Bipolar isn’t my friend.
Been told a lot recently that my bipolar disorder is largely responsible for my talent. I show someone a song, they say they like it. Then they squeak in a compliment with how bipolar disorder helped me write it. I don’t really dig that.
See, I work against bipolar disorder these days. It doesn’t help me. It sets me back quite a bit. Broken relationships, mood swings, medication, and sheer regret take up a lot of my time. It’s not a superpower, there’s no such thing.
Van Gogh comes up a lot when talking about bipolar disorder. Van Gogh had a very rough life and killed himself. Doesn’t sound fun at all. There’s nothing to romanticize there.
Relax, Kelly.. it’s just bias, again.
All this is mental health bias. The person who doesn’t have bipolar disorder in the conversation isn’t thinking about suffering, but entertainment. That isn’t the topic when we’re talking mental health around these parts.
Having a mental illness might enable you to have feelings for folks in your shoes at the hospital psych ward. Maybe that impacts your art. But anyone who visits a psych ward could have that “power.”
He’s got bipolar? Does that mean we can steal his art?
When we rip off musicians, many times we think it doesn’t matter or they’re mentally ill. We make ourselves not feel guilty by imagining that we give them something in return in our minds. We believe our attention is valuable, even though they can’t feel it. It’s like being proud of good thoughts. Meaningless.
Whatever floats your boat. All of Spotify’s most popular music was ripped by AI. I promise if anyone respected what artists do, there wouldn’t be Spotify or AI.
Link to recent ARS Technica article about this..
But because musicians and entertainers are laden with mental health issues, poverty, and protest, we’re easy targets. Folks don’t feel bad about harming. If they pump up the life of an artist in their head, of course they don’t. There’s always going to be a reason for you not to give an artist you like money. It’s okay. Not new.
What bipolar did for me.
I’ve been homeless. I’ve been divorced twice. I’ve been hospitalized a few times. I have health issues besides bipolar. I don’t have many friends. Thinking bipolar disorder helps me is actually helping you rob me. I mean, if I have superpowers and all.
I work on music in spite of illness, not because of it. It helps brighten my day and soak up time. The thing is, I work. I do paid and pro bono all the time. Every day. That’s not a bipolar lifestyle. But I can manage for long periods. I’ve worked up to it. That’s not a “gimme.”
Do you really know Van Gogh?
Folks talk about this or that artist or musician with mental issues and talk about how they moved them. Realize that’s in your head. It’s not bad. But it is projecting quite a bit. It’s not real. And that may be bad.
We all need friends in our head. Musicians are as good as any. But the musician in your head is most often not the real musician. You probably wouldn’t like them if you knew them, just my experience. Many folks like our tunes, but aren’t crazy about me. Fine.
It’s funny too. I bet they like a non-bipolar version of me in their head when they listen though. Been told a few times as much. “You’d be okay were it not for your mental health issues.” -told to me on a few occasions. But Van Gogh? Genius!
Why it really matters, besides just me.
I feel this is important due to ghosting and politics. Obviously we are ruled by folks with mental health issues. But if we look up to them, we don’t have a clear picture. So we are fed a picture that makes them interesting. They aren’t. They’ve done this to artists for a millennia. It’s caught up to dictators.
Because you don’t want to face reality, you’re closed off from real friends. You make them up in your head with partial bits of info. The fascists know this. They give you things to waste time on in your imagination building them up. So do musicians. So it’s understandable taking them with a grain of salt so your worldview isn’t largely affected. But the damage is in not seeing their mental illness. It’s opposite when a family member suffers, by the way.
Mental Health for real.
If a family member suffers mental illness, they could be ghosted, kicked to the curb, prosecuted. Maybe they’re hooked on drugs. It’s quite possible they feel like a piece of confused shit 24/7. So of course, toss them from your lives. You don’t need them. But Syd Barrett, what a guy!
The correlation
Mental health is hard. It means dealing with crazy. We’re bad at that in public, and in private. We just don’t know what to do and have a tendency to be selfish. I hope that changes. I can’t help but think the better we treat the mentally ill, the less we are ruled by them.
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Some cool links about the link between bipolar and creativity.
Bipolar disorder and creativity:The Complex Connection Between Mood Disorders and Creative Expression – this one mentions Van Gogh. There’s Science here, but not hard. This says while there’s a link to Bipolar Disorder and creative endeavors, it’s not always so. Also, I enjoy that it says not all creative endeavors are actually healthy. Good point.
Bipolar Disorder and Creativity: What explains the link between bipolar disorder and creativity? Psychology Today has some good stuff. But it ain’t all good. This one is really good. Funny how news and information is kinda’ like that these days. ugh. Also mentions Van Gogh. Funny. If what he suffered was so common, you think they’d bring up a bunch of examples besides him. They don’t do that because you probably haven’t heard of the other examples. That might mean it’s a little more rare than you think. You think?
I think the WIKI is pretty good too.
More Celebrities if you need that… even some in modern times.