Where There’s Muck There's Brass – How Mental Health And Creativity Can Cooperate

Mental health problems are not fun, not only do you miss out on things that would otherwise be available, you also create extra work for the people around you which can make you feel worse. Being fully able to recognise the unhelpful thoughts and feelings is one thing but navigating them during daily activity is another. Creativity is something that many people gravitate towards who have mental health problems. Is this related to type or is it a chosen source of relief? The answer is probably both. What’s going on and why is it often helpful? 
 
Being creative and having the ability to build upon things to make new things, or change the way a thing is used, is a culture that is learned through activity. We each have varying degrees of creative reach on our own, the imagination works differently for each of us, but with the help of others we can build much bigger pictures from the combined ideas of the group. Allowing people and encouraging them to be a member of these creative groups in problems solving, games playing, and role-play mind experiments, helps people to exercise their creative muscles. A culture of innovation and creativity provokes creative thinking and intelligent appreciation.  
 
The creative and innovative mindset has to learn to utilise both progressive and conservative attitudes towards the world and their work. Disruption without value is useless and value without change is stagnation and uncompetitive. A free-thinking and open environment is essential for effective problem solving. Putting restraints on appropriate thought and reasonable methods will only hamper the creative ability of the whole. What is considered reasonable and appropriate can be discussed in terms of harm and emotional relevance. In mental health problems, the appropriate and reasonable limitations may be much wider than usual. 
 
One of the biggest fuelling agents of creativity is change. When new problems arise, we have to find new ways of solving them. Often, if things are stable and we have a well-greased operation already, the desire to change and create is less imperative. The world doesn’t really work like this and things around us are always changing. Even people change. When it becomes a problem for us, that’s when we choose to use creativity and innovation the most. If we have a creative job then the problem is always there as we’re responsible for creating new things all the time. Creative and competitive environments require a continual output of new ideas that fit the pattern that people want.  
 
It can also be said that one of the biggest causes of mental disorder is change, too. This means that when we’re forced to adapt or think about something in a new way, when something unwanted happens, we are more susceptible to experiencing problems with our mental health. The way the mind completes the grieving process is different for all of us, and the sadness part of it can be prolonged and detrimental. Depression has a tendency to appear even when there is no immediate source of grief. There may be more subliminal and subconscious reasons behind the melancholia that if unattended can mature into long-term depression. Our perceptions of the world and the rules we feel are important may be hiding the causes behind ethical or intellectual boundaries.  
 
When we find new and disruptive creative enterprises, we can navigate wider change in a positive and intentionally forward-facing way. Clearly, we might need to accept our human frailty when handling personal loss and changes that require some sort of emotional adjustment however new technology, new politics, new discoveries, they can all help to improve our creative and problem-solving toolkit. Mental health problems often find people thinking in unconventional ways, the depressive or manic mindset often results in peculiar thoughts and strangely magnified feelings. It’s this ability to think and feel in sensitive and far-reaching ways that can make creative projects more relevant, more disruptive, and more valuable. Instead of using the screwdriver to twist your feelings, use it to fix the circuit.  
 
It’s been a common-sense association since times before scientific investigation became the go-to place for value in reasoning. People who are mentally unwell tend to be more creative. Perhaps this is because from a sane and well person’s view, the mentally unwell person seems creative with their speech and actions. They might not be deliberately acting creatively. The career choice phenomenon can be studied in modern times with statistics. It can be shown that people who work in creative industries are more likely to express mental health problems of some kind.  
 
What kind of mental health problems are there and how to they relate to creativity? Psychologists have for a long time been able to determine two types of mental health disorder that can then be branched into many other varieties. There is the depressive branch and the bipolar or manic branch. Depressive disorders are susceptible to finding problems and flaws, they struggle to see the good side of things and are often drawn to the worst-case scenario. When applied to quality control and finding problems in the everyday things that can be improved upon, this kind of focus is really important. Using the negative eye to pick at the things you’re charged with improving or feel you can improve is a much better use of the energy. Bipolar disorders tend to swing from lethargy and depression to spontaneity and hyperactivity. Racing thoughts and eternal trains of emotion can swing to absolute withdrawal and broken self-esteem. It can be like a balancing act to stay somewhere in the middle and if you end up falling in one direction it’s almost certain the backward motion will be equally as challenging. Finding a purpose for the creative and abstract mental patterns that expresses itself artistically and beneficially is a skill that can be learned. Music, writing, painting, or any other form of projected expression is a useful tool for managing this mental process.  
 
