Contributing writer for Wake Up World
History is peppered with famous artists, actors and musicians who were highly intelligence and creative, and experienced significant mood swings. Some are quite notorious for their outbursts; painter Vincent Van Gogh and the composer Beethoven are two examples. Writers like Virginia Woolf and Silvia Plath also seemed to suffer from their exceptional level of creativity, where episodes of unstable behavior were common.
Sadly, if these great artists were alive today, they would most likely be coerced into taking pharmaceutical drugs to “temper” their moods. Unfortunately, this scenario doesn’t require any great stretch of the imagination, considering almost seventy-nine million Americans take some form of psychiatric drug — including over a million children under the age of five. But at what cost?
A Modern Take on the Classic “Temperamental Artist”
Throughout history, many great thinkers and artists have been known to possess “eccentric” personalities, with behavior that could be downright bizarre. But the society at the time recognized the creative genius within and gave such individuals a relative wide-berth of freedom to express their gift.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”110028″]
Today, these same people would be classified as bipolar — a chronic mental illness of extreme changes in mood, alternating between euphoric mania and the depths of depression. The episodes can occur a couple of times a week or just a few times a year.
There are three primary types, which include:
Bipolar I: One or more manic cycles either before or after a depressive episode.
Bipolar II: One or more major depressive episodes lasting at least two weeks, with a mild manic cycle lasting at least four days.
Cyclothymic disorder: Cycles of mild mania and depressive episodes that last for two years or longer. The mood swings are generally less severe in this particular form of the disorder.
Even though there are different categories of the disorder, the symptoms tend to be similar in most people. The following list from Healthline details common traits:
Depression
- persistent feelings of extreme grief or despair (depression) for a long period of time
- loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyable
- trouble concentrating, making decisions, and remembering things
- anxiety or irritability
- eating too much or too little
- sleeping too much or too little
- thinking or talking about death or suicide
- suicide attempt
Mania
- overly happy or outgoing mood for a long period of time
- severe irritability
- talking quickly, rapidly transitioning different ideas during a conversation, or having racing thoughts
- inability to focus
- starting numerous new activities or projects
- feeling very fidgety
- sleeping too little or not at all
- acting impulsively and partaking in dangerous behaviors
Hypomania
Hypomania symptoms are the same as mania symptoms, but they differ in two ways:
- With hypomania, mood swings usually aren’t severe enough to interfere significantly with a person’s ability to carry out daily activities.
- No psychotic symptoms occur during a hypomanic episode. During a manic episode, psychotic symptoms may include delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia.
What these clinical classifications fail to address, however, is that the disorder is also linked with high levels of creativity and intelligence.
The Flip Side of the Bipolar Coin
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”110030″]
When an individual is experiencing a manic or hypomania episode, they often feel inspired and ambitious, which in turn, fosters a willingness to engage in a new creative endeavor. In fact, a large number of remarkably creative people are also bipolar. And now the results of several scientific studies may help explain why this may be the case.
In one study, the team examined the IQ of nearly 2,000 8-year-old children and compared the data with those same children who developed manic traits by the age of 22 or 23. What they discovered is that high childhood IQ was positively associated with bipolar symptoms later in life.
“There is something about the genetics underlying the disorder that are advantageous. One possibility is that serious disorders of mood – such as bipolar disorder – are the price that human beings have had to pay for more adaptive traits such as intelligence, creativity and verbal proficiency,” said lead researcher Daniel Smith of the University of Glasgow.
But he’s quick to add that having a high IQ is not a clear-cut risk factor for developing the disorder. Instead, other variables — such as environmental influences like exposure to maternal influenza in the womb or childhood sexual abuse — may trigger the illness if there is a genetic tendency for it.
Another study also found a link between genetics, bipolar disorder and creativity. The researchers reviewed the DNA of over 86,000 people in the search for specific genes that increased the risk of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. They also documented if the individuals were involved in creative fields — like music, dancing, acting and writing. After analyzing the data, the team found that those who are creative are up to 25 percent more likely to carry genes associated with bipolar and schizophrenia, compared to their noncreative counterparts.
“Our findings suggest that creative people may have a genetic predisposition toward thinking differently, which, when combined with other harmful biological or environmental factors, could lead to mental illness,” Robert A. Power of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College London
For those who are diagnosed with the disorder, we need to seriously question how many of these highly intelligent and creative individuals are sacrificed on the alter of “normalcy” by way of the pharmaceutical industry — and to what end.
