TED Talk- The Creative Process and Depression Link

[sarrowsmith10]

So I watched this TED talk, and it really really hit me kind of hard. I had been having thoughts lately along the lines of wow. I feel like all the creative people in my life struggle with depression and anxiety. Why is that?
I tend to strongly disagree with the arguments that its somehow popular to be "depressed" or "moody" if you are an artist. (She touches on this and how she disagrees with it)

I think there is something very real relating to the creative process that makes artists and writers feel dejected and abused by their passion.

I know the talk is long, but I'd really like to hear what other people think.

[Herofeeder]

two friends of mine have loving parents that work from home and they love hanging out with them and sometimes even chose to do that rather then going out with friends .
then you have people that have loving parents that work way far from home 8 to 10 hours and you have TV to raise you(me-semi small problems nothing that bad that cant be resolved ,but its not like i dont think about stuff that make me feel sad)
we all feel depressed a bit during the day...or maybe the week, its not that bad .
Like Robin WIlliams said"we are all a bunch of moody motherf...ers arent we" : D

when you are feeling down just go hang out with friends or watch some stand up comedy that will cheer you up in no time

[Herofeeder]

also war poverty and spreading of fear affects your mood just as sleep depravation ,so just do what i do stop watching the news dont follow drama youtube channels and you will be fine and dandy .

[sarrowsmith10]

I think what you are talking about is feeling down or feeling depressed.

This is not what people mean by, suffering from Depression, which is a mental health illness that is often treated with drugs or therapy. I think what she is trying to say is that creative people have tended to be more likely to suffer from Depression and long term grief that seems to be connected to their creativity.

It's just very interesting. I always thought that it was the other way around, that people who suffer from depression find relief from that depression by being creative. That art was more like a treatment for them, rather than depression being a symptom of having a creative mind.

[Herofeeder]

one guy that has depression said to me it was chemicals in brain making you feel depressed no matter what the outcome of the situation is(thats how he explained it) im just saying maybe people give them selves a diagnosis bcs it feels easier to be sad thinking its depression rather then solving the problem thats bumming them out

[UrMom]

I think what depresses me the most isn't so much the creative process, but the financial instability of it. I grew up knowing about money struggles, so having enough to survive dominates my entire thought process, and the idea of the thing I want to do most is creating luxury items is scary. Like, out of all the thing I enjoy doing most, why does it have to be making something people don't really need? Why couldn't my passion be Engineering, or something essential enough that people pay me for it?
That's a good video, Elizabeth talks about some nice things, and she's pretty funny.

[keii4ii]

I didn't watch the video, but just responding to the points brought up within this thread: (also, going to talk purely about depression/anxiety rather than feeling depressed)

There are tons of people, especially creators themselves, who believe depression is a part of the package of being a dedicated creator because you're constantly criticizing the product of your passion in order to improve. I disagree. I've been passionate about creating pretty much my whole life, but I didn't have emotional problems about it until like... age 33, almost 34. And it didn't come from me being a creator. It came from an unrelated life experience that caused me a lot of grief.

I've always been aware of my shortcomings as a creator. But before anxiety hit, being an imperfect creator made me HAPPY. I'd just think about how much more there was for me to learn, and how exciting that was! And look at all these amazing, super skilled creators around me! It was like a rainbow-filled dream to be surrounded by such people! I spent years being a happy creator. My experience is proof that it's possible.

But now the inside of my mind is a different place, razed down by anxiety, and I am slowly trying to rebuild things.

Interestingly, even though my anxiety was caused by an unrelated experience, if you look at just the symptoms you'd think it came from me being a creator. It made me obsessed with improving the quality of my work, the same way an anorexic is "obsessed" with getting thinner. I genuinely thought "everything would end" if I couldn't get my writing to a certain standard. It was a life or death situation in my head. Makes no sense, but that's how convincing it was.

So just because a creator is obsessed with improvement to a point where it's hurting them... doesn't necessarily mean it's their passion that's causing that pain. Their passion may be simply an outlet for the pain, but not the cause.

[agentfink]

I'm reminded of something my therapist said: "Artists drink more deeply from the cup of life" and while I understand this idea of depression linked with being a creative... here is another state of mind to consider when tapping into the creative process:

If I experience a successful/happy moment, the day after typically plunges me into depression. Often times it's art related, other times it's just life in general. I used to think I had to go into dark places to tap into creativity, but really, happiness is a much better place to be when being creative. I will say that I'm anxious when I'm not expressing... it's like denying a part of you I think. Don't know if it's experiencing life a bit more that has led me to a different state of thinking (surrounding myself with positive people, therapy, or understanding my limits but also accepting what makes me happy)-- but I am a much happier person now and I find I am at my most creative.

[NickRowler]

I was diagnosed with major depression when I was about 9. It was shortly after my family moved from the western side of the US all the way to the eastern side. I didn't really connect with anyone and hated the dramatically different school structure. However I think I did show signs of depression before that, like being labeled a "cry baby" in 1sth grade. Add that, I was also going through early puberty, and despite being 9, I had the body of someone who was 12.

Though my drive two be created came from my obsession with cartoons and my insomnia. So I just always liked coming up with stories. And I guess at one point, I decided to actually transfer that to paper. But because I had dyslexia, I could mostly just draw.

