Exactly how are creative people affected and are they prone to drug and alcohol abuse?
Meanwhile, wouldn’t Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg be considered prone to drug and alcohol abuse, being”creative”? Wouldn’t Ingmar Bergman, Richard Feynman, or Auguste Rodin be considered creative? None of them needed rehab. Are alcoholic lawyers, Vicodin-addicted grandmothers, and code monkeys snorting Adderall any more “creative” because of their addictions? The danger in the myth, as I see it, is that creative people may feel justified in indulging in very common and self-destructive addictions, because they are “artists,” to the detriment of their work. Sure some musicians may find that they are only able to work when they are high, but a heroin addicted carpenter thinks that he is only able to work he is high.That’s how addiction works.
Often certain high profile rock stars, Movie and TV stars perpetuate and act out the myth Drug And Alcohol abuse
I agree that artistic passion may seem pathological or addictive to an outside observer. My father practices his trumpet six hours a day, every single morning, a ritual worthy of a diagnosis of OCD. My brother writes deep into the night, with the urgency and obsession of a meth addict. I myself indulge in all sorts of drawings, writing and childish play acting while making a film – that are sometimes not unlike the
behaviour of someone on a psychotropic drug.
However
To sum it up, to credit the Disease of Addiction to Drug and Alcohol Abuse -Creativity is an absolute insult to the real creatives out there!
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