Written on May 27, 2011
Updated on May 27, 2025
If Van Gogh took psychiatric medication, would there be a nightlife – or would the world be a little darker? Let us separate romantic myths from true science and life. Not rarely, in BipolarI get comments on how if famous artists with mental illness had medication, we would not have their art today. Psychiatric medication and creativity are simply perennial issues. Their example is always Vincent van Gogh. Without his unseen mental illness, they argue that Van Gogh would not be the great artist we know to be today. And if that is true, then others should not take psychiatric drugs, as they want to be great artists.
Then. Let us all get out of our medicines and paint. And cut our ears.
Creativity and mental illness
There is no doubt that being crazy makes you see things in a new way. I know I can see things in ways that others can’t. It is also a turbulent benefit of colors and a dramatic obstacle. I constantly deal with the people who look at me in curious ways as they try to wrap their heads around what-the-head logic that my thoughts try to do. It is no average achievement.
But this is not all bipolar. This is creativity. I was creative before I was crazy, before medication. And I’m creative now, for Psych Moardication.
Why does this myth insist on psychiatric medicine
I had a suburban moments where I have written and writes and writes and writes. Thousands and thousands of words have been spilled by my skull. And it was brilliant.
Or at least, I thought about it at that moment.
Subanish (and maniac) people believe they are brilliant. Think of being incredibly talented and creative. Think they are geniuses. Does not mean that it is in reality. When I have reviewed the writings I have produced when subomanically, it is the farthest from bright. They are inches away from foolishly.
Creativity and psychiatric medication
Ever since I am on recreational drugs, I have written thousands of pages. Thousands. Some professional, some not, but many pretty comic and creative. I have a talent and this talent has not been magically removed due to psychiatric medication.
Of course, if I am very depressed because of the bipolar to get off the couch, this has rather adverse effects on the production of anything, talented or not.
Artists, psychiatric drugs, creativity and death
But so you don’t agree with me. You have personally found that you are bright from the drugs and not. Well. Fine. And maybe you think you’ll be willing to break up with your ear to be van gogh. Well. Fine.
But you may want to keep in mind some truly brilliant people killed by mental illness, including Van Gogh, whose depression has worsened during his life, making him unable to paint, leading to his suicide at the age of 37.
And then there are others Famous artists who died of suicide:
- Robin Williams – Suicide at 63
- Kate Spade – suicide at 55
- Marilyn Monroe – Suicide on 36
- Hunter S. Thompson – Suicide at 67
- Sylvia Plath – Suicide on 30
- Kurt Cobain – Suicide on 27
- Ernest Hemingway – Suicide at 62 (and only in case you question the genetics, the father, brother and sister also died of suicide)
- Diane Arbus – suicide at 48
- Alexander McQueen – Suicide on 41
- Virginia Woolf – Suicide on 59? Here is part of her suicide note to her husband:
I feel confident that I will go crazy again. I feel that we cannot go through another of these terrible times. And I won’t recover this time. I start listening to voices and I can’t focus. So I do what seems the best thing to do. . . I don’t think two people could have been happier until this terrible disease came. I can no longer fight. . . I can’t read.
There are, of course, a whole set of other talented people, both well -known and unknown, who had also diminished their lives with suicide.
And my guess is that loved ones from each of these people want the psychiatric treatment available for their loved ones. No one wants a painting more than their daughter or son.
Psych Fargation destroys creativity and art
So don’t give me the argument of nonsense that drugs are “bad” because they hinder creativity. Because you know what really kills your creativity?
Death.
I will leave you with this passage of a poem about suicide that really leads home this point:
The choice
by Lesléa Newman
. . .
Or you can lift the knife
from the kitchen drawer
and release the veins
rising to meet the skin
There is no one
Save the poems you can write
Keep in mind that I do not say that no one has ever experienced a reduction in art production due to psychiatric medication. I just say it’s a poor excuse for not taking drugs. It really loses the whole thing. Your life is more important than art. Just ask anyone who loves you. (Also the correct medicine can reduce this issue completely.)
