The Relationship Between Creativity and Mental Illness
brainpickings.org
brainpickings.org
The following isn't blowing my own trumpet, but is framing for my perspective. The last IQ test I had (for what it's worth, I put little stead in their worth, and was made to do it by a concerned employer) placed me in the "profoundly gifted" category - just north of 180.
I have been outright miserable for my entire existence. As I've learned to better understand my own behaviour and impulses in the context of how humans generally work, it has become increasingly evident that my dissatisfaction stems from an excess of analytical thought, particularly when applied to "what if" scenarios.
This leaves me usually exceptionally well prepared for most situations life throws at me, through my incessant internal roleplaying, however also results in me "experiencing" many negative situations and outcomes, in order to understand how to either mitigate against them or to deal with them when they arise - and the emotions that come with them.
This results in a fixation on negative outcomes, which in turn feeds into anxiety, paranoia, and depression - as negative outcomes are far more common in most situations than positive - and mandate more attention so that they can be avoided.
In any case - I'd argue that creativity doesn't stem from mental illness, and that in fact depression as reported in many of these individuals (particularly given the absence of schizoid traits) stems from a similar source, in overanalysing situations. It's a correlating factor, not a causative one.
There's also the question of association, which is noted in the article, which I can to some extent vouch for. Much of my utility in what I do for my day job arises from being able to make associations from the aether that others don't seem to see, and posit solutions to multi-variable problems rapidly. It's a disconcerting feeling when you delve - something akin to turning off a chunk of rational thought, and letting the answers emerge from somewhere in my visual memory/thought processes. Also, outside of general problem solving, this results in strange associations, which usually emerge from me as baroque and obtuse metaphors - which again feed to the "mental illness" angle, it's somewhat inevitable that "this dude is nuts" is the conclusion others would and do take.
Anyway, just my $0.02 autopsychoanalysis.
Oh, and dysthymia was what they decided to diagnose me with when I last saw a shrink. Whatever.
Edit: just occurred to me as relevant to this - I had my genome done last year, and I have completely buggered serotonin and dopamine systems, and an overamped oxycontin system. Whether this feeds into this, I don't know, but I would suspect so. I get no sense of achievement from anything, which pushes me to always do more, learn more, be more.
Meditation has really helped me in that department, I'm now happier, anxiety is basically gone, and live better now.
If you haven't heard about this book, let me recommend it to you: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - Shunryu Suzuki (this is how I entered myself into this buddhism thing).
I'd suggest starting with the book "Mindfulness in Plain English", available from free online. Another good book, available online, is "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha".
Also, try some audio talks from Jack Cornfield, Pema Chodron, Gil Frondal, Shinzen Young, or whoever seems to work for you. Listen to them when you go on a drive more than half an hour. But the important thing is to put in some time meditating.
Obviously not everyone will be comfortable with that path (and obviously I still question some things, I just consciously choose to question much, much less than I used to) but I'm mentioning it as an option because it's basically the answer to that "pursuit of happiness" garbage that people always talk about. It's just a lot easier to be happy when you allow yourself to be pleased with simple things.
I rather wish there were a stupid pill I could take. I always envied Charlie in Algernon.
May I ask where did you get it done? Is this something I can gather from my 23&me results?
Edit: specifically, I have two short form 5-HTTLPR (gs290) (serotonin transport) (and various other uncommon serotonin linked SNPs, some linked with suicidal behaviour and schizophrenia, woohoo), rs1800497(C;T), which would be the origin of my absent dopamine reward cycle, rs6323(G;G), which interferes with serotonin, dopamine, epineprine, and norepinephrine.
Oh, and I have a grab-bag of SNPs both common and uncommon, which taken together mean that the vast majority of antidepressants and many painkillers (opiates) simply do not work on me - no pain relief, just extra pain and nausea... fun times in hospital when I learned that one.
I couldn't generate streams of vivid ideas anymore, but I'm much less fuzzy and kind-of "psychotic" I'd say.
I was great with words (In russian which is my native language) - I couldn't write so cool and fast anymore. I guess I'm less funny now.
But I'm more steady and confident. I'm dumber, but I'm much more happier.
Aerobic fitness has been shown to have significant correlation to executive function in the brain, which affects decision-making, mood, and the speed of information processing.
Weight training has not yet been shown to have significant cognitive effects, either positive or negative.
