Creativity and Mental Illness

Artists have long been vocal about their struggles with depression and other mental illnesses. Sometimes they use the word depression, but other times the word is despair, heart break, mental breakdown, or sadness. It has become cliche to think of the artist as tortured, and at times the mental illness part becomes fetishized. The idea that one has to be miserable to be an artist has long been a pet peeve of mine. The reality is mental illness is diagnosed because of how it is impairing someone’s life. If it is not causing impairment, it is not considered an illness. With that fact known, how we can then go on to romanticize mental illness as a necessity for the artist?

Let me be clear, I do not mean to shame creatives with mental illness. As a therapist, I admit I am biased in believing that mental illness is something treatable to the point of remission, or to the point of being very manageable. I absolutely believe that people with mental illness can be great artists, regardless of whether their illness is in remission or not. With that said though, if one is actively in a depressive episode, they are creating despite their mental illness, not because of it. It is also true that creating art can be a healthy part of someone’s treatment or self-care plan to arrive at better mental health. In the end though, mental wellness, being as healthy as you can be, is an asset to one’s work, not a detriment.

That then begs the question: What causes inspiration? Pain, happiness, extreme emotions. I do not disagree with the status quo on that answer. However, one does not need to experience depression or even trauma to understand pain. One does not need to experience mania or euphoria to understand happiness. I once heard someone say that we experience the full range of emotions by age 5, and I think that reminder is important here. Regardless of life experience, we cannot avoid feeling all the emotions possible, and we certainly do not forget those feelings. It is the memory of happiness that causes depression to feel like longing, and it is the memory of sadness that makes us afraid to lose our good fortune. 

Let us not forget: art is a form of expression. Art is a form of communication. Art can be the vehicle in which we process our highs and lows, our experiences of being human. Art is the tool that we use to gain understanding with others. Pain, such as the kind found in mental illness, can be unifying but it can also be destructive. I argue that we do not need to seek out additional pain or stay complacent in our existing pain in order to have something to say. Our lives and our world is never free of suffering. Let us channel that pain into our work, while remaining as high functioning and well adjusted as we can be in our day to day lives. Let us create great work, AND find a way to enjoy our lives to the fullest. Let us do work on ourselves so that we can create even better art than before, and most importantly, be able to enjoy it.