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Here’s the real reason why creativity makes you more vulnerable to mental health issues

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Giacomo Leopardi was an Italian philosopher, poet, writer and philologist from the early Nineteenth Century. His poetry is as evocative as it is tangible, imbued with the pessimism and existential dread of its author. Leopardi is one of the most famous authors in Italian literature. So are Dante Alighieri, Ugo Foscolo and others; just like Sylvia Plath, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Verlaine and even J.K. Rowling have become widely known across the rest of the world. What do all these authors have in common?

Depression. Insecurity. Mental health issues. From Plato to modern times, madness and mental health vulnerabilities have always been associated with creative genius, and rightly so; in recent times, science has indeed found a link between the two. It appears that artists and writers are 10 times more likely to suffer from some form of depression, and 20 times more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder, according to the Scientific American.

It’s hard to pinpoint one specific reason why this happens. According to some psychologists, a bipolar disorder makes the mind more active, it helps with making associations more freely. As a result, creative people with depression or mood swings tend to look for an outlet for their inner spirit, and this is often displayed in their most creative works.

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Sylvia Plath, Hernest Hemingway... Many known giants of literature were suffering from some form of depression or mental health issue.

Why are creatives more vulnerable to mental health?

If you’ve been a creative professional for long enough, I can’t possibly believe you’ve never had mood swings or existential dread. I know I have. They’re not the best, they’re not nice, though in my case they help bring my mind back into focus. They prevent me from going out of scope. They are part of me somehow, part of my creative spirit; and I never let them have too much control over what I’m producing. Though I know not everybody will be able to keep them at bay as much.

As someone who’s suffered from minor and major mood swings in the past, I have a few personal theories as to why mental health seems to be less stable in creative professionals. Which is why the industry must come together to break the stigma and embrace these vulnerabilities with mutual support.

Why are creatives more vulnerable to mental health issues? Here’s a few reasons. Let’s see if you can spot my personal favourite in the mix.

Creativity is a personal effort - very personal

We pour our own selves into the creative work we do. We work them out in our minds, give them shape, then bring them to life with our own hands. Be it a short story, a 3D model, a full novel, a brand logo, a full-page illustration or a short animated film; we pour our soul into our creative work.

As such, when criticism and feedback arrive, they can be harsh. We can take them personally, on a personal level, rather than focus on the most constructive bits of what would make our work even better. And when something simply doesn’t work, it’s much easier for us to become broken for a while – disappointed in our own work. We love that project, damn it! How come it sucks so much?

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Image credit: Stuart Chapman

Creativity is mostly a lonely job

Sure, there may be meetings. There will be phone calls with clients, discussions about a brief, a strategy. Some parts of our job may be collaborative, working with other departments to bring together a spot or a brand strategy, for instance. A campaign is only as strong as the sum of its parts, after all. But when we sit at our desk, when we start moving things on a screen, when we stop thinking and start designing… Things can get really lonely.

It is especially true of writers, though it can literally apply to any creative professional out there. I’m one who loves finding their own bubble to write their articles or stories. Disrupt my focus, and my inspiration is gone. Break the flow, and I will struggle to find it again. As a result, I spend a lot of time on my own, discussing things with my own self, bouncing ideas off of my own editorial or storytelling judgement. I enjoy it this way; but I also spend a lot of time in my own mind. So when things start piling on top of each other, it’s easy for them to come out all at once.

There is a lot of self-doubt

All of the above leads to an inevitable sense of self-doubt which is hard to ignore. Is our work even as good as we think it is? Why does that other creative do it much better than I? Will I ever be as good as that artist I admire? There may be more, but these are the questions that I mostly asked myself, especially at the beginning of my career.

The truth – and the ultimate solution to these first three points above – is that we should stop comparing ourselves to others. Each and every one of us is walking their own path in the creative industry, with some having more success than others on the surface, but all of us doing mostly what we cherish and love. It is also incredibly easy to overlook the amount of hard work needed to reach the levels of success we all aspire to. Sometimes it’s a matter of luck, even. Whenever you feel like your work “isn’t good enough”, don’t listen to your impostor syndrome. You are unique in your own way. If you keep working hard enough, you will get wherever you wish.

