Do you have to be "unbalanced" to be a writer?

[poettess]

But this is the fear Weaver... what if I take medication and no longer feel like writing? I only feel inspired to write when I am at a polar edge of emotion. If I am in the middle I will no longer be interesting or passionate about anything. I honestly think that having mood swings defines who some people are and gives them their muse. Its the same with ADHD people... the energy and instant switching of focus allows them to excel at some jobs where others might have a difficult time of it. Maybe I should just accept who I am and prepare for it... ride the wave.

[hmrush]

I used to be so afraid that curing my emotional angst and highs and lows would affect the way I think, so I put off therapy and doctors visits as long as I possibly could. Eventually though, it got to the point that my writing and thinking when I was down was so horrible, more than just bleak and cynical. So I got up the courage to go ask questions, I talked to my therapist for a good hour about nothing but studies done on medications and how they alter moods and thoughts. I found a medication that could help me with the ceratonin but not change my mind.

You really have to keep an eye on your change in moods though, but from my experience my writing has actually gotten better because my mind is clearer, and I think just the same as I always have.

[weaver]

Hmrush,

I think you have found the perfect balance. Am glad to hear your creativity stayed with you. It makes sense that your art is part of your you-ness.

Poetess,

I hope you do see a therapist and get past the understandable fear of losing some part of you. But, you would be able to concentrate AND tell the world what you want to say. Good luck to you!!! I hope to read some of your writing.

[etudiant]

I think you are right poetess, to the extent that being creative means, for most of us, stepping outside the norm. It means avoiding clichés and stereotypes, and being able to see the world in a new and perceptive way. I think as humans we tend to symbolize and do a lot of shorthand style notation of the observed world around us. This can be useful in a functional sense, but it can also mean missing a lot.

Getting “unbalanced” is easier for some than others. Taking a camera and sitting in a park and waiting for just the right light conditions for a photo is enough for some. Meditation is a method of pulling us out of our day to day groove as well. Here in the west we tend to be more concrete and literal, and so it is more common to see the stock image of the creative writer hunched over a keyboard with a whisky bottle by their side, Hemmingway fashion. In other words, stepping outside oneself requires more drastic measures.

One’s glass can always be seen as both half empty and half full. Feeling strong emotion means to some extent being more alive, and being more alive can feed the creative spirit. But the universe doesn’t like to give away anything for free, and filling your glass to the top means there will be no air left in your container. Strong emotion, carried to enough of an extreme, can be destructive. So there is the tricky part: how much feeling is enough, before one starts to get undesirable effects? It’s a very personal question. Sometimes there is an inner voice that is enough for us, and sometimes talking to a skilled person is the ticket.

[poettess]

Thank you all for your insight. I don't think that I'm unbalanced enough to need medication at this point. I do get fairly morose but always manage to pull myself out of it. I will certainly keep in mind my options if things get unmanageable.

I was reading an article in the NY Times (nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29salinger ... r.html?hpw) about the late J.D. Salinger and it really brought home my thoughts on how disturbed some of the truly deep and insightful writers of our times were and are. I will use this muse to my best advantage and will leave you now with one of my favorite J.D. Salinger quotes...

“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as some day, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.”
- J.D. Salinger

[ChrisRippel]

I think your list of unbalanced and alcoholic writers is just an example of "confirmation bias," i.e., "the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions."

This does not prove you have to be unbalanced to be a writer.

Can you now list a bunch of balanced writers?

If you can't then you have proved that you have to be unbalanced to be a writer.

Chris Rippel

[poettess]

Well that is an interesting line of logic that you bring up. I personally don't know of any 'balanced' writers. Perhaps you can tell me of any that you know of. Even if people seem balanced, it doesn't mean that they don't battle with internal demons, so I don't know for sure how we would be able to tell who is balanced or unbalanced. And if there are provable balanced writers out there, there is no saying that their work is anything that anyone would really want to read. So please, let us in on any list you have of writers who are balanced, or even some speculations, so that we can explore your suggestion.

[geo]

I think your list of unbalanced and alcoholic writers is just an example of "confirmation bias," i.e., "the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions."

This does not prove you have to be unbalanced to be a writer.

Can you now list a bunch of balanced writers?

If you can't then you have proved that you have to be unbalanced to be a writer.

Chris Rippel

I think you're right. We tend to focus on the unbalanced writers, but quite frankly most writers were probably perfectly sane. I think it would be easier to list the unbalanced writers as opposed to the balanced.

[ChrisRippel]

Dear Poetess,

Perhaps you can tell me of any that you know of.... And if there are provable balanced writers out there, there is no saying that their work is anything that anyone would really want to read. So please, let us in on any list you have of writers who are balanced, or even some speculations, so that we can explore your suggestion.

Ok, here is a list of some well-known writers I do not associate with "unbalance." Since I am not greatly knowledgeable on the lives of great and well-known writers, I would not be surprised if some of these writers are/were loopy and I just did not know. I am also aware that some of these people you may not consider "writers" despite the fact that every one has written well-known books or, in one case, plays.

Shakespeare
Jane Austen
Bronte Sisters
Charles Dickens
Robert Lewis Stevenson
C.S. Lewis
Stephen King
J. K. Rowling
Richard Dawkins
Stephen Hawkins

[etudiant]

I guess this depends on exactly what is meant by “unbalanced”. The mania and depression experienced in bi-polar disorder are no joke. They can be exhausting for sufferers and also those around them, and even medically dangerous.

Being overly sensitive is another matter. It is the yin and the yang again- sensitivity can mean taking in more of the world and living life more fully. Too much of course can leave us open to being emotionally stepped on. Too little, and much of being human passes us by. I am lucky to live in a part of the world with a lot of natural beauty in the environment. I have often been bemused when riding a bus, and subtly observing other passengers (great fodder for writing here) stare straight ahead as we roll past mountain and glacier scenes, glinting in sunset light. I guess they have grown (or just are) insensitive to the sight, and so miss that bit of uplift in their day.

It can be easy to get comfortable in this part of the world. For most, things aren’t too bad. Except for the desperately poor, and the medically afflicted, most have a reasonable chance at a life without the fear of shattering calamity around the next corner. But comfort can also mean lack of motivation. Many that have written books are those that have been dumped out of their comfort zones one way or another. Those that have been in war or natural disaster are often then compelled to write, went they would not have considered it if not for the experience.

Looking at your list, ChrisRippel, I see the last two names are those of scientists, not writers. They have merely recorded their thoughts- important thoughts for sure, but I doubt that they would consider themselves creative writers. The next two above are the creators of pulp fiction, meant to be consumed with a can of coke and a bag of potato chips, and not thought about too much afterward. The rest I suppose are arguable. Charles Dickens seemed to have a good sensitivity to the effects of the industrial revolution on society. I wonder how that affected him? Shakespeare was undoubtedly an artistic person, who lived in fairly barbaric times. Did it affect him? Maybe he had long periods of depression when he thought about the times he lived in. Perhaps that was his motivation; looking at the crude and belligerent society he was in pushed him out of his comfort zone and compelled him to deeper contemplation of humanity. Hard to say from this distance.