How fine is the line between creativity and crazy?

It depends on the person. Many folks with bipolar are creative. The percent of bipolar folks that are creative is supposed to be greater than that of the general population, but there’s no way to really tell, so we have to be suspicious of that idea. Anyway, while a large number of bipolar folk may be creative, that doesn’t mean that a large number of creative folk are bipolar.

I don’t think you have to be crazy to be creative. I think it helps, but it’s not a requirement. I think anyone can learn to stop strait-jacketing their creativity. I believe we are all born creative, but that most of us have it stamped out in the name of normality. That’s just a belief. I don’t have any scientific support for that idea.

As to why creative types might commit suicide—it could be something real, and it might be because a lot of creative types are also bipolar. It could also just be a perceptual issue. Again, hard to measure. How would you compare suicide rates between “normals” and “creatives?” So I am suspicious of any claim like this, just as I am suspicious of the idea that bipolars are more creative.

As to the last question—do meds take away creativity—I don’t think so. Some people here have known me before and after I was diagnosed. It would be interesting to see what they say. The only thing the meds have done is screw with my ability to recall words. I know the concepts, I just can’t remember the name of the concepts. This happens much more now than it used to.

The other thing that has happened is that I don’t feel like I’m as quick to understand intellectual concepts, particularly really complicated ones, as I used to be. This could be for other reasons, too. Stress could also make me less quick on the uptake.

In know others feel like they lose creativity with the meds, but I’m suspicious of that. I think they like the mania—which feels creative, but is generally disorganized and results in few, if any accomplishments. It’s like a drug, though. Your mind races, and you feel smarter (I don’t think we are), and you are more outgoing and confident, and for people with low self esteem, that can be so attractive. But personally, I wouldn’t trade in my equanimity for the sturm und drang of mania, even if it did get me laid (mostly virtually) more.

@daloon I suffer from that too, the not remembering the words for the concepts in conversation. I think it has more to do with getting older than anything. Thanks for your insight on this question, very much appreciated.

My son was in music school and decided he needed to quit his meds because it was affecting his creativity. The result: creativity increased, also, he was unable to adhere to the discipline of study and attending class so school went down the tubes.

Creativity doesn’t always mean the Arts. There are creative people everywhere around us. Sometimes in the Arts people are seeking a perfection or an ability to achieve something beyond human capacity. When they can’t it makes them feel like failures. Of course that is at the root of most suicides, a sense of failure as a person.

This egocentricity is just more apparent among people who are expected or allowed to express their feelings freely but it is present in all parts of society.

I suffered from mental illness, but I’m not artistic, or musically inclined…I feel like I got shafted. haha.
I feel I am more creative and unique in the ways my mind works, and processes things.

I do think medicine changes people, and takes away their creativity and their unique personality.

@casheroo like galileogirl says, creativity isn’t just the Arts. Creativity applies in almost any discipline imaginable. Take driving for example, anyone can drive well, but it takes a special person to be able to do it with an instinctiveness that borders on the miraculous. Skills, talents, creativity, they are all intertwined, in my opinion. I’m curious about how your mind works, and would love to hear more.

Just because the stick figures you draw look like they are in excruciating pain doesn’t mean you aren’t creative, it just means you like to draw stick figures that suffer like the rest of us. Why should stick figures have it easy?

Thanks to everyone for the answers so far.

I think that a fine line does exist there. In fact, mine is not visible to the human eye.

I can only speak for me, personally. My best work comes when I am deeply depressed. There is little spark or desire to write when I am medicated and reasonably happy.

@Supacase—so, what do you do? Give up the meds?

@daloon No, I stay on the meds. At this point in my life, the ability to care for my child is more important than writing. Maybe I’ll be one of those crazy, creative old women who scares the neighborhood children after the kid is grown.

@Supacase—Have you tried writing while on meds? If you have a kid, it seems like that could be just as likely to be the reason you don’t feel creative. Kids take a huge amount of energy. Well, you know that.

It’s definitley a very fine line, but I think creativity requires harnessing crazy into productive creation.

@daloon I have tried, but it isn’t the same. It doesn’t flow out of me as easily.

I don’t think there’s any such line. Many people can be crazy and creative, just as many can be creative and completely sane. I’m assuming by crazy you mean insane, and not just zany.

There is no line. They are 100% subjective and, therefore, interchangeable.

I’d like to know what collective mental illness humans share that instills in them an unquenchable need to label everything.

@Blondesjon that one is simple, people need ways to define their world, and putting labels on things (including people) makes it easier to cope. Unfortunately, the labelers are usually wrong, and label out of fear or ignorance rather than out of empathy or understanding.

@evelyns_pet_zebra…i knew there was a reason i lurve you

@Blondesjon and here I thought it was my tight bum and shapely legs!

Sometimes there’s no line.

@evelyns_pet_zebra & @Blondesjon I like where this is going.

If you make up a story, you’re creative. If you believe it’s real, you’re crazy.

@Blondesjon, God started it.

“And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.” (Genesis 2:19–20)

What this tells us, at the very least, is that the compulsion to label is a long recognized human trait and is tied to some assumption of authority, as if language conferred power.

An old magical belief is that to know the name of a thing or a person is to have power over it. That is why in many societies people will not answer the question “What is your name?” and will not tell their name to a stranger.

It’s my theory that in the beginnings of language, all words were nouns—names of things.

@Jeruba Yes, all things useful eventually come into ties with authority; and I agree that nouns had to have come first because they’re concrete, opposed to verbs being abstract; but keep in mind that the first nouns were simply for the sake of communication, and that’s why we continue to make labels for complex themes—to communicate our ideas. At times, we all make use of large words to ascertain our authority, but that’s not always the case.

@Jeruba wrong question?

@YARNLADY, nooo…answering Jon’s remark above: “I’d like to know what collective mental illness humans share that instills in them an unquenchable need to label everything.”

@Jeruba OK, I thought it belonged on the question about names for things