Article sources:
- www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/people-taking-psychiatric-drugs
- www.bjpo.rcpsych.org/content/1/1/74.abstract
- www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/childhood%20IQ%20and%20bipolar%20link.pdf [PDF]
- www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v18/n7/abs/nn.4040.html
- www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases2015/childhoodiqbipolarlink.aspx
- www.healthline.com/health/bipolar-disorder/famous-creative-people#2
- www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/19/intelligence-creativity-and-bipolar-disorder-may-share-underlying-genetics
- www.learning-mind.com/mood-disorders-high-intelligence
About the author:
Carolanne Wright enthusiastically believes if we want to see change in the world, we need to be the change. As a nutritionist, natural foods chef and wellness coach, Carolanne has encouraged others to embrace a healthy lifestyle of organic living, gratefulness and joyful orientation for over 13 years.
Through her website Thrive-Living.net, she looks forward to connecting with other like-minded people from around the world who share a similar vision. You can also follow Carolanne on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Further reading from Carolanne Wright:
- The Most Eco-Friendly Nation on the Planet is Now Carbon Negative
- Plastic Waste in the Ocean Will Outnumber Fish by 2050
- Mind Control, Subliminal Messages and the Brainwashing of America
- Monsanto Charged with Crimes Against Nature and Humanity – Set to Stand Trial in 2016
- Plastic-Eating Mushroom Discovered in the Amazon Rainforest — A Solution for Our Trash Saturated World?
- Over 100 Scientific Studies Agree: Cannabis Annihilates Cancer
- Why Every Parent Should Consider Unschooling
- First U.S. City Produces More Electricity Than It Uses — With 100% Renewable Technology
- If You Care About Animals and the Earth, Here’s Why You Need to Boycott Palm Oil Immediately
- Basic Income Guarantee: A Surprisingly Cost-Effective Method for Eliminating Poverty
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”110027″]
It’s currently out of control thanks to environmental poisons such as mercury which is allowed in trace amounts in our drinking water and still used in “silver” dental fillings. The answer to these disturbances (ADHD, bipolar, etc) is frequent low dose oral chelation.
Lol what is science?
Wow. Ummm. Nope. Sure Mercury in large doses is bad but we don’t get enough of it to cause all the problems people claim. And chelation is dangerous. It also removes other heavy metals that are beneficial like iron. It also can weaken our bones through decalcifaction. Unfortunately there’s no way to make it specific to Mercury. Everything isn’t caused by environment.
This may well be part of the problem Jason. New studied support that the SYMPTOMS labelled as “mental illness” are a result of inflammation, gut health and nutritional imbalances. The problem is that the propaganda of selling this as “mental illness” continues. Logical intelligent ppl wouldn’t have much difficulty understanding that gut health, nutritional imbalances and inflammation are just that, they are easily cured with proper diet and that they are not, never were and will never be “mental illnesses,” That ignorance and scams run so deep. “Depression” is not a disease in and of itself, it is only a symptom that something else is wrong. Suppressing those symptoms with inherently toxic allopathic drugs, is a mistake. They heal nothing and create imbalances in the body. The myths that are psychiatry are firmly engrained in the unthinking masses and will continue to own, define and control and tell such ppl what to swallow be it mercury in their drinking water and toxic amalgam in their mouths. They are after all ingesting neurotoxic drugs which may account for so much of the inability to think clearly or grasp what’s happened. They seem pretty content as they are.
You my dear, are a danger to the public. Very sad indeed.
I once said that insanity and brilliance often go hand-in-hand, as shown by Hunter S. Thompson and Jim Morrison.
You were wrong then and you remain wrong today. Its’ sad that people continue to pathologize creativity and intelligence into “madness”. Such little thinking diminishes humanity and does us all a disservice. (C)jmg 1/2/17 AB, CA
If the author didn’t have such an ax to grind with mainstream medicine she might have mentioned that the conditions she wrote about often lead to death by suicide when left untreated.
This is incorrect. In fact the black box warnings on this neurotoxic drugs state that they CAUSE suicide, homocide and the inserts show- every disease known to human kind.
If you haven’t had one of these illneses and haven’t taken any of these drugs then please stop saying these things, you’re affecting the lives of very real, suffering people, who already deal with the stigma of being ill. It’s condescending and heartless that you can look at an already severely stigmatized group and condemn the very treatment that can make their lives worth living.
