Drugs and Creativity

Following on from my previous post and the topic of creativity, there is one issue or debate that I would like to address, that is the use of drugs and alcohol, the latter of which is often separated from the former but which is itself a drug.  There are a wide array of drugs, both legal and illegal, that have an effect on the human consciousness, this much we can all agree on.  We can also agree that some of the greatest writers have been notorious alcoholics and manic depressives.  Ernest Hemingway for example, one of the most renowned writers was a very heavy drinker and it had a substantial negative impact on his life.  Hemingway sadly took his own life in the end, but given his declining health, had he lived he probably would have ended up killing himself anyway albeit at a much slower pace.

I do not believe personally that creativity comes from the use of these drugs.  I believe creativity is something that is inherent, that is, you are either predisposed or you are not, and that ultimately it is our own inhibitions and mental opposition that limits the extent to which we can channel it.  I believe drugs in this regard only enable behaviours, they don't cause them.  In other words if you were not a creative person and you took those drugs conflated with creativity, the product would not be a creative output like you expect.

There is also something to be said about the commonality of many great writers suffering from mental health problems, depression, anxiety, and other conditions.  Again I do not believe these represent causation - creativity is not caused by these, nor are these caused by creativity.  I believe there again simply exists a correlation, and as is self evident there are many people who demonstrate this to be the case.

When it comes to the use of drugs to enable what the individual perceives to be a desirable behaviour, my concern would be with the reasons why they believe they can't achieve that state of mind without using them.  In some cases this can simply be down to effort, or expendable energy, in that the use of drugs is seen by some as a shortcut to a state of mind that whilst achievable without, would take significantly longer and considerably more effort to reach.

For me personally I do not pass judgement on those who choose to take these routes, and I do not consider it to be a determining factor in the credibility or the validity of the output.  I don't use drugs myself to stimulate my creative output.  Everything I write and everything I create comes about through my own exploration of my thoughts and feelings and my desire to express myself.  As discussed in a previous post there are techniques I have developed to help stimulate the creative process but I accept that these don't always work and there are times when I can't tap into that creative energy at all.  This is one of the reasons why I never pursued creative outlets as a career, I would not be able to maintain creativity on demand within a 9 to 5 environment, or to be able to produce creativity to a deadline.  I believe both of these things are not conducive to creative energy and that they can in fact kill it entirely.

This blog for example uses scheduled posts, that's why they are released at exactly the same time on a regular basis.  The posts for this blog are written in batches when my creativity flows, this allows me to maintain a level of consistency and continuous output, however the work itself is sporadic and comes in bursts of varying intensity.  What you read may have been written that day, that week, that month, or it may have even been written a year before, it all depends on how many posts I wrote when I was on a high with my creative flow.  I understand that some people don't have the luxury of allowing themselves to wait until this happens naturally, and that they see drugs as the only option to reach that state.  This blog is after all a hobby and there is no more pressure on me to maintain it than I choose to place on myself.  If I wanted to stop or if I wanted to go weeks or months without posting anything I could without any negative repercussions.

My advice to those who use drugs or those who contemplate drugs as a means to reach such a state is to take the time to assess why you can't do it without.  It won't always be possible to figure out why it is the case, or to even find an alternative means of overcoming those mental blocks that hold us back.  Nevertheless, the exploration in and of itself can be enlightening, so long as you do it in a mindset where you do not fear the possible outcome or the answers you might find to the questions you ask when probing your unconscious.  Ultimately though, I believe any behaviour which is perceived to be self-destructive can be justified if you know and understand what it is you are doing, why you do it, what you gain from it, and are willing to make that sacrifice.  That's not healthy, not even in the slightest, but the magnitude of behaviours that others engage in which are not healthy, in full knowledge of what they are doing, and still continue to do so, I think makes it very difficult for anyone to criticise anyone for this type of behaviour without being a hypocrite.