Artists & Mental Depression

Whether they make music, tell stories, paint portraits or illuminate the silver screen, artists have long had a melancholic reputation. Creative artists from Amy Tan and J.K. Rowling to Harrison Ford and Rodney Dangerfield have shared their tales of mental depression. Researchers like Charlotte Waddell, Nancy C. Andreasen and Kay Redfield Jamison continue to investigate possible links between creativity and mental illness.

Possible Causes

• According to Jim Carrey, depression feels like a constant low level of despair. Several factors facilitate this state of mind, but for the creative individual, aspects of her work may play a key role in its development. Many artists demonstrate a ruminating personality and hypersensitivity to their surroundings. Health educator Amy Scholten, MPH, suggests that these characteristics, as well as intense psychological pain, "can add depth and meaning to creative work." Immersion in environments which do not support creative tendencies and the social challenges gifted people face throughout their lifetimes may also contribute to mental depression, as such experiences may decrease self-esteem while increasing self-doubt and feelings of inferiority. In addition, most creative endeavors require isolation and solitude. Without a social support network, the artist can succumb to bouts of depression.

Suicide

• Many artists throughout history have caved under depression's power. Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Kurt Cobain, Rembrandt Bugatti and others have ended their lives, leaving behind memorials of their genius. However, not all artists who suffer from mental depression take that drastic step. Methods of coping exist to help an artist through depressive bouts so that he may live to see the effects of his work in the world.

Coping Through Work

• Artists may cope with depression through their work. ScienceNews reporter Bruce Bower observes that "fields that tolerate ambiguity and flexibility in creative expression...more readily accept practitioners with mental disorders and allow them to wrestle with their inner demons in their art." In doing so, the artist prevents herself from walling out the world and shutting down creatively.

  Creative motivator Eric Maisel emphasizes the importance of a meaningful existence when it comes to creative individuals' mental depression. By creating a "life plan"--a single sentence that summarizes one's lifelong desire--and choosing to pursue work that the sufferer finds worthy, the artist may find the meaning in his existence that was hidden within depression.

Therapeutic Choices

• Artists may also use methods similar to those a less right-brained thinker may utilize. Many take mood-altering prescription drugs while others, such as Christina Ricci and Lorraine Bracco, engage in professional counseling. Still others opt to follow Jim Carrey's example and eliminate all alcohol and drugs from their lifestyles.

Notable Sufferers

• In addition to those already mentioned, these influential artists, actors, musicians and writers have suffered through mental depression:

  Lord Byron
  Sheryl Crow
  Charles Dickens
  F. Scott Fitzgerald
  Charles Ives
  Billy Joel
  Alicia Keys
  Michelangelo
  Claude Monet
  Alanis Morissette
  Georgia O'Keefe
  Pablo Picasso
  Robert Schumann
  Peter Tchaikovsky
  Leo Tolstoy
  Mark Twain
  Vincent Van Gogh
  Tennessee Williams