Is There A Link Between Creativity And Ptsd?

[leanne1321]

Hi everyone,

I've been noticing that a lot of people on this forum seem to be very creative. There are artists, poets and I'm a writer. I know that I do it as it gives me a break from reality, others seem to use it as a way to deal with their pain. I just wondered how common it is between PTSD sufferers.

 

[Lionheart]

I like to take ugly little statuettes and repaint them. I draw, paint, write, make candles etc. My mother used to do arts and crafts with me when I was child. It is one of my favorite childhood memories, so I guess it makes sense that I am creative now.:)

 

[Nyx]

I used to write prose and poetry, I still write poetry from time to time, especially when it all is too much to handle. I'm also an actor, although I'm on my way to quitting, because it takes too much of my time and energy. But acting has helped me very very much. I also used to sow, knit and other things like this, but in time I quit everything. It's like I went dry...

 

[Muzikluvr]

View attachment 277 This is a drawing I did from a picture of my son. I've never had any formal training, but I was friend's with an artist once in college and he taught me about shading. It's actually quite lopsided. :bounce: I didn't get around to finishing it, so you can see that it's kind of half shaded in the background. :lmao:

I built a really wonderful table and chairs... and then gave it to my brother's kids. Everyone thought I was crazy, but the whole time I was building it I was thinking of my brother and I felt ashamed whenever I looked at it.:vomit: I had to give it away. I wish I had it back now. :p I made it out of Oak. I planed, and jointed the boards. I biscuit jointed the top. I mortise and tenon jointed the legs and braces. I sanded butt grooves in the seats. I made a mistake on the top of the chairs... and accidentally put a mortise on the wrong end... so I filled it with some colored hard wood. I duplicated it on both chairs and it looked like I meant to do that. ;) I sanded it all down, stained it, put a finish coat on it. And lacking any other way for them to know that I built it rather than bought it... yeah, it was that good :D, I flipped it over and routed my initials in the bottom of the table. I felt like I ruined it, and like I was shouting "LOOK! Look what I can do!" Notice me please! - Which lets face it, I was... and still am. :oops: Maybe he'll give it back to me some day...

He said it was the sturdiest kids' table and chairs he'd ever seen. They would stand on it, dance on it, do artwork on it.

Never built one for my kids... Lost my edge. :( Maybe I'll get my creativity back some day.:wave:

 

[Venator]

Art is my life, my career. I'm currently in school honing my skills.

I had posted a message on my facebook regarding my CPTSD, it was a step for me to admit it to everyone.

My anatomy teacher sent this to me:

Your a very talented artist and people with that ability see things in a different way from the norm. Many of us battle demons when we are not in creative environment. Talk soon.

 

[jock bubbleskin]

I admire your courage regarding your facebook. It's something I feel close to doing.

 

[jock bubbleskin]

I learned to act to survive as a little boy, then I learned that acting was a good way to earn a living and meet nice people. Then I learned to draw upon my acting skills to survive through the crises and traumas of remembering why I had to learn to act to survive as a little boy.

Now I realize I've been acting at being me all of my life and am finally getting my act together to stop pretending.

 

[leanne1321]

I know what you mean Jock, you always have to put on act. When people ask you, "How are you?" you tell them you're fine because that's what they want to hear, when really you want to scream out at them and tell them you're not. It gets exhausting.

 

[jock bubbleskin]

I've been noticing that a lot of people on this forum seem to be very creative. There are artists, poets and I'm a writer. I know that I do it as it gives me a break from reality, others seem to use it as a way to deal with their pain. I just wondered how common it is between PTSD sufferers.

Self-expression, art and creativity and their contribution to mental health and well-being is something I am also interested in.

Without my poetry and performance I wouldn't have been able to express myself and exorcise the ghosts of a hidden painful past. Or begin to make sense out of what I have been through. Or have a pathway to empowerment.

I don't know about PTSD so much but I read in a report into the care needs of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors* that many were to be found in the creative industries and artistic communities.

One theory was that they found more open minded tolerance, and understanding in this generally liberally minded field, and many gay, lesbian, transgender people also gravitated towards these areas of life for the same reason.

I didn't know about my abuse until I was nearly 40 years old, the PTSD like symptoms I have experienced only started then.

In the first theatre group I was in, we were a young rag-tag bunch of angry outsiders ranting at and taking the piss out of society. Venting our mutual spleens at percieved injustices perpetuated by the "patriarchal capitalist oppressors running and ruining the world". So much angst and anger had to go somewhere. A need to express powerful emotion positively resulted in my creativity in adult life.

So much intensity involved in PTSD, I feel blessed to have had the years of acting that gave me the skills to mask or express the pain and torment so I could survive and hopefully now thrive.

*It was a report published in 2005 that led to the Scottish Govt's Strategy for Survivors of CSA. Their website has changed so I can't give exact link.
http://www.survivorscotland.org.uk/research-library/item/national-strategy-document-1/

 

[jock bubbleskin]

It gets exhausting.

Absolutely. All that social acting and no-one but ourselves (and supproters) to applaud us for putting on the performance and not causing a scene with innappropriate honesty and congruence.

 

[leanne1321]

As I said, I'm a writer and my T calls it my healthy escape. I use it as a distraction, I can get so lost in writing and forget about me and my troubles. I suppose I use it the same way as a drug addict, to get that much needed escape from reality.