creativity and anxiety

[guivolution]

..take this occasion to present myself.. I'm new.. Guido!!
also to post an interesting subject I came across lately: relation between creativity and mood disorders.. It's very confusing, I guarantee, since creativity is very aleatory and the vastity of mental problems related with disorders, but, for what anxienty is concerned, some sources value the opinion that there's a positive correlation between Anx&creativity, some others seems to say the opposite..

I'm a writer and composer, I have to believe the first, what about you?

[Jeordie]

Hey Guido, are you italian? Me too.

Would you do the both of us a favour?
I posted a topic on creative anxiety here:
http://www.anxietyforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1304

Why don't you post what you think about the matter. I believe you know what I'm talking about there.
Laters.

[Jeordie]

Ps: about the correlation anxiety/creativity, you can well believe I don't know what the f%$% to think. Heh. But see you on that topic of mine (not that it is better than yours, but I need answers!!! and by the way we're talking about the same thing).

[guivolution]

hey man.. I definitely feel your pain, reading about it gives me mixed feelings though. Somehow it comes easier trying to understand something so similar to my experience through stranger eyes, than parading the excruciating, inner and awful journey I've been stepping on the last few years.. I can only ask you a few more questions.. how long you've been through this period? was it always like this..

I know the desperation that comes from not beeing capable of enjoying what is sometimes the most powerful form of expression..

tell me more

[jitters]

Creativity and Anxiety have to go hand in hand without a Creative Imagination we couldn't come up with things to worry about. I'd be willing to bet a good portion of the members on this site are creative in some way. Either artists, musicians, writers, poets, designers. Well you get the picture. Stands to reason. Methinks :?

Duncan

[guivolution]

thank you Jitters,
as I go through my existance, I fight between the obvious of the realized, life, and immagination, anxiety.. Creativity is the feeling I have inside, although, as I seem to depend more and more on those compliments I receive from outside, I lost track of myself on things that came easy before..
So I read, I look for articles and when I do find something negative, I stick to that like it was the only truth.. I believe it's called catastrofization and generalization.
I found many references though on the matter, if you're interested.. :P

[Jeordie]

Jits,
you have a point: if you can worry well, then you probably have a good imagination. I don't think of creativity as something exclusive, reserved to an elite of people: everybody is creative, and can exercise that quality as a muscle.
So anyway, it might be a reason why many creative people are neurotic and viceversa.
But I guess even a lawyer can be a creative person.

As a wannabe reinassance man, I'm learning to imagine more images and music than illnesses I might have and sudden deaths. That way, creativity becomes healing.
Maybe I should write some episode of House.

[jitters]

LOL house is a great prog. :D

[kevin]

Definately...

I'm so creative sometimes I think of things that I have no idea how I thought of them in the first place. Other times I think of things that I dont even really start thinking about myself, they just pop in my head...if this makes sense to anyone then I feel your pain. OCD = shit.

[guivolution]

I can relate with everything everybody says.. incredible creative flows.. either in high and low times.. It's just that it became so important to me that I CAN and DO get lost when reading stupid articles that even SEEM to say the opposite of the general assumption..

I know: many famous writers, composers, painters, sensibility.. bla bla bla..
but it's hard to get along with your life when you have to think about that to believe you have a chance.. you have to believe in the very thing that makes you feel terrible, when you know creative flow mostly happens when you ARE feeling good..
right?

[Jeordie]

Right. You know I can understand.

[guivolution]

I have this deep feeling inside that superficiality won't be the key for me as many of the proposed recovery technique seem only to scratch the surface.. But many times I'm afraid to go deeper, it doesn't feel natural.. I'd like to just follow my instincts, expecially on things that used to come very natural to me.. like creativity, social life, relationships with cared ones..

[Jeordie]

What is "going deeper"? Isn't following your instinct going deeper? Are adults less superficial than kids? Is using your brain deeper than following your heart?

I passed through this - thinking recovery would be superficial, even stupid - that I would be a hero if I kept being depressed. But it's not. It's easier than anything else, it doesn't need you to change - you just keep being neurotic. It's just an easier, more superficial, choice, led my narcissism and masochysm at times - and it doesn't make you a hero. Change is heroic, intelligent, smart, fascinating, open minded. Beautiful. Deep.

And let's place our peace of mind first, please. It would be such a better world.

[guivolution]

doesn't look like.. I was talking about relations between rationality and intuition, about what feels natural and what is subdue by force of fears, analytical perversions.. In other words, similarities like peace of mind and stereotypes about depression didn't do the trick for me.. maybe, for others.. this is not a contest for insecure egos to prove themselves. Better yet helping eachother with NEW insights and views..
I found very interesting the difference between healthy selfrecovery, internal awareness and forced, distorted self images, fake analysis.
Read a lot of posts and I can see how more than not egos are very busy affirming their self and their provvisional solution to their instabilities. This is normal, it's fair, but it's not what I mean by going deeper..
just a new prospective, something less superficial

[superdude49]

I found very interesting the difference between healthy selfrecovery, internal awareness and forced, distorted self images, fake analysis.
l

can u give examples of this

[juliana]

Interesting subject. I think there's a correlation between creativity and anxiety. My evidence is mostly anecdotal and personal, though. I have been a graphic designer for the past 11 years and am starting a new job as a writer next week. I'm also musical -- a bit of a piano prodigy as a child. I was just talking to my mum on the phone tonight and she told me that my doctor told her when I was just a little girl that I would have problems with anxiety because of my personality type -- creative, analytical.

When I was in art school, some of my classes were more like psychological self-help groups. There were so many people dealing with anxiety and depression issues in my classes -- it seemed much more prevalent than when I was doing my first degree at university. More "creative types" seemed to equal more neuroses. That was just my experience, though.

I think I WANT to believe there's a connection because it makes it easier for me to accept my problems with anxiety and depression. I feel like it's a trade off -- I get to be bright and creative (which I love) in exchange for some negative stuff. Most things in my life have been very easy for me -- academics, art, music, being good at my job, making friends, etc. So, I got all those great qualities and I have to take some bad stuff to balance it out. If I didn't believe that, I might resort to self-pity more often than I do. ;)