True Crime writing and depression

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I don't write in that genre, but I've heard of people having problems after writing about torture and genocide.

One thing that might help is be careful what sort of music you play. Skip the nasty rap, the hard metallic metal, etc. Play New Age music, light classics, similar.

Be sure to take breaks and do something fun (by your standards).

Try affirmations--positive statements you say to yourself mentally.

Take deep breaths--inhale and let the belly expand, exhale and bring it back in. Do this as slowly and deeply as possible.

Try yoga and meditation. They do help clear gunk out of the mind.

Rooting for you.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

I don't write true crime, but I have worked with it for the last almost 25 years. From policeman to working in prisons to dealing with people on probation for many and varied crimes. Had a sex offender caseload for 8 years.

The best advice I can give is to strive for emotional detachment. I have dealt with everything from murderers to pedophiles to kleptomaniacs. The times when I wanted to say or do something not by "the book," I forced myself to take a short mental or physical break. it was a bit difficult to do that in prison, but you can always go to the control room for a bit.

In context of what you describe, I suggest that if you hit a passage that is difficult for you, work on it when you are at your peak. Some people are best early in the morning, some late in the afternoon. Whichever works for you. Do not try to push ahead, if you are at the end of your most efficient time. Do something else and return to that passage at your next session, when you are mentally fresher.

We have several people on here with the same type experience with the criminal world as I. They may make suggestions also. The key thing to remember is this, when you deal with that type of thing on a daily basis, it is stress-inducing, with high burnout potential.

You have to train yourself to realize when you are at a low point (as I think you may have discovered) and take a break either mental or physical from the situation.

Think of it as re-booting your disgust-o-meter. Hope this helps.

Journalists who cover traumatic events deal with similar issues every day - you are certainly not alone. Start with the Dart Center - it's an excellent resource. http://dartcenter.org/

On a personal level, I've felt exactly what you describe. In my reporting days, I covered a serial pedophilia case for the better part of two years. The abuser was a pediatrician who attacked an estimated 100 children, and videotaped the abuse. It was horrific, and I had a really hard time dealing with it.

Detachment was the key. I created a mental and emotional lockbox where I tucked it all away at the end of each day in court. When I left journalism, I took my notebooks and files and trashed them. (It was very satisfying!) My girlfriend, now my wife, was critical in listening and helping me work through it all, too. If you have someone who can be a sounding board about your feelings, that could be a help. I don't recommend sharing the details of your work with them, but just having someone to share your emotions with may be positive.

I'm glad you brought this subject up. My current WIP is very emotional. It's a narrative nonfiction book about a famous artist, and Vietnam Veteran who gave up everything to dedicate the rest of his life to drawing portraits of fallen heroes. The book will feature ten stories of those portraits, so I'm researching a lot, getting details of the young people's lives, and of course their deaths. The way I'm dealing with it is to listen to that inner voice that is saying, "you've had enough." And I take a break. Sometimes it's just for a few hours and other times, its for several days. In the meantime, I write other things, go for a walk, or plan a vacation - anything that gets me out of that mode and back to thinking positively. It's all about balance...balance...balance.

Also, there is such a thing as secondary Post-traumatic Stress and for your subject, I would think that could be a real possibility. Some day this writing project will be over and what will be left is you - so take care of you. Hope that makes sense.

If it is at all possible I would recommend backpacking/hiking in your area of the world. When PTSD was at its worst for me one of the few things that really helped me was going out and backpacking with friends that I trusted. There is something incredibly soothing about being more than ten miles deep into Oregon jungle. It gave me the ability to step away from everything and only think about the vital matters of staying warm and dry and hydrated. If you can't go backpacking where you are, just walking can help. T Robinson is very correct. You HAVE to take breaks. Your ability to swallow it up is a cup that is only so big and you need to step back and pour it out in a healthy way before it gets all over the floor.

I write historical true crime. You might think that wouldn't be too bad but they were just as descriptive in the 1800s as they are now. I agree you MUST take breaks. I find stopping and putting a comedy movie on Netflix or the like always helps. Something to make me laugh.

If there is a particularly hard scene you must get through, try doing it in a coffee shop. I know it may seem distracting, but if you sit in a quiet spot it works pretty well. I don't mean bring a chum along as they will only interrupt you, but just having other people milling around doing normal things helps to keep you in the here and now.

I write historic true crime, and have managed to find a balance between empathy and sorrow for the victims in my narratives. If this balance didn't exist, I might not work in this genre.

You may need to actively try to practice the disassociative technique called "compartmentalization," approaching the material with an analytical eye, but not allowing feelings about it to overflow into your life outside the work. Good luck!

TrixieBelden said:

How do other true crime writers deal with depression? The case I'm writing about deals with the murder and torture of children. It is sometimes very hard to deal with.
Any suggestions?

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You deal with the story, the victims can't be saved now. Then you go home and hug your own kids.

Jeff