Depression, the Artistic Impulse, and the nature of insanity

Don't expect a fully formed, thought out essay at this stage-- I'm just trying to get my thoughts down "on paper" before they vanish entirely.

A few days ago, I heard snippets of an discussion on NPR dealing concerning a poet who also had serious, long-term bouts with depression. The question the interviewer asked (paraphrasing her, obviously) was "is depression a necessary component of the creative process, or are artists/poets being creative in spite of their depression?" It's an interesting question, I suppose, but it seems to me that it overlooks a third, even more thought provoking, possibility:

What if being creative/imaginative leads to depression?

It seems like an outlandish question at first, but less so when you give it serious consideration.

You have an idea (e.g. subject for a painting, to keep it simple) that grabs your imagination. It may or may not be unique, but it's different enough that you can't easily find it or something "close enough" to it in the real world today. Turning this idea into a reality becomes an obsession-- it *should* be possible. After all, people create paintings all the time.

But when you try to "make it real", you discover barriers and hurdles that complicate the act of bringing it into the real world. Maybe you bought the canvas, paints and brushes, and you've started to paint your masterpiece, but the realities and restrictions of the media you are working in prevent you from achieving what you originally envisioned in your head. You have to make compromise after compromise to capture it on canvas-- the colors aren't as bright as the vision in your head, or the paint is too thick on the canvas and looks muddy, it takes far longer and requires more effort than you ever imagined, etc.

That's just painting, which tends to be a fairly solitary creative activity. Imagine how many more compromises and frustrations would be involved in a collaborative situation, like designing a web site or co-authoring a story?

Maybe the constant act of compromise and the laborious efforts involved in the creative process cause frustration and disappointment that predispose artistic types to depression?

Suddenly, it doesn't seem so far fetched, does it?