Does mental illness produce best creative material?

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DakotaA
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Re: Does mental illness produce best creative material?

Post by DakotaA »

I think that mental illness in art can sometimes be the most honest, because that can be when the artist is most aware of their emotions. Art seems to happen when you're feeling blue.
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imSunshine
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Post by imSunshine »

in my observation, when you write out of of depression it usually is emotional but, i do not support it because it just gets out of nowhere..and best poems are meant to be thought over
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Corina Elena
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Post by Corina Elena »

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

I loved this quote and I think it is relevant to the question. I guess mental illness is not necessarily a requirement for good work (that would be problematic, right? :lol: ). I do, however, believe that a troubled mind has a lot more to express than a comfortable one. Trauma, sadness, mental illnesses, although terrifying, do tend to form a special view of the world in the artist. And when you find a certain feeling you thought to be unique and your own into an art piece, be it a painting, music, a book, it is the best thing ever. It does transmit a feeling of camaraderie that we can't deny and people tend to bond in suffering.
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Post by April Ruvs »

I believe it does but that depends on the type of mental illness. When anxious I tend to start writing poetry or scenarios in my head to calm me down and face a situation. When depressed I also write to alleviate the episode enough to cope.
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Kate_But_Not_Kaitlyn
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Post by Kate_But_Not_Kaitlyn »

I would say that having struggled through mental illness most of my life it has given me an exposure to feelings and experiences that people who haven't wouldn't have experienced. So in that regard I can create material, specifically my music that draws from those feelings and the memories of being hopeless and alone and it's good because it's authentic. However, I know that when I am struggling I can't really create. In fact that was when I knew, before any one else around me realized, that my most recent depressive episode was going to be bad. The day that suddenly I couldn't write any more it was like a river had just dried up. I had a wonderful story that I had started and had all laid out but couldn't bring to life because I was stuck in my head. I even told my amazing therapist that the day I can sit back down and continue with my novel will be the day that I feel like I am fully ok. That day hasn't come yet but I'm hoping it will soon.
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Kate_But_Not_Kaitlyn
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Post by Kate_But_Not_Kaitlyn »

MaragothThorn wrote: 29 Nov 2014, 17:35 Why is it that when people say "mental illness" people think about depression? A mentally ill person is someone who can no longer use rationality (not to be confused with mentally challenged people, such as those with Cerebral Palsy or Down Syndrome). A depressed person is not mentally ill...they have their emotions in the dumps and it also affects their health. And I feel it as rather wrong to say that it produces the best creative material.
Ummmm as someone who's spent a grand total of 13 months in a hospital/residential treatment setting I would like to say that depression is very much a mental illness and I at the deepest points of my depressive episodes was very much not rational... Seeing as that's how you define mental illness lol. I'm gonna be stuck on meds until the day I die because of my depression and it's high key offensive that you're trying to minimize it as a condition. And I've written some of my best lyrics because of the feelings I've felt because of my mental illness
Get facts straight before you try to say someone who was bedridden because her depression made it so that even breathing was physically taxing isn't mentally ill.
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Post by cyberyamato12 »

based on what I know as an occult scientist, creativity and mental illness are both miles apart and nothing to do to each other. from what I know is that creativity is one of many different kinds of energy forms which can directly connected to your consciousness via intuition. mental illness, on the other hand, is very different it only tends to disrupt your consciousness making you unstable and will only continue if not treated if there is any effective treatment at all. At the present moment, there is no cure to it. I only rely on medications to subdue my mental illness temporarily and it doesn't help me from being creative in any way.
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Leyla Ann
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Post by Leyla Ann »

Not sure but when it comes to sad music, I think mental illness would form a very creative basis.
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Cyncam123
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Post by Cyncam123 »

Hello there,
I suffer from Panic attacks and I feel that when I experience one my creative side gets crippled and I can't think of anything but that panic attack. Creativity mostly comes from people that think of life differently. Perhaps someone with a mental illness can see the world in a different way so that way they can write more creative work.
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Post by Infinite I »

Yes it does. I express my feelings with poetry writing when I am too stressed.
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Post by Zion Mesa »

Creativity comes in waves regardless of my mood, I have good days and bad days. I do tend to create more when I'm depressed though, and so that leads to improvement. I feel like mental illness creates good music simply because of the sheer amount of practice you get when you're depressed.
If you're just really dedicated you could be just as good without it though.
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Post by DragonLight877 »

I would think that someone with mental illness feels very misunderstood. So when they want people to understand, but can't find the right words in conversation, art becomes their next best way to communicate how they feel. Now, if someone is not already a super creative person, I don't think they would automatically become an artist because of their mental illness, but I do think there is a correlation because of everyone's need to be understood.
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FitzgeraldB+D
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Post by FitzgeraldB+D »

Emotional despair sure can amplify the amount of material you create because, at least for a writer, the emotion is oozing out of you & just waiting to be put into something. I'm not sure if I'd say it creates the best creative material. Sometimes there is just so much emotion that while you can produce a lot of creative material (and it may even help you feel better) the material is just too emotional to be coherent and of an upstanding quality. Creativity is not bound to emotional/mental tribulations and an excess of emotion does not amplify the quality of the piece.
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riane21
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Post by riane21 »

I myself experience that. When I suffered depression I always come up with a good stories and I even finish it. But when my emotions starts to stabilized I'm already having a hard time writing.
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DEEPA PUJARI
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Post by DEEPA PUJARI »

I totally agree. I think you need to be crazy and not think logically to write poetry and songs.
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