As a lifelong swimmer, I can also say from personal experience that my focus and motivation seriously benefit from maintaining a routine exercise program.
Your perceived lapses in cognitive function are are probably more behavioral; instead of standing around thinking and smoking, now you are spending that time engaged in both mind and body.
I think it means that it's not an exercise for the mind; not mentally stimulating.
If you are 'stupid' (not necessarily intellectually, but in some ways), the neurosis (psychosis is a strong word, no?) is less, you don't think about things you shouldn't (bothersome, existentially) and you have a healthy and comfortable intellectual-emotional life.
If you are very smart/smart, you can get beyond the temporary plateau of 'thoughtfulness' that also brings neurosis. You think about things that are bothersome, but you have enough mental strength to overcome and suppress them. You're high-functioning intellectually, and it doesn't take a toll on your psychosis.
If you're in the 'middle', you tend to think about things, and keep thinking till you've found reasonable solution. It is bothersome, depressing, and often not pleasant. But you have the gift of 'thinking', and you like using it. It's a stimulating albeit mentally tiring existence.
When you say you're 'dumber', I interpret it as you saying you've trained yourself not to ponder upon things that will lead to no obvious outlet. Maybe you've genuinely trained yourself to never think about certain things, maybe you've trained to control your bothersome thoughts on command. Either way, you've trained your thoughts to a 'different level'.
/armchairAnalysis
I can, happily, quash general anxious negative outcome thoughts (i.e. fixation on a specific negative thought) - but just having to go through them all, even once, as part of the human path-finding algorithm still takes its toll.
Ultimately the benefit, in terms of having Seldon-esque pre-sight on many matters (although I don't hesitate to admit that I do get things wrong, as the imp of the perverse likes to roll the dice from time to time), outweighs the toll - although I do, from time to time, worry that I will end up in a straightjacket.
[1] Any scientific study is going to use the Big Five definition of neuroticism, of course. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits
> This leaves me usually exceptionally well prepared for most situations life throws at me, through my incessant internal roleplaying, however also results in me "experiencing" many negative situations and outcomes, in order to understand how to either mitigate against them or to deal with them when they arise - and the emotions that come with them.
I do this ALL the time. I tried explaining it to my family once...they looked at me as if I just told them I'm a schizophrenic. I'm not having a conversation with myself and I don't believe these scenarios are real. I'm role playing because it helps me predict lots of possible scenarios and how people might react in those situations, which then lets me make more informed decisions about how to handle situations such as those and finds me less frequently being caught off guard.
Why they didn't understand this, I do not know. I'm glad at least someone does.
You can learn to observe when you're fixating on negative outcomes so that you can change how you think and thus how you feel. If your brain is a Ferrari, learn how to drive it. I recommend looking up the "Ten Twisted Ways of Thinking"; I've seen those patterns of irrational thinking again and again in the intelligent depressed people I've known (myself included), and learning to recognize them and deal with them makes a huge difference. Just because you're extremely intelligent doesn't mean that all of your thoughts are correct or valid or worth thinking about, but there's also no reason to express internal anger at yourself for having an irrational thought. I had a diagnosis of major depressive disorder several years ago, but after learning to watch my assumptions and when I'm fixating or about to fixate on negative outcomes, I no longer meet any of the criteria for that diagnosis.
That said, I also get no sense of achievement from anything, but I do enjoy continually learning more and doing more because it keeps my mind busy on positive outcomes. Actually finishing things is less relevant to me except when their incompleteness becomes obnoxious.
I'm at the 99.9+ percentile (I haven't found a psychometrician to take tests with higher ceilings) and I can relate to much of what you said, including having to learn how to be more "human", e.g. how much my tone of voice matters to others, that I'm allowed to stop working sometimes and relax, etc.
I also had problems with anxiety and depression (but never paranoia) and I second what others said that meditation works. It works in the scientific sense, but it's not been easy for me to achieve success through it. However, what little benefit it's had was enough that I can now say I'm generally happy (but nothing fills the emptiness, you just learn that that's how things are). I read some Zen and Mindfulness material (also see Sam Harris as it's hard to find this material stripped of its religious culture) and that has helped me. These are my recommendations.