First, the notion that if one has no lived experience that they should not have a voice is a violation of our collective right to free speech. This is a critical public social issue that concerns everyone.
Your second error is that human suffering equates a “mental illness, chemical imbalance, brain disease”. These are all lies that have been repeatedly exposed and admitted to, even by many prominent psychiatrists.
Stigma is CAUSED by the label that the “mental health business” uses to justify the drugging, coercion, torture (as per the UN) and force used by psychiatry to con people into taking dangerous drugs for diseases they don’t have.
All people suffer, its part of life. Many shrinks never drug consumers that attend upon them, because they actually have skills.
The truth is not condescending, it is simply the facts and everyone has a right to know them, rather than function under a delusion that ultimately simply perpetuates more lies and misinformation. It is unfortunate you are in distress and I hope you find someone qualified and caring enough to help you discover the root cause of that distress which can be 100 different things, so it can be properly treated. This is called ruling in the differential diagnosis’s and you have a legal right under informed consent to it. Best wishes
Actually that’s NOT true. First, feelings and distress are NOT disease in need of ‘treatment’, they are temporary states that have root causes that need to be uncovered and properly addressed (usually by diet and lifestyle, sometimes with talk therapy and often with real access to basic resources. Studies show that people who kill themselves are ON psych drugs and most seen their white coated drug pusher the week of they committed suicide, so wrong.
I sorry but this is BULLSHIT. The author cites 4 artists and concludes that ALL artists fit her theory? This from a nutritionist? Aren’t they the ones that gave us the high carb diets that have led to an epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes?
This article is wrong on points both large and small: It’s hard to even know where to begin to respond. As a lawyer and artist who has Bipolar Disorder (I), I can attest to the fact that successful medication can ameliorate unbearable suffering without stifling either intelligence or creativity. A number of the brilliant artists who have been posthumously diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder committed suicide. Would the author discourage people with diseases of the kidney, lungs, or skin from receiving life-saving medicines? If not, then why discourage people with debilitating diseases of the brain from getting the treatment we need to live healthy, productive lives? If you, or a friend or family member, have Bipolar Disorder, DO NOT be misled by this uninformed, potentially misleading article.
Thank you. This is so disgusting. I’m Bipolar II and medication has VASTLY improved my life. I’m able to achieve and create more than I could without it. Not every person with Bipolar might want to be on medication but that needs to be a case by case choice not something they feel pressured into because of this type of misconception.
This author knows nothing about living with an untreated mood disorder. It is often agony. Medication does not rob the world of creative intelligent people — the disease, untreated, will do that through suicide and self harm. I have lived a full, creative and occasionally joyous life for the last 20 years with medication. Without it, I would be dead by my own hand.
We need to balance our brain from speeding too fast and once balance mania disorder goes away….
Excuse me…but – what??? Are you kidding?? Are you claiming that treating bipolar and unipolar depression symptoms decreases IQ and creativity? I’ve not see any evidence of that. Just because there may be a correlation between the illnesses and intelligence does not mean that treating the illness decreases intelligence. That’s idiotic.
And even if it did, is it your claim that it is preferable for people like Sylvia Plath and Van Gogh to continue to suffer and commit suicide as they did just so we can benefit from their art? Would the world really have suffered so greatly if Plath had not killed herself? If Van Gogh nad not been tortured by his thoughts his entire life? Personally that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
I suspect you have not spent much time with actual people suffering with these maladies and seen them on and off meds like I have.
I’m a full time musician and artist, medicated for anxiety and depression. I’ve considered this before, that perhaps my creativity may be getting reigned in by my less extreme moods and impulses. Ultimately though, I choose to have a good quality of life rather than relinquish control to the rabbit hole of mental illness. In doing this I have had to cultivate a creative practice and allow myself to venture creatively without loosing my mind. Many successful people have done this, including The great John Cleese who has delivered excellent lectures on creativity, specifically how to go deeper into the creative process. The similarity between a well maintained creative practice and mental illness is total focus and dedication to the vision. Whilst I experience more emotions and interesting thoughts when I’m depressed, I’m very much demotivated and unable to see through the creative process.
Great job continuing to stigmatize psychiatric medication.
