writers

By Sweta Srivastava Vikram

What’s common between Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allen Poe, Sylvia Plath, and F. Scott Fitzgerald? These writers all struggled with mental health challenges and dealt with painful ends. A few died by suicide and others battled depression and alcoholism. According to Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins who wrote Touched with Fire, writers are around eight times as likely to suffer from mental illness than those who don’t pursue writing as a career.

“Is mental illness essential or merely incidental to the creative process?” I read this question somewhere, which unsettled me. Some writers believe that being affected by mental health issues is the source of their creative fire. I believe, instead, they should be getting help. How can we be grounded in our storytelling if we are unanchored ourselves? 

I remember attending a writing retreat once where a writer was standing with her forehead pressed against the wall at 3pm. I was the first to find her and thought she was sick and about to collapse as her body wasn’t moving. Turns out, she was drunk. Later on, at group dinner that evening, the same writer ordered a few martinis and unleashed her whole life’s story. She dissolved into tears, cussed at her parents, cringed at her partner. When we were all leaving, I asked if she managed to get any work done. With all that fire and passion, I was curious how it impacted her creativity. Apparently, she barely wrote anything. This writer has an array of mental health issues … so, alcoholism as well as lack of structure during the day only made things worse for her. 

Here are five tips to nourish your mental health.

Establish a non-negotiable routine: Be it sleep, meals, exercise, rest, or creative time, set yourself a clear routine. In the world of yoga, there is the concept of Abhyasa and Vairagya. Abhyasa means effort/practice; Vairagya means letting go and detachment. Instead of rolling out of bed when it works for you, establishing a routine, even around your writing, helps build the writing muscles. And if it turns out to be a non-productive writing day, practice vairagya (detachment). Tomorrow is a new day. The dance between effort and detachment is key to nurturing your mental health, so you don’t take on unnecessary pressure or procrastinate all day or develop unhealthy habits.

Know the dangers of loneliness: Writing requires us, writers, to work in isolation. For hours, if not days, at a stretch, we live with our words, characters, thoughts, and stories. Buried under our notebooks or hunched over our laptops, we spend far too many hours with no company. Too much solitariness can be detrimental to your mental wellbeing. Mankind is a social being, and by neglecting our need to connect, we put our mental health at risk. According to this article in the World Economic Forum, emotional conversations, support, positive vibes, and affirmations can all help to enhance our mental health.

Don’t mess with your circadian rhythm: Not all, but a large majority of writers are night owls. They come alive when the world goes to sleep. Those who work a full-time job and write part-time fit in their writing at strange hours. How else do you navigate writing if you have little kids or eldercare responsibilities? But know that you are playing with fire in messing with your circadian rhythm. “An irregular circadian rhythm can have a negative effect on a person’s ability to sleep and function properly, and can result in a number of health problems, including mood disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder,” according to the article from Harvard Medical School.

Get outside more: I don’t mean this just from the perspective of exercising, which is integral to solid mental health. Aren’t we all guilty of existing in silos the minute there is a book or article deadline? Getting outdoors and spending time in nature can help lower anxiety and stress, improve your mood, help you feel connected to something bigger than you, and force you to relax. It also helps you connect with your local community and shift your focus from only writing to other fun things in life.

Break those stereotypes: Poor mental health doesn’t have to go with the territory of being a good writer. I am not sure how it got started, but have you noticed that the mentally healthy creative people are barely represented in the creative world? We hear about suicide by death or alcoholism or infidelity or bipolar disorder or instable mental states of writers etc. etc. But where are the writers with less dramatic life history? The ones who may serve as positive models, whom others may want to follow.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. While these holistic self care tips can be very useful in empowering your mental wellbeing, if you are suffering, please get help from a mental health professional. Between the stigma around mental health as well as lack of support and awareness, so many people slip under the radar and don’t get the medical help they need.
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 Sweta Srivastava Vikram is an international speaker, best-selling author of 13 books, and Ayurveda and wellness coach who is committed to helping people thrive on their own terms. Her latest book, “A Piece of Peace,” (Modern History press) was released in September 2021. As a trusted source on health and wellness, most recently appearing on NBC and Radio Lifeforce and in a documentary with Dr. Deepak Chopra, Sweta has dedicated her career to writing about and teaching a more holistic approach to creativity, productivity, health, and nutrition. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and other publications across nine countries on three continents. Sweta is getting a doctorate degree in Ayurveda, is a  certified Ayurveda health practitioner, and holds a Master’s in Strategic Communications from Columbia University. Voted as “One of the Most Influential Asians of Our Times” and winner of the “Voices of the Year” award (past recipients have been Chelsea Clinton), she lives in New York City with her husband and works with clients across the globe. She also teaches yoga, meditation, and mindfulness to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence as well incarcerated men and women. Find her on: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.