It’s not to be stated that work done by the mentally ill is any good for the sake of the illness. A person must be willing to learn their craft and their mental process has to be trained in order to fully utilise the mental energy. Being able to do the things first and then applying the mental energy to the thing is how it can be successful for the benefit of more than simple relief. Getting the value out of the chaos can be therapeutic and empowering instead of traumatic and self-destructive. Even people who don’t have a skill or the ability to learn one can communicate their intuitive ideas in a constructive way when bringing up their thoughts. Putting the information into the world so it can be used in a proper way is a useful and valuable contribution. Remembering to keep things based in reality is a challenge, so learning to accept questions and facts that eddy the flow of mental energy as beneficial is essential. It requires a calm mind which is also an essential skill for managing mental health problems.  
 
An uncalm mind in any kind of mental illness can be highly traumatic and even dangerous to the self and others. It’s a sad fact that suicides are also more common in creative people. This is an example of out of the box thinking that if used productively could likely have solved a lot of problems. The issue was the focus on the negative that combines with the desire to resolve a problem. Self-worth is therefore an essential nourishment for all people who struggle with their mental health, not too much and not too little is how to get it right. We often shower ourselves in it or refuse to give any at all in a way of coping with how we feel about ourselves and our place in the world. If we feel we are owed something then we might be more susceptible to overdoing it, leading to being easily pulled down, and if we feel we are not achieving enough we may underdo it, meaning that one more step down is a step into hell. It’s important to keep it in the middle.   
 
The prominent form of mental illness in the creative industry is the mania branch. People with manic thoughts and emotions are more likely to express creative ideas because mania is associated with abstract thinking and loosely connected flows of concept. In some cases, manic thoughts can be three or four steps ahead of the reality with assumptions holding the ideas together like cards, and when one is taken away it can be distressing. This means that once again, staying calm and considered is a key skill in both utilising the creative output and maintaining a healthy state of being. A therapy for the condition and a way of using the condition work together to make effective thinking. Manic ideas are often funny and inventively comedic, and this has been shown again and again with various comedians who openly struggle with mental health problems. The emotional reward that the manic idea creates is the impulse that creates a feedback loop which can be dangerous if left unchecked. However, if used properly, it can be used to create engaging stories and exciting new concepts that can be highly valuable to the wider world.  
 
It has been shown that those of us who excel at language and music are the ones who are more likely to express mental health problems later in life. These subjects point towards a sense of inner awareness that might not be available for others. The ability to find and use words and the ability to appreciate and academicise the subject of music is a pointer to a depth of inner awareness that goes beyond the initial primary thoughts and feelings that we usually have. Rumination and deep thought are more likely to be associated with mental health, possibly because those who are able to express it are the ones who do and those without those skills find it more difficult to express or perhaps, they simply don’t find the problem at the same rate.  
 
The same symptoms of mental health problems, when used professionally and with mindfulness, can be useful. Problem finding, problem solving, fresh ideas, cheaper methods, and risk taking are all highly sought after skills in the creative industry and beyond. Even a shopkeeper needs those skills as they create communities and loyalty. Being a person with the type of personality that is likely to have mental health problems means that a creative output might be a great way of exercising those parts of you that need work. Finding appropriate and reasonable ways to put your thoughts and feelings into the world that can benefit other people is a great way of finding worth in the things that might otherwise be problematic. Learning creative skills is a brilliant way of training the mind to learn coping mechanisms and safe routes for expression. You might even benefit others with what you produce. The better you get the more this will be the case.  
 
The well person with the mental capability to think and feel abstractly with limitless range is a true asset to any organisation or cause. So, it is in the interests of all to stay well and learn to appreciate who you are by seeing the good side of what your mind finds natural and easy. If you struggle with mental health, you don’t need another person to tell you about it. Looking for mental health problems when there are none is a pointless activity, look for the skills you need to succeed creatively instead.  
 
Further reading: Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character
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