Art Vs Academic

Click the picture. I dare you.

You cannot treat the artist's temparament and spiritual ills: a soul-crushing, debilitating depression, through medicine and academic knowledge, without first knowing the science behind the creative mind/heart/soul.

A thing like that should be handled with care, as the emo is far more intricate than the ego. There is a certain artistry to listening, asking the right questions, and getting NOT the right or correct responses, but rather truthful and honest responses, whether they are emotional, physical or verbal.

The artist, or every single human being I know has a recovery mechanism innate to his or her person.

It takes time and self-work: introspection, to find what is healing to existential depression and suicidal ideation; anxiety.

Self-talk and therapy, healing and cure cannot come from without (external reality), when the 'problem' or 'illness' stems from the intrinsic (the internal/imagined reality).

Just as you don't apply a hardware fix to software that's broken, medicine can only go so far to fix the brain, when the cause and cure of the ailment is emotional and/or spiritual.

Perhaps our doctors and psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors could stand better to ALSO be trained, on top of their academic knowledge, in the ARTISTRY of human being, and not just the study of the human condition as it APPEARS to present itself.

I hold the belief that creativity and inspiration, if not given a quality outlet for expression that aligns with one's natural inclination towards happiness (what one does to produce JOY I.e. what are they interested in? What do they intrinsically and naturally love/gravitate towards?), can manifest itself as ailment: insanity; mental imbalances and illness; emotional instability and frustration.

Irrationality is something to NOT be feared. Fact: Logic is rational. Emotions are irrational.

A doctor treats 'mental illness' AKA emotional/spiritual distress and disturbance using rational methods, when the poison can be better understood, extracted, studied and resolved through art mediums like music (song and dance: singing, writing songs/lyrics/poems and composing music); art (drawing, painting, colouring, sculpting, crocheting, sewing, love-making, etc); writing; cooking; building; breaking; etc. any form of creating or destroying or maintaining -e.g. gardening).

Drugs acted like a first line of defense for me. When I could not sleep for 4 days, I was sedated and tied to a bed. I finally slept, and eventually I recovered from losing touch with shared reality. I was so far gone in my imagination, that the medication acted to shut my systems down, enough so that I could finally rest my brain, and stop making connections and seeing the interwoven narratives and links between EVERYTHING.

(Everything is connected - my insight/intuition knows/feels this. I also know, however, that one brain and one lifetime may not (and I wouldn't want it to) be enough for all that could be discovered, imagined and created.

I still keep an emergency stash of sleeping/calming pills for if and when I am unable to relax myself enough into sleep, for if and when my mind and whismical/lofty imagination continues its ascent and flight, against my body and brain's tired protests. As a caveat to sleeping pills/bipolar medication, I have to say that my husband massaging my scalp, cuddling and humming to me usually does the trick, because it's what my mother used to do to put me to sleep (she would pat my head/stroke my hair or pat my bum and sing to me).

Recovery is a magical thing. There are plenty of ways to rewire the brain. There is a plasticity to the synapses of our brains: they can be rewired, not deadened and dulled by drugs that change our brain chemistry but fail to address the underlying causes of our pain and suffering: emotions.

I don't claim to understand how the brain works, but I know my heart.

You don't treat a heartbreak or a grieving-over-death with drugs. No, you give space, time, support and comfort to the suffering individual (see: chair work by Neil Strauss in his book, The Truth).

My point is that self-talk can be coached. It can be inspired by reading books, watching videos, talking to the right (or wrong) people at the right (or wrong) time: people who inspire you, or bore you, or leave you feeling depressed, we can all learn from each other.

We need to bring more to our peer support groups. We need darkness to understand pain, and we also need light to lift us from suffering.

I will be light that interplays with darkness, that holds space for darkness, because I feel I can. I will shine in modesty and moderation, acting to facilitate the illumination of other light-bearers (and myself), and serve as a gentle beacon for those who are lost and aimless; uninspired, confused or oppressed. @sherminukulee

Read part II: here.

BONUS related poem <here>

Read related by others: Stuart Sanderson