Tetrax

So it would be nice to get back to writing one day, which I used to enjoy, and I took a lot of heart from Gary Lightbody of indie band Snow Patrol in today's Metro (UK paper). Apparently he got sober in 2016 and was asked if his 'different way of living affected his songwriting?'

'Oh it's night and day. That first year of sobriety was something I had to get through and I didn't think of creating anything through that period. When the impulses of drowning the demons in booze or whatever had subsided, I was able to let them rise up and face them, to be able to see them and not shove them away - to stare at them.'

I like that. 'First things first' comes to mind.

DriGuy

Now there is an intense personal experience. It's not something I would have described that way, but it sure creates an image.

Numblady

Great quote! Thanks for sharing.

Cosima11

I felt pretty disconnected creatively, spiritually, intellectually (though that one was really not a shocker) in early sobriety. It does all start coming back. Maybe not as "profound and inspired" as with drugs or alcohol but also not as fleeting and intangible. I still haven't found a great creative outlet but also used to really enjoy writing.

That's a very apt quote.. It takes time but don't get discouraged!

Zombie79

I'm quite a creative person. Whilst drinking I would start projects, sometimes even finish a few but in general I would be half-assed about most of them. Since being sober I've finished 2 projects and I'm about to learn a new skill today at a class. I think focusing on a project helps me because it takes my mind off my AV. I've been at workshops whereby a lot of people open up about mindfulness and how crafts really help with stress - be it from work or just in general, life. I really find that craft projects do help me and it's nice now to be able to complete them.

August252015

Took me a bit to get back to writing - I created my current blog on my 6 mo sobriety date. I keep an idea notebook and along the way some of the things I have noted have formulated into posts. I wrote a first person story of my recovery at the 14 mo mark or so.

It took time for me but my creativity in sobriety is far better than I thought the best it was at my drunken inspiration peak!

sugarbear1

Creativity returns, sometimes tenfold! Sometimes in another area you didn't know existed within you!

Tetrax

Thanks for the positivity! I didn't realise their latest album 'Wildness' came out last year (the one partly 'inspired by Lightbody’s struggle with sobriety' - Pitchfork). Now I really wonder if it's any good. To be fair though, they were only a middling quality kind of band to begin with...

I also recently read an interesting, if long-winded, recovery memoir 'with a twist' - 'The Recovering' by Leslie Jamison, which attempted to explore the relationship between creativity and intoxication, as well as in recovery.

There was no real conclusion - every writer, every story, is understandably different. It did get me on to my new habit of reading novels by known alcoholics though (sometimes recovering, sometimes not). I'm onto Jean Rhys currently.

nez

I can so relate to this. I am a chef and always considered myself to very creative. In early sobriety the question in the back of mind was "Would sobriety negatively effect my creativity and somehow hinder the flow of ideas coursing through my brain when in the kitchen?"

I found that thought to be a complete myth. I might have been creative when I was a drunk, but the flow was a sputter compared to unimpeded stream that I experience today.

Drinking was not the creative spark I thought it to be, more like a spark arrestor. Sobriety allowed my creativity to burst into full combustion with the added benefit of a more controlled and balanced thought process behind the design and implementation of the ideas running through my cranium.