You Don't Have To Keep Suffering To Make Great Art
Skills Originally Born From Suffering Will Thrive Under Better Conditions
If ‘I need to keep suffering to make good art’ isn’t a misconception that plagues most artists, it certainly plagues one subset of them: comedians. Whether or not it’s true, there’s a reason people say “comedy equals tragedy plus time.” I’ve been to enough open mics to observe a lot of people putting off much needed therapy or treatment (I was once one of them.) When we develop a skill out of or while suffering, sometimes we think the pain must continue to keep up the skill. This cannot be further from the truth. It’s a tempting way to mythologize your story as an artist, but that’s it. When I watch artists finally give in to the healing process, whatever that process means for them, their art flourishes more than ever.
If anything, treating former trauma or current mental health conditions* can make your creative abilities more consistently accessible. This is true even if you haven’t completely honed your artistic skills yet. Think about those skills: did your suffering actually help you develop them, or did it just send you down the path you took to do so? Chances are your skills weren’t born from suffering (at least not directly.) They probably just developed alongside it. Anyway, if you’re reading this, you have the groundwork already, you’re going down the path. And being a creative person at all in this economy means you’ll be suffering enough. You might as well ease whatever personal conditions or pain you can. I promise your creative abilities won’t magically evaporate. If you can make a rose grow from concrete, imagine what you can do with soil.
So whatever you’ve been avoiding that might ease your suffering, please pursue it. Try multiple methods of treatment until something helps. I promise it’ll be so worth it.
*I cannot treat specific mental health conditions as I am not a therapist, but I can help you develop, brainstorm and grow your artistic goals and projects while or after you undergo therapy! I’m also just very good at seeing exactly where people’s talents lie within their artistic mediums and reminding them of that until they actually believe it. (I may also be a good accessory to therapy by helping you take what you learn in session and turn that into sustainable practices that work for you.)
