Does mental illness produce best creative material?

[Celtic_Teardrop]

New member hear (pun fun); long time guitar player. Simple thoughts nothing more.

I produce my best work when I'm depressed. I also put my self in really bad situations so that i can feel schmidty and deep- then become very in-tune with the note and word with it. No i dont have a mental illness but i could really believe that if i was lost in some deep world of depression and lost my self-identity I could produce the best sad and lonely stuff and gain a unique perspective.

but I've also learned that if you have a love for something you can usually do it at-least well when you put your mind to it.

[missjavert]

I'm actually writing a play on this very topic! To get a feel for it, I investigated the lives and works of several famous artists with various mental illnesses. Virginia Woolf seemed liberated from her mental illness when she wrote, but as soon as she finished a book, she would lapse into a deep depression. Zelda Fitzgerald wrote and danced to escape her mental illness, while Frida Kahlo immersed herself in her pain to create her art. I think it's fascinating how each artist can either harness or be hindered by his or her mental illness. I think it's definitely a case-by-case basis.

[zeldas_lullaby]

I'm schizophrenic, yet rarely depressed. I know it seems counter-intuitive that a schizophrenic person could be generally happy, but <shrug>, I can't explain it. I think it's that Pharrell song. It just keeps me on top of things.

I agree that what happens is, if you've had a bizarre, other-worldly life, you can put uniqueness into what you write. I have experienced truly odd stuff that I channel into my stories. I write best when I'm feeling zany, which is usually pretty often. I've developed an oddball sense of humor that I definitely try to incorporate into everything I write. I have to also agree that if I'm feeling down, writing probably won't happen or be effective if it does.

I've battled demons both literally and figuratively. (Yes, literally. That was one crazy-bleep night.) And I have to say, I wouldn't want it any other way. Because now that I'm finally happy (which took a lifetime), I have a constant source of inspiration just from my own memories.

[RStone]

Not really. When Im truly depressed I dont want to write. I want lay there and just rot in the bed. the again it does give you a mew prespective so when I am atleast able to find enough motivation to get up, I do have ideals and things to talk about.

This, exactly. It's only as I start to come out that I feel full of ideas and inspiration again. I just think the depression adds a certain flavor and understanding to my writing, rather than serving as inspiration by itself. The poems I write when on the cusp- well, I thought they were great as an angsty teenager, but now that I'm older I find those transitional poems heavy handed and melodramatic and thus not so good!

[hannahbm13]

I think that bad moods can create beautiful art. But that doesn't mean that happiness can't inspire beauty too

[Tanaya]

When I've been depressed and had to produce material, I definitely wrote some dark things. But my imagination was truly sparked because I was so mad at the world. I think the toughest part is that when I'm at my worst, my thinking is highly distorted so whatever I write may not make the most sense. Even so, the ideas I come up with at those times are pretty astounding and are ones I'm more likely to go back to in the future because I know they came from a place of deep meaning.

[dancingpinkpony]

When I'm depressed, I write the best material I've ever written. I think it's safe to assume that I, personally, write best when my brain is chemically unbalanced.

[ImpatientTypist]

Interesting theory, and it does make sense. A lot of great musicians and artist had some form of mental disease.

Van Gogh is probably the best example of this. I know when I am in a certain mood (happy, sad, angry) I create certain types of stories.

When my mood is down I tend to write more perky and heart warming, and when I'm happy I like to delve into the darker parts of the human psyche.

I think a person's mentality has a lot to do with the type of content he or she will write

[Circling Turtle]

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.

Respectfully, I beg to differ. Depression is indeed a mental illness. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (5th ed) it is officially called Major Depressive Disorder. I have a Bachelor's in Psychology, plus I have been a long-time sufferer of depression, and I can tell you that depressed individuals are often not very rational (and in severe cases, can actually become psychotic).

I'm not trying to attack you, and I hope that I'm not coming off as a know-it-all, but I feel that it is my obligation to educate others about the seriousness of this disorder.

I just reviewed a very interesting book that focused on dismantling misconceptions of depression and creating awareness of the seriousness of the disorder. I really don't like the way in which depression, and mental illness in general, is romanticised in literature and in the biographies of certain authors and poets. Many creative geniuses suffered from forms of mental illness but it is in no way a prerequisite for artistic genius. As noted in the comments above, depression often leaves the sufferer unable to function, which isn't exactly condusive to artistic productivity. I am diagnosed with both bipolar and severe OCD. When I was in the manic phase of bipolar I was prolific and would produce what I thought was amazing art and poetry, until I 'came down'. Bipolar made me delusional, much like a drug addict, and I thought that I was better than I was... And when I crashed, I thought that my work was awful, I'm so useless, blah blah blah. On the whole I did create some pretty good pieces during this time, but looking at them now I find it a bit angsty and self-obsessed. When I first went on meds my creativity did feel stifled but since then it has stabilised and on the whole the quality of my work has improved tenfold, mainly due to having a more balanced and rational perspective. I am now completely functional, although I do sometimes miss the intense emotion which sparked many poems and paintings,

I do agree that having experienced mental illness can add a unique perspective to one's writing, both during the depths of the illness and when one is in recovery, but I disagree with the idea that insanity goes hand in hand with genius (in fact I pretty much disagree with the whole idea of genius, to be honest). Anyway, many of the greatest artists, writers and musicians just think differently to the norm - this doesn't mean that they have a mental illness.

[JCFindley]

Yes as long as your not certifiable

[DATo]

I doubt it. I'm crazy as hell and nobody is buying anything I write.

Serious answer:
I personally do not think that mental illness directly impacts literary ability one way or the other. There have been, to be sure, some authors who had some serious emotional issues during the time they were writing and just happened to have had their work read and appreciated, but I'm sure there were just as many, if not far more, who had no serious emotional issues and were also read and appreciated.

[zeldas_lullaby]

I think, honestly, that the massive hellfires that I've been through in life have forged my creativity, because if my life had been boring/easy, then what would I really grasp to write about? I've been paying attention, like a silent observer, to everything I've borne witness to in my life, and it enriches everything that I write. It's interesting, because I often don't see the world around me. What I "see" is how people act, react, etc. I intuit that and soak it up like a sponge. Sometimes people think I'm uncannily intuitive or psychic, but I'm just paying attention.

As for the topic of genuises, I dated one back in 2004. (Settle in for a bumpy ride, folks...) He was a genius thrice over, and I've never seen anything like it before or since. He was a musical genius, an artistic prodigy, and an intellectual... OK, I'm out of synonyms. It was freaky. However, he was not mentally ill at all, not in the slightest. He did, however, have one of the biggest egos I'd ever seen. Oprahesque in its sheer magnitude. He thought he was God's gift to everyone. He wasn't. So anecdotally, I can connect genius --> ego, but not to mental illness.

[stoppoppingtheP]

I don't really know the answer to this question, but I can say that having a mental illness means that I have more emotional issues. Due to tablets or due to the illness itself I am not sure. While I am angry or sad I tend to be more creative, and just transfer those emotions to paper. (I'll often cringe at them later )

[ElleDavis228]

I feel that the type of material you're trying to write is another factor in the quality of output. Poetry, and music could benefit from negativity because they're usually short and sweet and would coincide with the feelings. However if youre working on a longer piece of writing, constantly writing only during fits of depression or during bouts of mental illness, from personal experience at least, I find it harder to create arcs, as everything starts becoming bland and negative. Basically I find it is easier to write sad songs or poems, but it's harder to convey a whole story with one set of feelings

[elaineavila991]

I think mental health can produce much more pleasant and creative materials.