talent = depression?

I realise that not every talented musician is depressed, but a huge percentage are

Talking for myself - I'm a melancholy man by nature, hence I'm always kinda sad

yoel? wrote: I   i think there is a higher percentage of people depressed in the music industry than any other career [dont ask me to quote the statistics]

_popupControl();   I think literature could compete for the first place quite successfully here

Musicians (and artists of all kinds in general) seem to be more sensitive than regular Joes and, therefore, more prone to being affected by the sadness and injustices of this world that exist all around them.  Having said that, they are also the most fun and interesting people to be around, as well.

I always saw it as the inability.. no matter how much the public might like it... to fully express themselves to an artists exacting demands.  Artists never feel like they have perfevcting anything.. those that do.. never really were trying to  Just the downside for the ultra-creative I guess.

Well Yoel, it may not be a matter of being depressed, rather a matter of allowing your emotions to control (the better part of) your life. That's not restricted to musicians, but to people in artistic lines of work in general. I often wonder how it's possible that so many people in my line of work (systems and software engineering) show so little emotion (except uncontrolled anger in some cases) and actually seem to block emotion out of their lives in favour of ratio. Luckily, I discover more and more people who are trying to mix in more emotions.

The downside of allowing your emotions to take control is of course what we've seen happen to people like Curt Cobain, Vincent van Gogh and similar examples through the ages.

An interesting issue to bring up here, by the way. 

Kid-A wrote: I personally think intelligence is linked to depression. The more intelligent you are, the more you see what is wrong with the world, and that makes you depressed. Ignorance is bliss. I think talent can be a result of depression. These guys can use their instruments as an outlet to express themselves. Expressing yourself is a very difficult thing to do with depression.

ultimately, I would have to say this is a flawed view.  Many, many intelligent people never struggle with any depression or the like.  With art and creativity, IMO it's a matter of sensitivity:  in order to cultivate the creative side of one's self, there is an element of introversion or awareness that can shut out the rest of the world (isolation, depression) or open it up too much (why is there so much hate?war?poverty?).  As Chicapah said, these people are very sensitive to small things that 'your average Joe' will take for granted.

jimmy_row wrote: Kid-A wrote: I personally think intelligence is linked to depression. The more intelligent you are, the more you see what is wrong with the world, and that makes you depressed. Ignorance is bliss. I think talent can be a result of depression. These guys can use their instruments as an outlet to express themselves. Expressing yourself is a very difficult thing to do with depression. ultimately, I would have to say this is a flawed view.  Many, many intelligent people never struggle with any depression or the like.  With art and creativity, IMO it's a matter of sensitivity:  in order to cultivate the creative side of one's self, there is an element of introversion or awareness that can shut out the rest of the world (isolation, depression) or open it up too much (why is there so much hate?war?poverty?).  As Chicapah said, these people are very sensitive to small things that 'your average Joe' will take for granted.

Obviously I'm not saying everyone intelligent is depressed, or everyone depressed is intelligent. I just meant that there is often some link between the two. And obviously there are a million other causes of depression as well.

Edited by Kid-A - October 27 2007 at 13:53

I dont think its necessarily the fact that they are depressed its that they use the music, or whateve rfor of art they ar in, to express what they are feeling. After all, we all get pklenty of times everythings not alright and dont always have an outlet for it. Also, the sad things in life,and the things we just dont agree with tend to make for more interesting subject matter than stories about how everything is OK.

Yoel wrote: Angelo wrote: An interesting issue to bring up here, by the way.    thankyou   yours is probably the most interesting answer so far as it goes

Thanks in return - but on to the person who beat me in that area...

darqdean wrote: Angelo wrote: Well Yoel, it may not be a matter of being depressed, rather a matter of allowing your emotions to control (the better part of) your life. That's not restricted to musicians, but to people in artistic lines of work in general. I often wonder how it's possible that so many people in my line of work (systems and software engineering) show so little emotion (except uncontrolled anger in some cases) and actually seem to block emotion out of their lives in favour of ratio. Luckily, I discover more and more people who are trying to mix in more emotions. The downside of allowing your emotions to take control is of course what we've seen happen to people like Curt Cobain, Vincent van Gogh and similar examples through the ages. An interesting issue to bring up here, by the way.  I'd never stopped and thought about it before, but many years ago when I was involved in a lot of software development, I became very withdrawn and insular while at work, then flipped a complete 180º in my social life. Someone who knew me well in both situations remarked that I was like two different people. Which was fine until it broke.   I have since learnt to balance that a little (forcing myself to leave the building at luchtimes helps) and I have noticed that the engineer I share an office with behaves in much the same way. (In the middle of some projects however, we are so engroused with our own work that we still go days without speaking more than the usual daily pleasantries to each other)   I think that many "talented" people become very focussed, to the point of obsession and to the exclusion of everything else. Later, when they surface, they discover that the world has moved on without them and only then notice how isolated they have become.   On the other hand, there are hundreds of talented people who have been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, including Devin Townsend and Jeff Buckley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_affected_by_bipolar_disorder

That's spot-on what I was referring to, Dean. I've worked with people who were so focussed in that line of business, that a simple question about a customer request led to an answer in C++, or whatever programming language they were working with. Apart from that, they were completely locked up.

And, if I hadn't had a great girlfriend then and a wife now, as well as a healthy interest in sports and music, I probably would've ended up the same. That 180º flip worked for me as well. Funny side of it is that people I still work with consider me a 'networking expert' and a 'walking library', while all I do is make sure I communicate with people rather than locking myself out.

As for the bipolar disorder - that's a less (or non-)voluntary, but I agree quite common among the artistic, version of what I meant with allow your emotions to control of a part of your life.




Edited by Angelo - October 27 2007 at 19:38