Drama of the Creative Mind

Andrew Goodman
Jul 22, 2017 · 5 min read

A brief exploration of mental illness and celebrity suicides

“I don’t like my mind right now.”

Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park, penned those words as the opening line to the song “Heavy”. It was one of the final Linkin Park songs released before his death.

The latest victim in a seemingly endless string of suicides, Bennington has now joined his good friend and musician Chris Cornell, YouTube personality Stevie Ryan, author Jean Stein, British composer Keith Emerson, British pop-star Lil’ Chris, and of course actor & comedian Robin Williams (to name just a few) on the list of famous artists who have deliberately taken their lives in recent years.

Public outpouring of support for the artists and their families has been largely emphatic. However, a dismissive vocal minority certainly exists, with thinly veiled arguments along the lines of: “But they’re rich and famous! What could they have to be sad about?”

Putting the ignorant and childish nature of their commentary aside, the opponents miss the bigger point. People don’t commit suicide because they’re rich and famous. They commit suicide because of mental illness that went unchecked.

The depression that leads a famous person to take their life existed within them long before they were household names. In fact, it could be the very thing that made them famous.


“Comedy is a camouflage for depression”

Rodney Dangerfield summed it up quite well with that line.

Many other comedians, including the late Robin Williams, have lamented the same. For better or worse, successful comedians have a chip on their shoulder.

They leverage comedy as an outlet for a distorted worldview that doesn’t match what the general public would consider “normal”.

The same can be said for musicians. The first hit song by the band Audioslave written by Chris Cornell, titled, “Like A Stone”, is a beautifully poetic piece about waiting patiently for someone or something.

While even Cornell’s bandmate, bassist Tim Commerford, assumed it was a love song about the writer waiting for a special someone, Cornell admitted that the song is actually about waiting to die. [1]

This is not a problem unique to the creative minds that happen to get rich and famous. The stereotypical moody teenage artists share a fraternal bond with their successful counterparts — living and deceased.


“My fear of life is necessary to me” — Edvard Munch

Among scientists linking creativity to anxiety and depression is Dr. Nancy Andreasen, who authored “The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius”.

Andreasen argues that creative people have a specific set of traits that make them more vulnerable to mental illness. In particular, seeing the world as “flexible” in a “rules-were-meant-to-be-challenged” lens is what drives the creative mind.

Creative people don’t immediately accept what they are told from authority figures, and question things that most of us quickly accept as fact.

In Andreasen’s words, “This flexibility permits [creative people] to perceive things in a fresh and novel way, which is an important basis for creativity. But it also means that their inner world is complex, ambiguous, and filled with shades of gray rather than black and white. While less creative people quickly respond to situations based on what they have been told by people in authority — parents, teachers, pastors, rabbis, or priests — the creative person lives in a more fluid and nebulous world.”

In other words, creativity is a response to uncertainty.

It’s not hard to see that this mindset can be a valuable driver of art and creativity. How many multi-platinum records, NYT bestsellers, world-class comedians, and renowned artists broke through with a message of disdain for authority and questioning the “system”?

A lot of them.


Problems arise when this creativity is not properly nurtured. Left unchecked, the “fluid and nebulous world” described by Andreasen can be catastrophic to a human being.

We have evolved and thrived on structure and order. Only in the past five centuries or so (which is a blip on the radar in comparison to the timeline of human evolution) have we had so much time and availability to pursue ambitions beyond survival of the tribe.

Our brains did not evolve as quickly as our lifestyles, which explains why our “fight or flight” response kicks in at unusual times.

It’s pretty terrifying to think that the same biochemical response to confronting a bear on a hike can be produced by an unexpected traffic jam on the way to a big meeting, or an ambiguous text message from your crush.

Highly creative people (and, by extension, those suffering from mental illness) feel this “fight or flight” rush more often than others. Read: all the time.

Edvard Munch, the renowned artist from Norway most famous for painting “The Scream”, experienced this distress acutely throughout his life.

In a diary entry, he wrote: “My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art.” [2]


“I am unable to describe exactly what is the matter with me. Now and then there are horrible fits of anxiety, apparently without cause.” — Vincent Van Gogh

While this inner anguish has proven to be a muse for creative genius, it can also be the straw that broke the camel’s back. In the case of Van Gogh, his anxiety fits were the driver behind him famously cutting off his own ear, and later taking his life.

It’s critical that we consumers of creative work understand that the very same traits that drive extreme creativity are the ones that can lead down darker paths like drug addiction, alcohol abuse, and suicide.

While creative genius is a gift to be celebrated, it’s equally a curse to be mindful of.

The keyboard warriors who can’t relate are equally fortunate. To not be affected by the artist’s temperament leaves a lot of doors open to follow more traditional paths to prosperity.

What we all must take away from these highly publicized suicides and the ensuing conversations is the age old lesson that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Even fame and success are not miracle cures for a lifetime of mental illness.

To assume otherwise is dangerous. It tells “regular” people who are suffering that there is no escaping the way they feel — which is untrue. Without taking a walk in their shoes, you have no soap box from which to criticize.


If you or someone you know are suffering, help is readily available by reaching out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273-TALK, or even via the Crisis Text Line by texting “connect” to 741–741.

Andrew Goodman

Written by

Founder AGNC Media (FB ads for small biz), Partner @ Secret Entourage, Car Enthusiast, Hockey Fan, Writes Sometimes.

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