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Article: Are creatives more prone to mental illness?
A friend of mine posted this article on facebook and as I read it – I thought it was very interesting.
First hand, I'm an "emotional" person. I do get my feelings hurt and luckily remedied quickly. I've never thought of it as a "mental disorder" before. I am sure somewhere there is a therapist who would say that I have a condition. I do suffer hugely from anxiety – specifically social anxiety. I'm not saying all creative types do but I thought this article was pretty interesting. I haven't decided what I think yet.
WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK as creative people?
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18 Replies
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Speaking as someone who works with a lot of science geeks, I can honestly say that those who excel at the sciences typically are not wired the same as others. The ability to even grasp and understand, let alone make discoveries in this field requires different wiring. I believe that to be true of highly creative types too. When you have different "wiring" you are prone to psychological disorders of a sort. It amazes me on the one "geek" forum I am on how many of the guys have serious social disorders or anxieties; and these are BRILLIANT people. It is to the point where I think having a social disorder is the norm and being "normal" is the disorder.
And for my other theory….they say that we only use a small percentage of our brain. Think about how many "multitasks" you can handle at one time. We are constantly bombarded with new technology. Those of us who have grown up with technology have a very small learning curve, whereas those that did not grow up with technology have a steep one. We are constantly pushing the limits of our brain's capabilities and when that happens different pathways get fired up. If we do not know how to handle these different pathways, or even if those pathways bypass our normal filters all sorts of fun things start happening.
I wish I understood more about how our brains function.
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Creative geniuses often times have severe mental and personality disorders, so I definitely agree that creative people (non-genius) would either be prone to mental illness or have smaller emotional disorders.
I read a statistic that said artistic genius' was anywhere between 50% to 20% (depending on field of genius) more likely to be bipolar
That article linked to a second one on a more medical cased website, but the link seems to have broken.
Regardless of facts you can find on the internet, I'd definitely believe it. Creativity is the minds ability to push past boundaries. How many times have you seen a variation of a pole move and thought, "why didn't I think of that, I could definitely do it" (example: Orion), Someone who is genius sees those things every day and struggles with people not seeing what they see, and having to explain it to other people either through dumbing it down or expressing it in a way that other people can understand through dance or other mediums.
Someone who is "creative" I would assume gets brief glances of what things SHOULD be like around them/for them and makes steps to accomplish them. When you're constantly going through yourself and matching yourself up to the outside world to express yourself, you're body is going through a lot. Chemically and mentally. It doesn't make anyone "bad" or "disgusting" for being creative and having some mental downfalls, regardless of if those bumps are small hiccups or large mountains (after all, Salvador Dali was by all stretches of the word "insane"). It's just a part of the package that those people learn to embrace :3
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I wish I knew more about the brain too and what makes it tick. I would love to know what makes someone "moody" vs "bipolar" or "emotional" vs "depressed & anxious."
I often thought that the arts were healing to certain mental conditions, was I wrong?
I think it's probably a bit true that creatives are on the crazy side, only because we have so many examples of amazing artists from all fields (music, painting, acting, dancing, film, etc) that often find themselves with addiction problems. Addiction is a mental illness itself not to mention that addictions generally are covering up for other things…
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bipolar and depression, anxiety, etc, are all horomone related illnesses. Lack of certain chemicals getting to the brain. It's like being diabetic, but with electric inpulses and brain chemicals. Or so that was how it was described to me by a therapist.
Addiction is an illness that can be fixed but only if the person wants it to be. More cruel methods that have since been phased out (shock treatment for addiction) didn't do anything but send a signal to that persons body, if I do X then Z is the result. It didn't stop them from wanting it any more or less, they just stopped following through with it.
Art is meant to help people. Whether it's dance or pole or singing, it can help someone get over a traumatic experience. Pole dancing is healing for almost everyone woman who posts actively at SV. "I feel so strong/beautiful/important/graceful/etc". Feelings that we otherwise wouldn't have found in any other activity EVER.
But for people who find that they're good at something, and are told their entire life (or the vast majority of it) that the have "talent" and they're good at it and get boxed into persuing only that thing, living, eating, breathing it until their dying breath, I'm sure it's very stressful.
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Generally it is the severity and length of time that distinguishes the differences. I have had bouts of depression (this past year when my studio closed to name one) but I generally know the cause of my depression. I know with some there are chemical markers but others there are no known test because they do not understand why it happens. Hell, up until recently they did not understand why women got menstrual cramps.
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Chemgoddess, speaking as a fellow geek (web designer and former biochemist) I sometimes think that perhpas we're drawn to wanting to "understand" because we do have social problems or otherwise don't quite fit in. I'm pretty extreme with my allergies, but among the tech crowd at work asthma inhalors, epi pens, photosensitivity and knowing you have gene ____ for some potential illness are so common that I really don't stand out so much. The time other kids spent "hanging out" i spent at home reading.
Having said that, there was an article on richard dawkins site (not written by him) that suggested that the genes that code for illnesses like depression are important because they also code for creativity and when not activiated for mental illness, they actually make a person more resiliant mentally. I can't find it but it's mentioned here. They basically divided kids into "dandelion children", who grow up ok anywhere and "orchid children" who thirve in good care and go awrey in bad care. Perhaps this explains why i love and keep so many orchids =)
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Wow, Charley! There are so many thoughts flying through my head at this moment on this subject. My mother-in-law is clinically pyschotic, yet she is sharp as a tack. After several years of hospitals and different doctors and caretakers and medications, it truly amazes me how little is really known about personality disorders and the like.