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Image credit: James Wadsworth

We strive to find meaning in life through our work

On a more anthropological, even philosophical level, our creative work gives meaning to the moment. It gives us the impression we are doing something worthy for ourselves and the lives of others. By creating, we look for meaning; and when we don’t find it, we can get moody, we can get sad, we can see things under a much less optimistic light.

We creatives strive to find meaning in life through our work. We create because it makes sense, it makes life more enjoyable and worthy to be lived; we make things because those things create meaningful moments. And what life is worth living without meaningful moments and memories? If we could just leave our imprint on this world, if we could just find the meaning we all aspire to…

We want a different world – but we can’t have it right now

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. The truth is that all of this comes from a very simple desire: we want the world to be a reflection of our creative work. Of the stories and characters we create. We want them to be alive, to feel, to walk on this world because we know they would make it a better place for everybody. Why on earth would we even conceive happy endings, if not? Why would we bother with telling stories through our creativity, leaving an impact, driving positive change?

We want a different world, for ourselves and the ones that will come after. We want a better world for our children. Creativity brings us closer to that ideal world – stories make us reason in a way that makes us believe we are doing what’s right. But not quite. The world we want is full of beautiful ideas, but currently unattainable. We work towards it, we hope to make a difference, but we probably won’t be able to feel the effects of that very difference ourselves. It may be our children, maybe our grandchildren.

The thought that we may be making the world better through our art, our characters, our stories, our creativity, is what pushes us forward. It is also what drags us farther towards the bottom. We are driven by this desire to bring positive change into the world, but change is not instantaneous, and it will never be. It will take time. We know that, but we don’t care. We keep going, because it makes sense. Because it gives us meaning. Because all the self-doubt we have, all the loneliness, all the bits of ourselves and our soul we pour into each and every creative work will make the world a better place, someday. We can change the world. Otherwise, what’s the point?

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Image Credit: Nono Ayuso

What to do then?

If you’ve ever felt existential dread or mood swings, it could be for any of the reasons above. Personally, I believe it may be for all of these. Our desire to strive for something better, something good, is what keeps us going; and at the same time, it’s what prevents most creative professionals from finding a true peace of mind.

We are over-achievers, we are goal-oriented, we work with deadlines and deliverables and make all of this wonderful stuff happen. We are constantly focused on what comes next. This can be detrimental to our own mental health; but it also gives us purpose.

Maybe Agent Smith was right somehow. It is purpose that moves us forward. It is purpose that gives us the strength to motivate us and keep us focused on the next big thing. But when the light of all such purpose and goals and achievements and ideals becomes too overwhelming, pause for one minute and stop looking at the sun. Wait for the night to fall over and have some rest. Think about the positive impact of your work, think about what makes you happy, think about all the beautiful stories that you are creating and the lives that you are already changing right now. Though you may not see those, they are there. They always will be.

We notoriously have a love-hate relationship with creativity. On one hand, it is the thing that propels us forward, the thing we love the most; on the other hand, it’s the same thing that, sometimes, fills us with dreadful doubts and unpleasant thoughts. But that’s okay. It’s okay to feel vulnerable sometimes. It’s okay to feel a bit overwhelmed. Turn to a loved one, play a game, take your mind off the things that don’t matter right now. Make them matter for the next 12 hours, days or weeks. Most of all, be honest to yourself; recognise your efforts and hard work, be amazed by all the wondrous stuff you’ve already created. Embrace your vulnerabilities and choose to selectively ignore them. All the negative thoughts you feel are just a projection of your own worries. In truth, you are much, much more talented than you think.

Being creative can be stressful, there’s no denying that. But I will always struggle to find some kind of stress that can be as bittersweet, as blissful, as rewarding as the one we feel when we put that last finishing touch on our next design. It’s like an addiction; the one you feel towards a person, not a bottle.

Header image: Bryony James

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