Good job at attempting to educate the people. Clearly they need more help undertanding. See Dr. Peter Breggin
What about us who live with spouses or children who are bipolar do we just leave them off medications and let them abuse us, hurt us, break our lives? Should they just simply be told they should live alone all their life? I applaud all of you that do suffer with bipolar who posted on here that this article is straight up bs!!
I don’t believe 90% of the diagnosis.
How on earth did people survive before modern diagnosis and medicine? By not being wimps.
Very few people have any of this stuff. Just manipulated to believe. Some disorders symptoms are so vague they include every member of the population.
Companies will kill you for profit. GM ignition switches, Takata airbags, Johnson & Johnson talcum powder, etc., etc., etc. You think they won’t make up disease or disorders for it?
This is industry propaganda used to con struggling artists (who often have a hard time having their work valued in society) that they are “crazy”. It should be a lot easier to see through these myths – and the posthumous “diagnosing” of dead artists as well as the need for ppl to think they are “special” and different.
Most people have gifts that come natural to them and all of us have to work to develop them and should, like in any other profession, train and learn. The notion that artists and creativity are in any way linked to the scam of “madness” is discrimination and stigma against them as a group. It is offensive and it has to stop.
All people are creative. Creativity is not a disease or “mental illness”. Because artists struggle to make it in a world that either over or under values our contributions is part of the problem. Many artists also live unhealthy lifestyles of drugs and booze, no sleep, being in toxic environments around paint etc and often live in poverty. All these situations can result in SYMPTOMS that are chronically misdiagnosed as “mental illness”.
The DSM – as per the AMA has no scientific validity. It’s a fraud and so are its “illness”. Eccentricity or being different is not a “brain disease” or “mental illness’. Creative ppl should not fall for this stupidity, we are smarter than that. Don’t sell yourself to psychiatry, in order to gain some fame or notoriety like so many others do.
The so-called genetic studies being relied on here have been dismissed elsewhere. See; Mad In America
https://www.madinamerica.com/2014/12/depression-serotonin/
-NOBEL PRIZE WINNER WRITER HEMINGWAY AFTER COMPLAINING ABOUT THE SHOCK TREATMENT GIVEN TO HIM IN MAYO CLINIC COMMITTED SUICIDE TELLING THE FOLLOWING:
“Well, what is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business. It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient. It’s a bum turn, Hotch, terrible.”-Ernest Hemingway after subjected to series of Shock treatment for so called depression and shortly before he shot himself, quoted by A.E Hotchner in Papa Hemingway(1967)
Dr Joseph Isaac famous clinical psychologist and prolific writer and author of ” Stop Psychiatric Damaging” says ” see how a nobel prize winner, writer is damaged by psychiatry, the biggest criminal fraud in human history. Psychiatry is doing this torture in the name of science in the guise of helping people. Psychiatry is not a medical science because there are absolutely no medical tests to detect mental disorders and you cannot call it even science. Psychiatry is only fraudulent damaging for problems of living, an embodiment of betrayal of mankind. “
What a totally bogus article. If this author had paused and read the biographies of any of the people she mentioned in her opening statement she would have shut up and stopped writing immediately. She would have realized at that very moment that she had NO IDEA about mental illness or what it is like to live with one. She would have acknowledged that she was WAY out of her depth. The tortured lives that those individuals lived is absolutely heartbreaking.
When will this ignorant bias against mental health treatment stop??!!? If it’s not bad enough that people with mental illness have to deal with all the stigma in society because they’re ill, but they then have to deal with this bullshit about receiVing treatment. It’s so cruel and unnecessary. Is this author saying that it’s okay, or desirable even, that people sacrifice their lives so society can benefit from their “creativity”???
This is just so disturbing.
Stigma, discrimination, liable, slander, stereotyping, defamation of character, profiling, social control, political violence, pseudo-science, fraud, misinformation, complete and utter non-sense. Creativity is not a disease, it’s a skill. This is witch hunt grounded in eugenics, an attack against a group of people who simply are either not supported in society (don’t earn enough, struggling, poor-thus a “useless eater” or over-glorified. Like all so called “mental illnesses” it’s a social construct, with no value to anyone but the system profiting off it. Shameful fraud. And because it’s so easy to con someone’s ego into agreeing that they are part of an elite “genius” club, they are easily coerced into taking the stroke. The rest of it con, as per the UN, is however, experimental torture. The biological model for “mental illness” has zero credibility. How smart do you have to be to see through this? Not very. Wake up people!