My pottery friends often say of their messy hobby: "It's cheaper than therapy." It's meant as a joke, of course, but like the best jokes, it contains a grain of truth. Neuroscience has some possible explanations for why your pottery hobby can help prevent or ease depression.
The Effort-Driven Reward Circuit
Dr. Kelly Lambert, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond, has written on the subject of behavior-induced neuroplasticity Lambert believes that human brains are innately wired to induce well-being when performing certain physical tasks. She calls this the Effort-Driven Reward Circuit, involving brain regions connected to emotion, reason, and creativity, and it could be key to a happy brain. Lamberts notes that in the 19th century doctors sometimes prescribed knitting to address anxiety. It makes sense to her: "Repetitive movement, increasing certain neurochemicals, and then if you produce something - a hat, or a scarf - there's the reward."
Work has changed since the environment our brains evolved in! For many of us our work tasks are almost exclusively intellectual, with very little physical activity. A hands-on hobby with a creative aspect can help spark up that neglected brain circuitry & generate some of those happy-making brain chemicals.
This must be what inspires me to say I am a dopamine queen. (I sometimes think I've never been interested in recreational drugs, because I sort for employ brain chemicals for a similar purpose. I used to be an oxytocin queen - yeah, don't do that. Lotta bad decisions came out of that.)
Anyway: tl;dr: get into your studio & make stuff! You'll be happier for it.
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