Where did you get your genome done that you could see results about serotonin and dopamine? I'd be extremely curious to do that. I sent my dna to 23andme and I do have the health results online (they don't do that anymore) but nothing about serotonin or dopamine. I think they do give me my complete genome, and if so maybe it would just be a matter of matching bits of it? (Edit: saw your other comment, downloaded my data from 23andMe and I'm reading through the Promethease report right now).
Do you switch projects often without getting close to finishing them? I start projects to see if I can do something; I never can, so that prompts me to learn (a passive activity) and then I can do it; but as soon as I find out I can do it (sometimes just something clicking in my head is enough) I'm uninterested in the project (say, a game, after I've learned rigid body physics) and so I abandon it and move on to something harder, or something else I can't (yet) do. I never doubt I can learn something but synthesizing knowledge into a product is nearly impossible for me outside work. And the things I do complete (work or otherwise) do not teach my brain that finishing is a good thing that I should do more often.
There's an interesting view that while men aren't "better" than women, they are more distributed. That is, the distribution graph of talent (or any quality) is flatter for men than for women. So, you have more men at the extremes than women: more tall more, more short men; more geniuses; more idiots; etc.
There's a fascinating argument for this observation: women have two X chromosomes, while men only have one. The presence of a second X chromosome has different effects depending on the gene, but often acts as a backup or an averaging.
So, if there's some new gene going around that has wonderful properies, men get the full dose of it, women only get half. If the new gene has terrible properties or just doesn't work properly, men suffer the full blast, but women only get a half-blast (or, the other X completely compensates).
source?
http://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-how-and-why-sex-differ...
I'd be interested to read any studies with alternative outcomes. This seems like a well-promulgated meme, regardless of its factuality or not...
Men are overrepresented at the tails of the IQ distribution, women are overrepresented in the middle.
Maybe most notable is a 1995 paper in Science http://www.sciencemag.org/content/269/5220/41 but it is both behind a paywall and completely devoid of figures! You get the main idea from the abstract, though: Except in tests of reading comprehension, perceptual speed, and associative memory, males typically outnumber females substantially among high-scoring individuals.
While there may be gender differences among high/low scoring individuals, I resent that that this is treated as a scientific fact when there are limited studies with contradictory findings.
So while the richest people might be men, the poorest population will also be men.
Or, the people with highest and lowest IQs will be men.
etc.
Your genome.
And more formally stuff like this:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-how-and-why-sex-diff...
I'm no biologist, but I believe you are referring to sex-linked traits. Hemophilia is the most studied example, but there are many (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_linkage#X-linked_recessive_...). In these disorders, males with the gene will always get the disease, where as women can act as "carriers", carrying the trait for the gene on one of their X chromosomes, but not experiencing any of the symptoms of the disorder.
Unfortunately for your theory, this interesting phenomenon has little to do with other genes. There is no magic link between separate chromosomes, and almost all of our important traits lie on the 22 other chromosomes, which do not experience this sex-linkage.
And if there were single gene changes for raising or lowering intelligence I expect they would have spread through the population even faster than adult lactase. Though I suppose you could argue that this is happening continuously and that's why we have the Flynn effect, but in that case you wouldn't find the relative IQs of national groups tracking their relative wealth in the way we observe even in response to plainly exogenous factors like Communism in East Germany.
I expect that there are some genes that increase IQ but have side effects[1], but I expect most genetic causes of variation in IQ rest on combinations of genes.
I get the impression, however, that it serves the end of history and entertainment more than it does those of science. The examples in the article were light on sample sizes and heavy on speculation ("Is mental illness caused by creativity? Maybe it's the other way around! Who knows?"). I wonder if the book it's about offers more solid corroborating sources.
She wrote a memoir, An Unquiet Mind (http://www.amazon.com/An-Unquiet-Mind-Memoir-Madness/dp/0679...), and a non-fiction work of research, “Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament” (http://www.amazon.com/Touched-Fire-Manic-Depressive-Artistic...).
We don't become conventional, boring, and uncreative because that life isn't an option. (Some mentally ill people destroy their creativity in other ways, but that's another story.)
It's those of us who have absolutely no hope of winning the compete-to-conform game (we're going to lose if we play, so why try?) that keep our creativity intact. We need it if we're going to have a chance.
What really gets society's goat is innovation, most of which fails, and all of which encounters resistance. And I think the reason for that resistance, ironically, is that new ideas and new things require other people to re-direct their own dwindling creativity into understanding or at least coping with them.