Soberpotamus

Today's reading from my Affirmations For Artists book is about addictions, and so I thought I'd share:

No doubt the artist is something of an addict by nature. She can fall in love with an art form and become addicted to writing, dancing, or sculpting. But if she is addicted to heroin or cocaine, that is another thing entirely. Then she must abruptly stop everything and devote her whole being - not a quarter of herself, not a stray few hours or an afternoon, but her entire being - to not feeding that addiction. She must stop and recover her balance and her freedom: the injunction, if not the way, is simple.

I know I have it in me to get hooked. I must learn to distinguish between those addictions that harm me and those that don't, and then dispute the destructive ones with all of my being. The destructive ones rob me of time, my health, and my dignity: I will not let that be my destiny! I will save myself from my own bad addictions.

caboblanco

Many artists and musicians have struggled with addiction and also bi-polar disorder. Some especially older artists that are long dead probably could of had a diagnosis. Those types like extremes and can't deal with a mundane life. You qouted Ernest Hemingway. He struggled with alcoholism and deep depressions. He could of been bi-polar. He did commit suicide by gunshot

karate

I agree ,every notice how most creative people are some kind of substance abuser .

My old shrink called me a "Substance abuser ", I almost fell out of the chair laughing .

wiscsober

Thanks for posting this...good place to end the day.

karate

Im in a skilled trade that attracts ,odd balls and drunks ,for some reason.

The more ability someone has ,the more likley to be a drunk

doggonecarl

In thirty five years of my associating with addicts and alcoholics I noticed we shared one trait, and it wasn't creativity.

GroundhogDay

There are creative geniuses who can abuse substances, but still be productive and sober long enough to accomplish something great. I am not one of them. I am currently trying to write a book and it's a long slog. I don't buy into the idea that drinking makes a person more creative, nor the idea that you need those personality traits to be a successful artist. I'm more of the mind that creativity is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. At least for most of us.

Threshold

I'm an artist and writer. But I never experience my art/writing as anything like my addiction. Passion and compulsion/obsession don't manifest the same way to me.

Maybe it's because my art/writing are CONSTRUCTIVE and my addictive behavior is DESTRUCTIVE.

In my art and writing I am sharing myself with the world, when I use I am trying to erase myself.

Soberpotamus

This post wasn't meant to be divisive, people... Its an affirmation. It wasn't posted to start a debate on the correlation of creativity and addiction.

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ClearLight

Artist here.

I don't buy the old yarn about artists having a higher percentage of addicts.

I think it's more of a matter of artists standing out by the nature of the work they do.

As a bartender I met alcoholics evenly spread across a segments of society. Nobody ever noticed the plumbers though.

That's how it looks to me.

doggonecarl

Good luck with reining us back in :-)

Soberpotamus

This was a post from a daily affirmation book. Ignore this post if you are only coming here to debate. I never I tended this as a stance on the any correlation between addiction and creativity!

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GroundhogDay

I know how you feel. Something similar happened to me with my wine display in grocery stores thread.

Soberpotamus

Yeah really, lol! I give up Will be a good lesson in realizing I have zero control over the Internet.

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Soberpotamus

Oh yeah, the politics blowup? Lol

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karate

Thats a great input to the discussion . I agree .

I would like to add though ,i noticed lots of alocholics have low blood sugar ,and anxeity problems .

How many suffered these ailmants before abusing alochol ,?A large percentage ill hazard to guess .

socallednormal

That's odd, considering the link between alcohol and diabetes. How were you able to measure their blood glucose levels?

Dee74

Yep...apologies to Maxwell Smart but I call it using my 'power for obsessive behaviour' for good.... instead of evil.

babycat

I like your post jennie. And I agree with it. I am an artist and an alcoholic. My brother who passed away last month was an addict and a musical genius.
People like to look for controversy I guess.

alphaomega

Thank you for this Jennie. I wholeheartedly fall into the categorization.

I'm an actor. And I love every single thing about the creative process. But strangely, when I was creating on the stage, I never drank. I felt it would derail my process Nd make whatever character I was developing into a drunk.

I have way more artistic integrity than that. (Throws nose up in the air and brushes shoulders off)