Bipolar Disorder and Creativity

Bipolar disorder or maniac depression (formerly) is a mental health issue which can cause extreme shifts in our mood and energy levels.

Bipolar causes to alternate between extreme happiness or emotional highs (also known as mania) to extreme sadness or emotional lows (basically depression).
The number of bipolar episodes a person experiences may vary between a few in their lives to multiple in a year.
A few past studies have also found an eerie connection between this condition and creativity. But is it truly a correlation or a minor chance?

Famous Creatives With Bipolar Disorder

While experts dig deeper into this connection between bipolar and creative, there have been many documented cases of artists throughout history having and experiencing mental conditions such as bipolar disorders.

Many artists such as Virginia Woolf a popular modernist writer known for writing many great books such as Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves, etc. Ernist Hemingway who is also known for his books such as A farewell to Arms. Ludwig Van Beethoven, an extremely popular composer in the world of classical music and even Artist Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch painter who produced many works of art such as The Starry Night was also known to have experienced many highs and lows in the duration of his life but ultimately succumbed to his extreme depression and died by suicide.
While researchers to continue to look into this connection between artists and mental health conditions throughout history, they are exploring the possibilities of creative experiences helping treat bipolar disorder.

Can Creative Outlets Help With Bipolar Disorder Management?

Many Experts have investigated art forms such as music, dance, painting, and other creative forms as a remedy for bipolar disorder and many other mental health conditions.  

Art and music have been adopted by many such rehabilitation centres. Creative therapy seems like a capable remedy but has not been well studied specifically for bipolar disorder.

Researchers have tried multiple different methods hence it is hard to draw any conclusions from all their findings.

Does Bipolar Medication Affect Creativity?

If Bipolar truly drives our Creativity, then what changes might its medication cause?

Some authors, artists and musicians say their production gets affected while on medicine as compared to when they are going through their maniac episodes.

Yet, some say treatment also has its benefits too as anyone who is distracted and disorganized while experiencing manic episodes may find their focus after they have then medication.
Thus, experts are not too sure on how bipolar treatment may cause a change in creativity as there is too less research on this topic.

Conclusion

Many famous personalities throughout history have been known to exhibit symptoms of bipolar disorder and Research shows that there may even be a connection between creativity and bipolar disorder, but there is too less information on this particular topic to have drawn a conclusion.

It’s also quite uncertain what role genes play in this connection and also which genes are involved between these two,

As we find out more and more about this topic, we might even be able to use creative outlets such as painting and art to remedy the symptoms an manage bipolar disorder of peoples experiencing it and making their lives easier.