I think it is weird about a lot of the stories I came up with as a child is that a lot of them were really dark. Like, I was not really using the stories as escapism. But than again, I wasn't goth and I didn't watch horror films and preferred stuff like Barbie dolls, so I doubt most people would even expect that from me. So I don't know if my drive to create has much to do with my depression or it is just something I have always done.

[timinabox24]

I have been depressed for as long as I can remember but I have never been even a least bit creative
I still vote that the two are not related O_O

[NickRowler]

My little sister has depression but she is not very creative. However, she is very athletic.

Tho I think her depression came more from, being racially different then her family and classmates, pressure from my parents, crappy friends, and living in a area which tended to have a very high level of depression. I swear, everyone here is depressed despite it being one of the riches counties in the US. There is a lot of pressure here to be highly successful and sometimes that pressure negatively effects students. The high school I attended, despite it being "ranked highly" is also know as "that school with all the suicides".

[Michelle]

I can relate to the notion that putting the artist center-stage for both their failures and success creates an immeasurable amount of pressure, as opposed to crediting it to some mystical force. On the one hand, success can go to your head and make you egotistical, and on the other, failure can make you feel worthless and incompetent.

I've had depression long before I aspired to be a professional artist. While I don't think depression is part of the artist package, I feel my experiences with it contribute to my introspective and empathetic nature which aid me in telling stories. Depression is awful, but I've learned to utilize it where I can, considering it's not leaving anytime soon.

Also to those who says depression can be cured with a walk and a good laugh with friends, please... stop. I know you mean well, but suggestions like that show a great lack of understanding for the condition and can often alienate those who struggle with depression, making us feel broken or ungrateful when we can't laugh away our illness. There is a difference between being sad vs having a chemical imbalance, and it's not your place to decide if someone is "making themselves" depressed. Thoughts like that contribute to the negative stigma surrounding mental illness and prevent those affected from seeking help.

Depressed people do not choose to live with an illness that is quite literally life-threatening because it's "easier than dealing with their problems".

[indagold]

Well I got bipolar and literally every famous person who has it is in acting, music, poetry, arts or anything creative. There's a much more bigger link with that than depression honestly. Depression kills motivation and creativity, mania makes you want to do more but is more destructive and terrifying.

[sarrowsmith10]

Yes, I think that shift from mythological muse and taking ownership of your creativity is such an interesting point in history. Although I wonder if people still had the same thoughts and problems with self motivation and chronic depression that people have now, but perhaps never talked about it, or simply wasn't recorded anywhere.

Yes, the stigma continues. I fortunately don't have depression and never have, even with some really horrible things that have happened in my life (I of course have gone through periods of sadness, but its different). However, I have family members who do suffer from real depression and take medication and it doesn't always help. I've seen how they've been shunned, or people give them eye rolls like it isn't real. It's incredibly frustrating and it does nothing to help.

[NanettesClouds]

I'm not gonna comment on Depression/Anxiety/Mental Illness, I think @sarrowsmith10 @NickRowler and @Michelle have done a great job covering the topic.

Personally, I think sharing your success or failures with a mythical figure, be it a muse, or a belief in the notion of talent is just as damaging as taking it all for yourself.

Let's say I'm a beginner creator, I've just picked up a pencil for the first time and I'm going to make the best thing ever because that's what you do when you're a beginner. I'm talented, No one else can make what I'm about to make because I'm SPECIAL. I make the thing. It's not very good, and I realize that, and I take it to mean that I'm not talented at all and so I give up.

Let's say I'm a master of my craft and I just created a freakishly successful novel, It's because I was lucky and a muse decided to help me. I sit down to make the next thing, I take it easy because it's going to turn out fine no matter what I do. It turns out awful. The muse has left me, I decide to stop making things until I can feel the presense of the muse again. I never do. I never make another thing again.

Those are two extreemes, and they're very straw-man-ey, but I think you get the idea.

I will agree that placing all of the pressure of something being good or bad on yourself is too much, but I think fabricating reasons to distance yourself from that work isn't the way to go about solving the problem. Instead you should learn to enjoy the process of creating things, and learn to treat the end result of your work as completely disposable, and that's okay.

Focusing on the process instead of the end result gives you the freedom to experiment, it gives you permission to have fun. What people think about the result should be treated as a resource not a grade. People dont like X character? find out why, and try to experiment with it. Not because you need to top yourself but because you want to discover something new.

That's not to say that making things isn't hard and that it should be breezy all the time, but that's okay. Video Games are hard and people enjoy those, some games are designed to be as hard and unfair as they possibly can be, and people still have fun with those aswell.

TLDR. Making excuses for why you've done good or bad is bad, and you should instead enjoy the process of making the thing.

[sarrowsmith10]

Wow. This is deeply insightful. Maybe you're right, maybe removing yourself from your work doesn't encourage you to be better and grow. It's such an interesting thought!

I believe in always moving forward myself. Even if something gets super popular like the book "eat, pray, love" I would hate to think that my best work was behind me. Perhaps she's looking at her success wrong. Just because something gets big doesn't mean it's the best work you've done. It just means its popular. I had a stupid sketch on Deviantart get featured and it got really huge and it was spread around tumblr and yada yada, but by no means is it the best thing I've done. Always move forward. Try to create things that you are proud of and don't give up.