View Full Version : Feel like my creativity is gone...
Tussiemussies
4-25-12, 7:24am
I used to be xtremely creative but these last few years have just been dry ones...wondering where my creativity has gone to!
Tough about doing the exercises in the book "The Artist's Way.". Anyone else experience the same thing? How did you get over the hump?
Just curious Tussiemussies.........are you on any antidepressants? They can have an effect on creativity.
(Or any other meds?)
Tussiemussies
4-25-12, 7:36am
Hi Cathy A yup I on a host of things one being an antidepressant. Interesting !!!
Bastelmutti
4-25-12, 9:08am
I have felt this way, but I used to love to doodle, so I bought some nice markers and a sketch book at an art store & have been rediscovering doodling. Nice when I don't have time to sew/knit/crochet.
We used to consider some ADHD meds for our son, who was incredibly creative. But one consideration was that we didn't want to mute that part of him........so no drugs.
And something like a beta blocker can make you feel really listless. I know its a balance though.........its great to be creative, but if you're depressed all the time..............
I would really consider it a problem with some med you're on. Any alternatives?
I've been working on The artist's Way for several years- obviously not every day although I am doing the 3 pages every morning very regularly. I think it helps me remember what I like to do. I've also been doing meditation and hypnosis tapes. I am retired with no children, just a husband who is very quiet during my time. I've also enjoyed coloring in some of the Dover historic books. I bought some very nice colored pencils and listen to meditation music while I color. It clears the mind so the creativity can come back. Tussie- I'd try these things before going off the antidepressants. I feel The Artist's Way changed my life!
catherine
4-25-12, 10:33am
Wow, this is very timely--just Sunday night I pulled The Artist's Way from under a pile of books in my nightstand. Last time I had started the exercises was back when it first came out! But I've been feeling a pull to putting myself out there more, creatively speaking. So, I think I'm going to redo The Artist's Way.
In my life, I started out as a child drawing, then painting, writing poetry, making my own clothes, starting little "businesses" and acting (I was a drama major). Then I sort of just stuffed it all inside while I worked full-time at pretty prosaic jobs... I have not done any, not any of those things that were very fulfilling to me in a past life. Time to exercise that right brain a little!
I've spent many years trying to just get by money-wise, and that led me to this idea that art isn't important. I think of poor people, and think, art is a luxury most people can't afford. So I have this linear mindset that has told myself, that I don't believe I can afford to be creative because I'm still lacking.. I still haven't gotten some amorphous level at which I can allow myself to indulge in creativity.
But I've just recently came to the conclusion that we can't afford NOT to share our creative selves with the world, because that's what inspires us and others out of a purely survival mindset and draws us to something more transcendent.
If we concur we have "enough" materially, we need to share "more" spiritually and creatively.
I love "The Artist's Way" and it was one of the few books I packed in my suitcase when we moved to Israel...I didn't want to risk leaving it in our shipping container. I worked through the entire book once, and now return to it whenever I'm in a creative drought. I have a similar story to Catherine's, above, and have reached the same conclusion she has. Very well said, Catherine!
Gardenarian
7-2-12, 7:08pm
I have just started doing Morning Pages as I was feeling like Tussiemussie - no creative juice.
It's interesting how the random thoughts that I put on paper start to take shape, and I find myself becoming excited about ideas that I didn't know were dwelling in the dark recesses of my brain.
The Artist's Way was a big help to me a few years back, when I was trying to find direction for my life. I let my copy go. I may need to find another and work through the exercises again. I loved doing the Morning Pages.
Tussiemussies
7-2-12, 7:28pm
Thanks everone for sharing your experiences with this. It helped a lot to read your posts.
Think "The Artist's Way" is in order.
Facebook has helped me a little bit since I have jammed packed my page with really intersting things and things that have great art too.:)
I did morning pages for awhile, but they were so whiny they might better have been called "mourning pages." I've been fallow for years. So anti-depressants can stifle creativity? And certainly depression does. Talk about a catch-22.
I keep files full of intriguing examples of all kinds of art forms for inspiration--from ancient cave art to avant-garde stuff. Fun to look at, but so far not inspiring any activity. Just about the only thing I've found to get me moving arts-wise is to sign up for a challenge somewhere. That gives me focus and a deadline. Joining a guild can help if you're able to attend meetings, or if they have an active on-line presence. Left to my own devices, I'll dawdle endlessly.
Antidepressants blunt the senses, including emotions. Ernest Hemingway committed suicide because he believed that antidepressants had destroyed his creative talent.
If you decide to go off of your medication, take it very, very slowly. Here's a helpful website:
http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?
I've spent many years trying to just get by money-wise, and that led me to this idea that art isn't important. I think of poor people, and think, art is a luxury most people can't afford. So I have this linear mindset that has told myself, that I don't believe I can afford to be creative because I'm still lacking.. I still haven't gotten some amorphous level at which I can allow myself to indulge in creativity.
