Mental Illness: Don’t Throw Out the Good With the Bad

[Buster's Uncle]

Mental Illness: Don’t Throw Out the Good With the Bad
Takepart.com – 3 hrs ago.. .

 
The relationship between creativity and mental illness has been well-documented. Now a new study confirms that bipolar disorder is found more commonly among people in artistic or scientific professions.
 
In fact, the authors of the study note successful authors and artists may have risen to the top of their professions in part due to their mental illnesses. The study suggests society should value and safeguard the positive characteristics that may accompany some psychiatric disorders.
 
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, examined data from 1.2 million Swedish psychiatric patients and their relatives over 40 years. They found that bipolar disorder—a mood disorder that features moods that fluctuate between extreme highs and lows—is more common among people who are scientists, researchers, dancers, photographers, authors and artists.
 
MORE: Healing Mental Illness Through Art
 
Schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders and substance-abuse disorders were more common among writers. Authors were also found to be 50 percent more likely to take their own lives compared to people in the general population. The study was published online recently in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
 
Genetics may play a strong role between creativity and mental illness. The researchers found that the relatives of people with mental illness were more likely to be in creative professions.
 
Creativity in mentally ill people if often celebrated—the work of Vincent van Gogh, Ludwig van Beethoven and playwright Eugene O'Neill comes to mind. But even though creative endeavors typically enhance wellbeing, the healthcare profession has rarely taken the view that some aspects of mental illness may be beneficial, the author of the study, Simon Kyaga, of the Karolinska Institute, told TakePart.
 
MORE: VeriPsych Says It Can Spot Depression, Schizophrenia in Blood
 
Instead, mental illness is seen as black or white, a distinction that "might miss adaptive characteristics in people with mental disorders," he says.
 
"However this does not mean that these patients are 'not ill' and should not be treated," Kyaga adds. "It simply means that doctors need to take into account a broader perspective on patients' symptoms and situations when recommending treatment."
 
A more sophisticated approach to treatment would consider all aspects of the illness, he says. Traditionally, the treatment of mental illness constitutes an attempt to subdue all aspects of the illness. But that could mean extinguishing an individual's creativity and the enjoyment and fulfillment that comes from it.
 
"It is therefore essential to combine knowledge from large clinical trials with individual information on the patient seeking help," says Kyaga, a doctoral student in the department for medical epidemiology and biostatistics. "This probably calls for a more individualized approach to treatment."
 
MORE: Catherine Zeta-Jones' Honesty Helps Shed Light on Bipolar Disorder
 
More research is needed on how to best treat the negative aspects of mental illness while preserving positive characteristics, such as the effects of various medications on creativity, he says. Such an approach would require more intensive work between doctors and their patients than currently takes place.
 
This approach would involve "continuously monitoring effects as well as side effects and choosing medication and psychotherapeutic interventions that best suits the individual patient," Kyaga says.
 
The scientific pursuit on the link between creativity and mental illness might even reveal something about the biological underpinnings of the disease, he says.

http://news.yahoo.com/mental-illness-don-t-throw-good-bad-175030309.html

Seing as how we have a goodly supply of some what crazy people here, I imagine this article will draw a bit of comment...

[Unorthodox]

I was rather suicidal prior to finding my outlet.  I NEED to sculpt, plain and simple.  I'm no fun when I'm not.  That I choose that to be directed at Halloween is just a side effect, really.  I'm perfectly happy doing the happy joy joy stuff I occasionally get comissioned to do as well.

I've always said you can't write (good) poetry unless you are depressed as well. 

Having watched my mom's bipolar author life, I'm not surprised authors are high suicide risks. 

[Buster's Uncle]

It's been a long slog to achieve what stablity I have.

They left out comedians, you know.  Stand-up comedians are some messed-up people.

I couldn't say if that's true about poetry; I never really wrote any when I wasn't depressed.  "Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry. / Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still, / For poetry makes nothing happen"

[Green1]

What they fail to realize when it comes to mental health is that everyone wants to feel fulfilled and do something that they enjoy. I have a deep feeling most of the problems that are curable (ie: not schitzophrenia, mental retardation, etc) stems from being in poisonous environments like horrid work places, relationships, etc.

Drug use, addictions, etc is what people do to self medicatebecause of the above.

At least that is what I have found.