The downside of being happy: creativity kindled by sadness
My own experience led me to a slightly different conclusion.<p>I&#x27;m considered to be &quot;creative&quot; by my peers as I enjoy the arts and applying them for practical use. Contrary to the article, I found that I was significantly <i>less</i> creative when I was depressed. What was extremely frustrating was that it all felt &#x27;stuck&#x27; - you can imagine a composer letting out his black-hole reservoir of pain and sadness in a stream of intense, out-of-world music, a cry for the greater ... but sadly for me it was less romantic. I just got stuck. Unable to speak properly, unable to write or draw or express <i>anything</i> for that matter. And yet it felt like I was ready to explode.<p>Now that I&#x27;ve recovered and drawn a line to separate those demons, I can get intellectual. One consequence of depression is too much noise; of bad chattering and self cruelty and <i>emptiness</i>. Emptiness can also be crushing. That could explain why I couldn&#x27;t be &#x27;creative&#x27; at all.<p>On the other hand, the author of the article mentioned a very good point:<p><i>&gt;&gt;Negative emotions appeared when they fell on hard times financially, when their health became poor or especially when a close relative died.</i><p>But I interpret this slightly differently. Poverty gives pain but I don&#x27;t think this is the part that gives rise to creativity. I grew up in a very rural area where there was nothing interesting to do like video games and cinemas. That was when I was at my most creative <i>and</i> proactive, like using poor materials to make something really awesome and crazy. I prefer to call this &quot;resourcefulness&quot; but thinking about it now, maybe that <i>is</i> what creativity is all about: the ability to transform something deemed to be poor or average into another thing that is so much more than the sum of its parts. It&#x27;s a weird irony that when my family moved to a &quot;richer&quot; environment, I found myself hopelessly stuck. Here are the things all laid out for me to draw and model. Here are the information to do this and that. Here&#x27;s an infinite supply of paper. What a joykiller.