Studies of artists and writers collated in Scientific American confirm that artists and writers are up to 20 times more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder (also called manic depressive illness) and 10 times more likely to suffer from depression.
writers are around eight times as likely to suffer from mental illness than those who don't pursue writing as a career, according to Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins who wrote Touched with Fire. Consider how this could impact you. …you may be more prone to depression and anxiety.
Rates of mood disorder are extremely high in the writers; 80% had some type of mood disorder, and 30% had either bipolar I or bipolar II disorder.
“Despite the long list of famous writers with depression, the link between writers and depression is not written in stone. Still, there are reasons why writers may be prone to depression, Dr. Manevitz says. For one, being familiar with misery, pain, and suffering may guide the process for some writers.
Some argue that the relationship between mental illness and creativity is more complex, that mental health problems allow people to think more creatively than others, but this creativity drops back down to average levels or lower during severe episodes of illness.
Creative people—or at least those with degrees in creative fields—have a 90 percent higher chance of being diagnosed with schizophrenia than people working in non-creative fields, according to a new study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.
Rather, the high-pressure and hectic lifestyles of many artists may lead to depressive symptoms, as tight deadlines, high expectations, fierce criticism, and intense travel are common for such individuals.
Many writers fail because they are so utterly afraid of failure. Instead of submitting their writing to different publishers, applying for writing jobs that seem like a high reach, or taking risks, they hold back. The piece is never done, it's never good enough to actually put out to the world.
Many writers have the tendency to procrastinate and overthink every detail of their article. They shy away from doing the actual work for longer than is necessary. Don't wait until you have that perfect idea before you write and publish.
The brain and writing
German researchers observed scans of writers writing their stories and found that a network of brain regions work in unison to create fiction stories (1). The brain activity of regular writers was similar to that of people skilled in complex actions such as musicians or athletes.
It's a fact that many writers are also HSP or highly sensitive people. Stephanie Chandler says in the article Why Highly Sensitive People Make Great Writers by Kate Frank: “The trait of sensitivity is about being observant and aware of the details of events and situations.
Authors tend to be predominantly artistic individuals, meaning that they are creative and original and work well in a setting that allows for self-expression. They also tend to be investigative, which means that they are quite inquisitive and curious people that often like to spend time alone with their thoughts.
The hardest part of being a writer (IMHO) is not coming up with ideas, or hitting your word count, or breathing life into your characters. It's trusting yourself. Believing in yourself. Being yourself, and being okay with that.
Intuitive personality types (58% agreeing) were by far the most likely to harbor dreams and ambitions of writing a book, agreeing at a rate 24% higher than their Observant counterparts.
Writing is a solitary pursuit and depression thrives when no one else is around to refute negative self-talk. It's so easy to become discouraged and depressed on your own. Writing is hard and it's difficult to be objective about the work when you are in the midst of it.
Studies of artists and writers collated in Scientific American confirm that artists and writers are up to 20 times more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder (also called manic depressive illness) and 10 times more likely to suffer from depression.
According to Grammarly's research, run-on sentences are among the top grammar mistakes made by writers worldwide. A run-on sentence contains two or more independent clauses (a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and that can stand alone as a sentence) that are not connected with correct punctuation.
Invention. Often the most difficult part of writing is starting to write. The process of choosing a broad topic and narrowing it down to a thesis can be both daunting and frustrating.
It could be said that the downfall of this is that many creative people develop a tendency to overthink. If this sounds like you, you'll be pleased to know that there's a very logical reason for this. Much research has confirmed the connection between creativity and overthinking.
Why is Being an Artist Lonely? An artist needs some time and space to create their art and that requires a degree of self-discipline to cut away from people and get on with the task. That's all very well in art college, or finding an hour here and there to escape the clamor of everyday life.
Lots of creative people have ADHD. ADHD challenges, like impulsivity and risk-taking, could lead to creative thinking. If people with ADHD follow through on ideas, their creativity can flourish.
A new study has found that narcissistic people are more likely to consider themselves creative and do creative things than their non-narcissistic counterparts.