Happiness or creativity?

I would indeed stomp out my own depression at the expense of my own art.

no question.

Hmmm… Good question. I think if a person is truly an artist he or she would be able to make beauty out of anything. I think artists who are depressed just take advantage of their depression and use it in a positive way. I would like very much for depression to not be an issue, and I would hope that artists would find other means for producing their much appreciated work.

Not being willing to sacrifice creativity to make depression go away is a big part of my problem. I can only make myself stay on my medication for so long before I can’t stand the indifference and give up for a few months until I can’t stand the misery and start the medication again.

I would trade in creativity for happiness any day. In a heartbeat.

Fortunately, I don’t have to. The meds are working for me. I may have lost a tad bit of an edge on the creativity side, but not much.

The extra confidence getting rid of depresion gives me more than makes up for any loss in creativity.

But, yeah. If I could only have one or the other, I’d choose happiness. In any case, it’s a myth that art is only born of suffering. Art is certainly an appropriate response to suffering. But we have much to communicate even if we aren’t suffering as much as others.

Art is made from experience and everyone has that. In spades.

In a heart beat, my creativity comes from hallucinogens, not depression :P

id make happy art…

My lifelong battle with depression never yeilded any creations, to my chagrin. I always wished that I had a creative outlet for my emotions.

Ironically, I found my happiness only after I decided to accept that I am melancholic and to embrace its gifts of depth, empathy and appreciation of others’ creations borne from their pain.

Mind you, I don’t define happiness as the giddy ignorant bliss that many do… my happiness is a sense of wholeness within myself, and a contentment of knowing that I have come this far and will be OK despite life’s challenges.

So my answer is no. I would not magically remove all depression from the earth… instead, I would magically allow each person to see all that is good about their lives, including the creative gifts that some have been blessed with.

We all seem to judge ourselves more harshly than others, and focus on our negatives; so I think shining a light on all that is positive would change the world for the better while still allowing for individuality and crativity.

Wow, hearkat! I wonder how you do that? I usually don’t believe anything good about my life is anything other than a random accident, soon to disappear. The best I seem to be able to do about positivity, is to not think negative thoughts.

That usually means I can’t think about myself. The instant I start thinking about myself, I tend to spiral down into depression. Focussing in any way at all on efforts to improve my mood seems to have the opposite effect. I only feel better when I stop thinking about feeling better. When I stop trying. When the depression is not the focus, but just a thing among other things.

I mean, in some way, my experiences are so different, that I almost don’t believe others really can do the things you describe. Could you add more detail? Explain it a bit? I’d love to have any tips you can provide on this subject. You seem to have achieved something remarkable. (at least to me)

I would much rather have an inner peace than be able to make “art”.

Even though it was my post that brought this issue up, I’m going to have to go with banishing depression. I understand what hearkat is saying, and in some ways I agree with her. The contentedness I’ve achieved has come after a long, hard fought battle, so it comes with a sense of accomplishment. A feeling of “Look at all I’ve overcome”. But you know what? I’d rather not have had to fight in the first place. Though doing away with depression might have an effect on art, it wouldn’t necessarily be a negative effect. Even if it was, I’d still take happiness.

That mythology about how you have to be unhappy or crazy to make art is just completely stupid. Someone tell me about someone who made better art when
they were messed up. Find me some statistics. I make serious art and so do most of my friends.
If we’re having a hard time, we think about how to resolve the hard time, not about how
to capitalize on it.
You know what it takes to make good art? Stability and joy.

@susanc: I’m right there with you. A person who’s able to look at the world in a clear-headed way can create equally effective art as those who use their confusion to create a certain effect.

If I was depressed, I could imagine myself taking advantage of that for my art. But merely creating art brings me joy and peace. I think the catharsis would help heal me.

@hearkat: Beautiful response.

I think it is a misconception that depression equates to great artists making great art. Although I do journal like a crazy woman when I am not stable on meds, I don’t think being manic or depressed helps my creativity. I find that most of what I write is melodramatic, “poor me” stuff that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and isn’t fit to be shared with Jack the Pug. I’ll take stability and happiness any day.

stomp out depression. art that comes from depression is usually depressing. hello, charlie kaufman’s newest.

It has been interesting watching my writing change as I went through my first hypomania, into a mixed state, and then into depression. Obviously, or maybe not so obviously, I had no idea what was happening as it happened, nor did I have any perspective on what was happening.

So, when I was manic, I knew something was different. My brain was going too fast, and I imagined it was because I had a brain tumor and it was trying to get all it’s thinking done before it died.

Some people with bipolar act out sexually. I did, too, but I did it virtually. The relationships seemed very serious to me, and I wrote tens of letters every day. When something happened in one of these relationships, it showed up immediately in my writing. My mood changes were so dramatic. I can see the day I switched from being up, to being paranoid and irrational.

As a scientist, it’s interesting in a dispassionate kind of way. As a writer it seems like good material to mine. As the person who went through it—I can barely stand to read it!

@Daloon: I have been chronically depressed, from a long line of melancholy (same family tree as Abe Lincoln). I was never manic. I do consider my depression hereditary AND learned, because of the dysfuction that was caused by mental health issues in previous generations.

I have written about my struggles in several posts, and don’t want to hijack this one. Is it possible to go to someone’s profile and see a list of Question’s they’ve answered? Or if you can see what people have given me lurve for?

There is no direct linke between depression and creativity borne out of suffering.
The only link between depression and creativity is that creative people (as a group) tend to have a higher proportion of depressives. Plenty of non-depressed people are also creative.

For my own self, my 20 year relationship with anti-depressants hasn’t affected my creativity, but has affected a fundamental way I see the world. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with that change. For that reason, I’m tapering off the meds and will see how that goes.

depression can be a terrible thing. I suffer from it as do other members of my family. However, there is a certain joy that can be found in the midst of depression.

@cdwccrn: what is that joy?

Are we stomping out all types of mental instability? I’d ditch depression any day. All the “creativity” that stems from it just seems needlessly melodramatic and rather tiresome.

The creativity that stems from when I’m feeling a bit manic is nice though.

I don’t think the desperate writing we do when we’re suffering is “art”. I think it’s good, though.

It appears that most answers here are using anecdotal evidence that art and depressions go hand in hand. This does not hold up in a full exploration of the creative process and those who have it. Some creative people who have also suffered depression are famous examples, but not necessarily the norm. My personal choice, I am most happy when I am being creative.

I think artists can be happy even when misery drives them. It can produce some real genius. We live in a creative world, plenty from real artists. I have to believe that happiness and creativity comes hand and hand. Sometimes the person responsible just might not know it.

I can’t imagine being able to do any of the ‘art’ (dont know if it deserves to be called it) i do if i was ‘happy’ or whatever. Mainly because it is the opposite feelings that drives a lot out of me and makes me want to express it. I find it easier to create the ‘atmosphere’ or whatever, that i like creating with art…
But i’ve had fun doing stuff when ive gone all manic and high on myself though, last time i painted a tree with a tree (?) and went insane with twigs, spaghetti, brushes, leaves and string on massive bits of paper with black and red paint =D
It was fun man!

Personally , creativity IS happiness.