[rise13eyond]

So what do you think of creativity and mental illness? A lot of people seem to believe that creativity and MI go hand in hand, despite scientific evidence that speaks the opposite. Yet you get people insisting that their favourite artists should and MUST be MI in order to create their work. It's rather dangerous really. Me myself I don't know whether I'm a great example of this, or a horrible example of this. I've been doing art since I could hold a pencil, it's what I spend the majority of my time doing and I've tried out almost every medium known to man. And....I have literally dealt with multiple types of MI my entire life. I do draw inspiration from my struggles at times. I would say I am a tortured artist...But I'm not an artist because I'm tortured.

[seesaw]

Originally Posted by rise13eyond

So what do you think of creativity and mental illness? A lot of people seem to believe that creativity and MI go hand in hand, despite scientific evidence that speaks the opposite. Yet you get people insisting that their favourite artists should and MUST be MI in order to create their work. It's rather dangerous really. Me myself I don't know whether I'm a great example of this, or a horrible example of this. I've been doing art since I could hold a pencil, it's what I spend the majority of my time doing and I've tried out almost every medium known to man. And....I have literally dealt with multiple types of MI my entire life. I do draw inspiration from my struggles at times. I would say I am a tortured artist...But I'm not an artist because I'm tortured.

I agree. I am a tortured artist, but not an artist because I'm tortured.

[*Laurie*]

When I was younger, torture inspired my creativity. As I've grown older, joy inspires my art work.

[MickeyCheeky]

Art can come from everywhere... you certainly don't need MI to be a gifted artist.

[eskielover]

I never considered doing art until after I was free from the environment that seemed to limit my mind's creativity (though I always did crafts)...painting I just started experimenting wuth in 2010 & have been totally surprised that I had a hidden ability.....though I paint from pictures mostly....not creative enough to just let my mind go. I am finally not tortured & it has been freeing

[MotherMidnight]

Both torture & joy inspired me in different ways, but I found that with torture, I can only get as far as that; inspiration. While joy motivates me to turn them into something real. They balance each other out I guess.

[alittlelikemusic]

I feel like MI stifles my creativity. I'm a writer and I can draw somewhat, but because of MI, I can't write as much as I want to or improve my drawing skills like I want to. I go days, weeks and even months without doing either of these things because I get stuck watching online videos and playing games on my phone to distract myself from depression. That and ADHD doesn't help with my attention span.

[mainrain]

I think that's one dangerous thing to think: that one needs to be mentally tortured to be a great artist. A fledgling artist has to deal with so many other problems: poor and irregular pay, lack of recognition, lack of steady work, and so on. Add mental illness to this mix, and it's a difficult life, to say the least. Sometimes people suggest that an artist must be mentally tortured and anti-social to become great. That is misinformed and sadistic.

[rise13eyond]

Originally Posted by mainrain

I think that's one dangerous thing to think: that one needs to be mentally tortured to be a great artist. A fledgling artist has to deal with so many other problems: poor and irregular pay, lack of recognition, lack of steady work, and so on. Add mental illness to this mix, and it's a difficult life, to say the least. Sometimes people suggest that an artist must be mentally tortured and anti-social to become great. That is misinformed and sadistic.

Sadistic. That is oddly enough a fairly good way of putting it. I think the idea of a tortured artist comes from the deep, complex, emotional meaning often attributed to pieces of art. A lot of emotion gets put into art both fine art and preforming arts. In order to create such an emotional piece of work one must be overflowing with passion and feeling, shouldn't they? I may just be grasping in the dark here.
For me, I put a lot of myself into my art. Good and bad aspects and everything in between. I do have many pictures that are fueled by intense negative emotions. But first of all, I am not the only person with these emotions, everyone has them including people who aren't artists of any sort. And second, these emotions give my inspiration, but they do not get work done. When I'm mentally I can't finish a damn picture.
On a slightly related note. There are creative thinkers, and logical thinkers. Neither are better than the other and they have the same feelings, it's just how they respond to these feelings that makes them different. When faced with a challenge a logical thinker will try to figure out the cause, and find a simple solution. A creative thinker wont try to make perfect sense of it, they create something from it. And that's my half intelligent thought of the day.

[Aviza]

I don't equate MI with tortured artist. I think of people who are deep individuals as tortured. Artists can be anyone.

[emgreen]

Originally Posted by alittlelikemusic

I feel like MI stifles my creativity. I'm a writer and I can draw somewhat, but because of MI, I can't write as much as I want...

Ditto. I majored in English in college, but when I'm feeling especially mixed or manic, I can't focus on writing, OR reading. My mind tends to wander.

[Carmina]

For there's a sweet spot that works, if I am too depressed or suicidal my motivation and energy goes completely and sometimes I can barely string a coherent sentence together. On the other hand a lot of what drives my painting and poetry is channelling painful feelings into something less destructive and finding ways to articulate and make sense of embodied states and sense memories, so if I am feeling really great I'm often not in the right place to do that either. I need to be in-between.

[xiximmxi]

I've always wondered this myself.
But I felt very trapped when I was a teenager and the only way I could express myself was through art, music, fashion and writing.

It's still a working progress but I can control my emotions and impulses a LOT better now than I could back then, and I can definitely say that I am way less creative. Also, I guess the "creative" medium not my sole catharsis anymore?

"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." -Cesar Cruz

[alittlelikemusic]

Ditto. I majored in English in college, but when I'm feeling especially mixed or manic, I can't focus on writing, OR reading. My mind tends to wander.

That's basically where I'm at now. I'm in college for creative writing, but I'm having so much trouble focusing. I already failed two classes as a result. The worst part is that neither my teachers nor my student liaison team knows.