The brain is so complex, and there are so many social, physical, biological, and emotional triggers for just about everything. It comes out in a plethora of forms for every person. Addiction, depression, anxiety, personality disorders, pyschosis' of every sort, or even just plain meaness.
At the same time, I TOTALLY agree with Chemmie in that "types" or "categories" of personalities are specifically wired . It makes us an "A" type or type "B" personality or a introvert vs extrovert. It makes us creative, nerdy, dumb or smart (or a combo). Ever notice how people who do the same job have some similar personality traits? My husband is an Air Traffic Control Specialist at Chicago Center. All ATCS's are cocky and have similarly strange senses of humor. A couple of weeks after I started to pole, we found that more than half our class were or had been hairstylists or makeup artists. I also think the way we are wired can be the determining factor on how we each deal with ourselves and our "issues". Similar to Nightfall's mention of dandelions vs orchids! (Love that!)
I could really go on for hours over this subject, but I'll stop now…well
By the way.. I also have social anxiety and from a prior Veener thread, it seems a common theme among us! I believe that the poling community is also of a like mind. We are all creative and emotional in many, many different ways. We see this community as a safe place to be social even if some struggle to be social in person. We all strive to better ourselves, physically in some way or another. We may fall into separate categories socially, mentally, ethnically, racially, etc but we have one thing in common..WE ALL ROCK!!
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I am by no means a genius in either area, but people tell me u am talented in art, dance, and science. Within the last few years depression and anxiety has crept in periodically.
I have a lot if really talented artistic types in my fam
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I have a lot if talented artistic folks in my family, and they all seem to have some sort if mental disorder. Van Gogh was crazy. Edgar Allen pol was depressed. I know one of the great mathematicians (newton or Einstein) had a mental illness as well. I have seen that the really great minds are a little querky.
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I guess I didn't really answer the question! All the creative people I know (myself included) have some sort of "emotional" issue and it ranges from sobbing easily to outright weirdness. On the other hand, I know plenty of non-creative, stoic, 'see the world in black and white' people that I think are messed up in other ways. It's just in how we view the world around us. C'est le vie!
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That was an interesting article. I'm bipolar, as is my best friend and several other friends from college. I also have a bipolar cousin (it tends to run in famlies) and every one of us is highly creative. I'm an aritist and a dancer. My best friend is a writer, illustrator and lighting designer. My cousin (when she's well enough to work) is a graphic designer. The other friends run the gamut from costume designer to interior decorator.
In my own personal experience I find that being bipolar can be extreamly helpful in much the manner that they illustrated in the article. For example: right now I'm working on a giant comissioned project with my art. It's the largest piece I've ever tackled by a factor of 10 and has a much tighter deadline than was really reasonable for me to take on. Reasonably it's a four month project and I'm having to have it done in a month and a half from inital design to install. I've found (I started figuring this out in college) that, when faced with this sort of thing, I can make myself manic and work much longer hours and much more intensely than I could if I wasn't manic. Working several days straight isn't out of the question.
However the article didn't mention that there are mental and emotional repercussions for doing this sort of thing. If I'm not paying attention when I come down off the manic "high" of doing this project I will be much more prone to slipping into a severe depression. I know this now and can do things to aviod it – but it took quite a while to figure out.
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Einstein, DaVinci and Edison were all dyslexic.
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This is an interesting topic!!
Is there really a "normal" anyway? We are all so different it's hard to place people into group 1 or 2. Ya know? Maybe we should feel sorry for the "sane" people who to go through life never experiencing any of our "madness" that ultimately leads to creativity!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_eek.gif I'm trying to learn to embraces my….let's call it "unique" outlook on life, instead of worry that something is wrong with me.
It is unfortunate that these misuderstood minds tend end their creative lives….
https://www.studioveena.com/videos/view/5036a453-63a8-4daf-bf9b-0dfc0ac37250
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"Normal" is a setting on your dryer!!!
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I find that, generally, "normal" refers to the idea that you can function in your day-to-day life without having any particular difficulties, brought on by your own psyche. So, for example, depression causes us to have motivational and perspective problems, making it difficult to funtion in daily life- some people who suffer with depression find it difficult to even get out of bed in the morning.
I find that psychology is a growing, learning kind of science. We don't always get things right (Good example: we used to say that homosexuality was a mental illness, and it was in the DSM. It is no longer considered an illness, and has been taken out of The Book), and sometimes, we are being told about a mental illness and think "wow, that sounds like me!" But, the distinction is that we can still function within our daily lives, and find our creative, physical outlets through, or for, these issues.
As a writer, I'm a little sad to read that article- I know that many writers have killed themselves, suffered depression and anxiety… but I think a great many have also lived to have full, glorious lives, too!
I know that I have suffered depression in the past, and I still deal with anxiety… but it's a process, I am learning to get rid of the anxiety.
I also believe that our society, unfortunately, does not appreciate artistic people enough. In Greek times, creative arts were highly regarded, and you could even get grants- people chosen to sponsor a particular festival were greatly rewarded for doing so, and if they refused, were practically shunned from their society! However, if you look at schooling and news, we find that Science, Math and such are very highly regarded, and the Arts… really aren't. It's very unfortunate, and gives us a certain opinion of people who engage and, indeed, cannot STOP engaging in those arts.
So… yes, all of us may identify to some extent with many of the diagnoses of mental illnesses… but, until it becomes detrimental to us, and gets in the way of our ability to live full and happy lives, I wouldn't consider it an "illness." More an interesting way of looking at the world, and some quirk to our personalities that make us who we are!
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