Writing | Creativity

The Shadow Side of Creativity

And the benefits of shadow work for creatives

Many creatives create their best work in times of sadness and turmoil because they merge emotions into the work to better tell the story. (Photo: mohamed Hassan)

If you wanted to make a jolly person with no predisposition to depression sad, you could isolate him from his friends, stick him in front of a computer for hours a day, feed him a typical writer’s diet — breakfast biscuits and frozen meals — and convince him that his self-worth depended on his “stats.”

Writers, singers, actors and actresses, models, painters, entertainers, and other artists are in the top 10 professions in which people are most likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.

When Swedish researchers looked for a link between creativity and mental illness, they found that artists have a slightly increased risk for depression and suicide, and they also have higher rates of mood disorders.

Writing from experience, having had my fair share of anxiety and depression as a hyper-creative, I think this to be true and a real problem for creatives — a problem we don’t discuss and bring attention and awareness to.

Lack of sleep, exercise, natural light, proper nutrition, and connection can be a recipe for depression.