Apparently art IS necessary, regardless of income level, at least in my experience. I'm retired now, but my previous job meant a lot of commuting by train to Philadelphia through some painfully poor neighborhoods. Yet there was quite a lot of really stunning graffitti along the way and a number of wall murals painted on the exposed sides of old row houses. One neighborhood had a gorgeous community garden going on in two back-to-back vacant lots, and the tiny, one block park next to it was kept clean and in good repair including a cheery painted design on a small, concrete block building. The artwork made quite a difference between the neighborhoods being "poor" or just plain shabby.
Tussiemussies
7-3-12, 5:41am
Antidepressants blunt the senses, including emotions. Ernest Hemingway committed suicide because he believed that antidepressants had destroyed his creative talent.
If you decide to go off of your medication, take it very, very slowly. Here's a helpful website:
http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?
Hi Jemima, thanks for the information. I am under a Dr.'s care so she knows that I would have to go off slowly.
Thanks for your concern!:)
That is really interesting and sad about Hemingway, I can relate to how dry it feels, I have a lot of personality changes since I am on meds. Also something funny is that one side effect is that my tounge flicks up and down in my mouth slightly but enough to see it. DH and I laugh about it he says when I smile you can see my tounge moving a mile a minute. Even if I have my mouth open so we have a little signal if we are out in public and you can see it.
LOL :)
Tussiemussies
7-3-12, 5:57am
"But I've just recently came to the conclusion that we can't afford NOT to share our creative selves with the world, because that's what inspires us and others out of a purely survival mindset and draws us to something more transcendent. "
Hi Catherine, I can really relate to your post since I too was a creative child and teen and went to college for art. Once in the working world, graphics is just like being a machine worker. Only the boss gets to come up with idea while you work on the computer making them up.
I am in a spiritual study and they say that the artist, poets and something else (wish I had my book here) that they do lead us to look at higher aspects of life and that people wouldn't survive without that and moving toward a higher level of consciousness. So I am really glad that you saw that for yourself!
Christine
Art matters, the creative process matters and finding that in yourself again does matter. I personally found The Artist's Way inhibiting to my own creative process. Working through morning pages etc.. felt too much like an assignment and I never worked through the entire book. What got me recharged was finding what excited me and seeing what other artists were doing. But if it worked for you in the past, dig it out, dust it off and give it a shot.
I strongly suggest going to small local galleries, attend a few art openings and visit art co-operatives and talk to some working artists. Take a workship or class in a medium that you are intrested in. For these I recomend artist run classes, not things through the local college. You get a more personal experience working directly with an artist who works in that medium, than you do from a curriculum course.
But most of all PLAY! If you have it in your head that you need to produce something, then your attention will be too focused on the finished product and not the creative process for creativity sake. I want to have a couple of signs made up for the entrance to my home studio... One will say "Welcome to the Playground" in big letters and below that in smaller letters "Do what you love, love what you do". Give yourself permission to mess up, use up materials and experiment. I think for me that was the hardest part, allowing myself permission to use up materials without producing a finshed work in the process.
I can also relate to the struggling part of it and feeling discouraged. I don't make much of a profit from the sale of my work. By the time I pay for matting and framing materials, co-operative dues, entry fees, jury fees etc.. I'm lucky if I break even. More often than not, I end up reporting a loss at the end of the year. This will be very true of this year as I have a four person show in October and that means lots of framing expenses, even though I do the frame work myself. It's the process I have to focus on and I found doing educational talks, presentations and demonstrations etc... to be very rewarding.
TM, I found that when my life had too much going on, I couldn't focus or create.
I decided early in 2012 to focus on just two things beyond maintenace like weekly laundry, etc. The garden which has been grossly neglected for the past two years is one focus and I had so much fun planning my garden pots with 'thrillers, spillers and fillers' which have grown beautifully and the veggie garden is smaller with just our favourite vegs. The other focus is making food preparation fun and eating appetizing, colourful, varied, nutritious and low-carb. With just the two points of focus, life has become fun again.
I did start knitting again this spring and will work on sowe sewing now. It seems that I needed a rest from doing too many things or as I call it 'juggling too many balls in the air at once' and doing none well enough to give me satisfaction.
Can you find one simple thing that you love and try doing as many variations of it as possible?
Hi Jemima, thanks for the information. I am under a Dr.'s care so she knows that I would have to go off slowly.
Thanks for your concern!:)
Not necessarily. Doctors actually don't know a lot about antidepressant withdrawal and Big Pharma suppresses all the bad news. Doctors generally take people off of antidepressants far too quickly which results in a lot of very painful and debilitating symptoms. Hence the Surviving Antidepressants forum for withdrawal information and support.
That is really interesting and sad about Hemingway, I can relate to how dry it feels, I have a lot of personality changes since I am on meds. Also something funny is that one side effect is that my tounge flicks up and down in my mouth slightly but enough to see it. DH and I laugh about it he says when I smile you can see my tounge moving a mile a minute. Even if I have my mouth open so we have a little signal if we are out in public and you can see it.
