Are creativity and mood disorders linked?

Creativity is important on both personal and social levels. With life becoming more complex, many people continue to search for understanding about their own creativity. Even businesses and organizations today must constantly reinvent themselves to keep up with the increasingly rapid pace of changes in their client base, in world politics, and especially in technology.

Creative people in the arts must develop a deep sensitivity to their surroundings — colors, sounds, and emotions…

I suppose being more sensitive to one’s surroundings can be a trigger for emotional mood swings. When the creativity is high, depression can be lurking in the wings, awaiting a lull in the creative process to rear its ugly head!

A major study showed a great many people suffer at least a few minor symptoms of “winter blues” or seasonal affective disorder (SAD). As an individual that suffers from SAD, I am not sure how I feel about creativity being linked with madness. This time of year I try to get at least 15 minutes of exposure to daylight…walking outside in the bitter cold is not my favorite pastime, but it helps keep the “SADness” at bay, at least until the dreaded month of February!

Experts say mental illness does not necessarily cause creativity, nor does creativity necessarily contribute to mental illness, but a certain ruminating personality type may contribute to both mental health issues and art.

Whether your creative nature is slight or extensive, personality characteristics are similar: contrariness, drive for dominion, capacity for solitude, production of personally identified works, and perhaps a tendency toward psychological “unease”. More than two thousand years ago, the great philosopher Aristotle proclaimed, “No great genius has ever been without some divine madness.” There are many examples of great artists, musicians, poets and novelists who exhibit the classic signs of major mood disorders…years from now we may well be identifying creative genius in technology, web design and a multitude of graphic pursuits. Well, if that is the case, may we all be welcomed into the ranks of greatness! (Even if we are all a bit “mad“!)