Emotional Health & Creative People

The work of Kazimierz Dabrowski provides a framework to understand the supersensitivity or overexcitability frequently found in the gifted.

“My therapist gives me permission to accept that I’m human.” Claire Danes.  See more quotes by artists, psychologists in post: Creative People and Counseling for More Emotional Health and Creativity

Psychiatric misdiagnosis and consequent unnecessary or even destructive medication for “troubling” symptoms is an issue that impacts many creative, gifted and talented people.

Creative expression can transform our painful reactions to situations, providing a renewed identity and a way to give voice to difficult feelings.

How can creative expression help us deal with anxiety, depression and other difficult or disrupting emotions?

Emotional Health Resources: Programs, books, articles to help improve your emotional balance and enhance your creative life.

Are high ability people more vulnerable to suicide? What are the impacts of high sensitivity, existential dread, pressure to achieve etc?

As musician Alanis Morissette points out, “We’re taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they’re of equal value as happiness,

Karla McLaren is an award-winning author, social science researcher, and educator who teaches about the value of embracing our emotions and developing emotional health.

She has commented, “In my work with emotions, I focus on the intelligence, gifts, and skills that every emotion brings to you."

Christina Ricci fought anorexia and depression in her younger years, and says she overcame her problems with the help of a psychiatrist.

“These are things you can’t always deal with alone, so I went to therapy,” she said.

“Sometimes people need to seek professional help. Along the way I discovered that you can choose to be happy.”

"Stay weird, stay different" -- Graham Moore in his acceptance speech winning an Academy Award for his adapted screenplay for “The Imitation Game”: "When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself. Because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong. And now I'm standing here..."

We all experience some trauma in life; how do people use these experiences in their creative work to help recover self esteem, emotional balance and mental health?

“I think I’ve spent my adult life dealing with the sense of low self-esteem that sort of implanted in me. Somehow I felt not worthy.” Halle Berry

Host Mark Hyman, MD notes:
"Over 100 million Americans struggle with psychiatric disorders. 40 million have anxiety. 20 million are diagnosed with depression.
"Is it just bad luck? Or is there something deeper going on in the body that has not been addressed by most practitioners?

Creative expression can transform our painful reactions to traumatic or difficult experiences, providing a way to give voice to painful feelings.

The Social-Emotional ACES Home Video Program is designed to help creative, intense, sensitive people be skilled experts in the Social-Emotional arena.

Mental health issues affect almost I in 5 people each year. Being a creative person can increase our vulnerability to emotional challenges like anxiety.

Movies like Silver Linings Playbook have engaging stories and acting, and bring out issues of mental health, such as labeling ourselves and others.

Andrew Solomon is a novelist, journalist and historian. At 31 he descended into a major depression. He was helped by family support and therapy. He writes:

“These experiences of darkness make the light more beautiful, that the pain of being acutely depressed allows you to experience an unbelievable happiness in every day when you aren’t depressed and a sense that each of those days is a gift. So that’s the real message of hope, is that you can get better.”

"A person’s mind is a mysterious labyrinth of thoughts, feelings, memories, ideas and compulsions; the mind of a young girl is likely even more complex.

“Disney-Pixar’s latest animated offering, Inside Out, bravely delves into that intricate world..." (From a review.) - See clip and more quotes.