LOL :)
That tongue-flicking is called Tardive Dyskinesia and it is evidence of neurological damage from drugs, usually psychiatric ones.
I'm sorry if this comes across as harping, but I took antidepressants for about a year and they nearly killed me. Withdrawal was the worst misery I've ever been through, largely because I did it too fast on my doctor's advice. Most doctors have no idea what they're doing with these meds.
awakenedsoul
7-3-12, 8:52pm
Yeah, I agree. My mom was given all kinds of prescriptions for depression, and it really messed her up. Louise Hay says depression is anger turned inward. It helps me to punch pillows. Talking in the mirror is good, too. Your pupils start to dialate, and you really do connect to the person and shift the energy.
I recently joined a Fiber Arts group that meets once a month at our library. It's free, and you can bring your knitting, crocheting, sewing, etc...with you. I had such a great time there on Sunday! I met some wonderful women who were very talented and artistic. I taught one of the young girls to crochet, and signed up to take a knitting class. I had so much in common with these women. It was really fun!
I agree about the gardening. I have a huge garden with fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and old fashioned flowers. my neighborhood is a little depressed, but the houses with gardens really brighten it up! It's like all that color and life force gives you hope! Plus it's so rewarding to grow your own food and share it with others.
I'm wondering if it could also be hormones? In yoga, shoulderstand and headstand really help to balance the hormones during menopause and perimenopause. Fish oil has helped me, too. Hope you feel better.
Tussiemussies........that's interesting about the tongue flicking. DH has had that forever. But it seemed to ease up since he's been on Lexapro.
"That tongue-flicking is called Tardive Dyskinesia and it is evidence of neurological damage from drugs, usually psychiatric ones."
You beat me to it. If I'm not mistaken, it can get worse/become permanent if one doesn't get off the drugs in time.
Wow, a lot of people swear by The Artist's Way. Coincidentally, I was just looking at my copy of it a few weeks ago.
Started doing the Morning Pages but stopped. Way too quickly they just became a rant about my life.
Maybe I'll get it out and look at it again.
"That tongue-flicking is called Tardive Dyskinesia and it is evidence of neurological damage from drugs, usually psychiatric ones."
You beat me to it. If I'm not mistaken, it can get worse/become permanent if one doesn't get off the drugs in time.
Absolutely. These drugs are as strong and dangerous as anything you can buy from a common street pusher.
Tussiemussies
7-4-12, 3:57pm
Than you Jane and Jemima, I am placing a phone call to my Dr. right away. I never told her about the tounge flicking thinking it was just a side effect. I won't be able to go off any drugs but maybe she can switch me to one that is similar that I won't have this effect with it.
Thank you again, if it wasn't for you both I don't think I would have ever had mentioned it to her.
I did the Artist's Way this winter, and found it effective as a kick in the pants. Practically nothing I wrote in the morning pages was 'good work' - most of it is musing about whether I need to do laundry or not - but it did get me back into the habit of stringing words together.
The god-talk and spirituality stuff didn't speak to me at all, and after the book ended I adapted the morning pages/artist date system a bit. But I've kept the book around for the exercises, and would go through it again if I got into another low-creativity rut.
I also found Natalie Goldberg's books on writing (Writing Down The Bones, Wild Mind) useful - she approaches from a different angle (Buddhism, writing as meditation). Much more open-ended than Artist's Way, but there's a fair amount of overlap in general principles, and I found it helpful to hear that in a different voice.
(Also: good catch on the dyskinesia! Nice going, SL forum!)
I did "The Artist's Way" one winter....probably wasn't the best season for me to be doing that.
I ended up selling the book on half.com a few years ago.
Wouldn't mind trying a different 'method'.
Among our peers in the arts we've always said "We live poor well". We're all surrounded by beautiful things, see great places from all our travels for shows, eat at great restaurants, make some money from our art (some full time/some part time), etc....
Tussiemussies
7-6-12, 12:11pm
Sounds like a great life to me Float On. I thought I read one of your posts that said you work with glass?
Sounds like a great life to me Float On. I thought I read one of your posts that said you work with glass?
It would be great if we were all still making money. We've pulled off the road and are taking a break from doing the art shows and I miss my community of friends. Yes, we work in glass. DH has been a glassblower since '86. Currently we're working on one big project, filling wholesale orders as they come (just shipped bear sculptures to Alaska), and I'm selling left over show stock on Etsy. We've also rented studio time to another local glassblower who lost his studio in the tornado....his rent is keeping us up and running for now.
awakenedsoul
7-10-12, 7:38pm
Good for you. The recession has changed everything. Artists are good at adapting and finding creative solutions. My father used to tell me that I had champagne taste on a beer income. That always made me chuckle. I can live very well on very little, too!
Tussiemussies
7-10-12, 8:16pm
Float on that is such a creative way to make a living. Glad for you that thing are working out for you and your husband in this economy. Glass blowing seems like such an interesting art form. Have watched shows about it on television and it looks like it has to be very precise.
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