TWISTED LOGIC/ Is mental illness glamorised?

[Anonymous]

hmm the other day i was writing my usual kind of stream of conciousness stuff and i started writing "ffs write something positive"...and you know...i kind of thought that...its so easy to get into this trap of externalising pain and dwelling on suffering. this whole emorock thing is...appealing to an angstridden audience...a teenage..cd buying audience..there are other people with other emotions..everything is valid..some things are just more dramatic..so a track or a poem or a painting that reflects all of our inner pain and allows us to get in touch with it for a second might be very powerful..but..it doesnt necc make it more relevent than a piece..i dont know..reflecting the mundane montone absurdity of my life. get outside the box man. think. feel. express. take a year out from sp. if you still want it back after that, it wont be hard to find. itll be in a busy kebab shop when youre starving, have enough cash in your pocket..and are too damned scared to go in and ask.

 

[Yossarian]

Worrywort are you sure an extrovert side will emerge? SP is fear. I am afraid of social situations. I want to be without fear thats all. Not every introvert is SP. They are very different animals. I want to go out if I want without some kind of inner struggle, it doesn't mean I'm going to dance and sing down the high street.

Maybe your love of music did arise do to not being able to communicate but why on earth would you lose it if you weren't SP? Are you saying the only people who love music are SP? That's ridiculous. BUT lets say you did lose interest in music because you have a life.... whats wrong with that? You have something even better than the music you love so much now!! You have a choice!!

And what about my tastes and everything I believe in…i.e. that originality and emotion are important to art, and my desire to make an impact in the world

What?!! Your tastes and opinions will change throughout your life. They are a reflection of who you are and change as you do. Is your mind now closed forever? Have you sussed out all there is to life already? If you change, you change. Welcome to life, learning and growing. Ok, yes SP is a part of you/us BUT a tiny part. You are more than just an irrational fear of social situations. Is everything you do or think because of SP? Are you that shallow? Is that all there is to you? I severely doubt this. If you are smart and creative then you will be whether you are on drugs, SP or whatever.

If I change too much, will I accept that I’m just another grain of sand and just fade away into the background? If I rid myself of all pain, will I have any emotion left for my music?

Excuse me??? So I'm just another grain of sand? Don't be so effing arrogant!! So no one is a valid human being unless they are miserable??!! You need to get your head out of your ass. If pain is the only emotion you have then you are nothing but a one trick pony. Empty and shallow, devoid of much of the human experience. There is soooo much more to life then pain. Else why would you love music???? Why bother with music ??? It makes makes you happy right? comforted? etc So why do them if these feelings are pointless???

I'm not going to apologise if for being a bit strong with my language. I'm not believe it or not slagging you off. I think you just havent yet had a really wonderful experience in your life. I'm not sure if you have all the facts yet. The pics you posted here are good. I dont know what your music is like but you are smart and talented. You are more than SP. You are a human being just like everyone else, even if they are conventional. You are more than fear and sorrow whether you accept it or not. Do not deny yourself your humanity. Do not hide from SP by making philosophical excuses. Do not let fear rule your life, for it takes more than it will ever give back.

 

[applesewer]

Thank you for your comments everyone…I dunno…maybe you’re right. Its just the way I feel.

 

[Anonymous]

well, to the original post:
I think it is both, glamourized and hellishful

it's only glamourized only for people who made art out of it, because the work done by this mind, might be original or at least truthful. plus if you have skills such as van gogh to say an example, then you know the story. but i think an SP person migh have or not big imagination. So, I think this theory of artists applies for mild schitzos only,or at least the ones who knew how to keep in the border without falling down ( a very few one ).
But i do think teh majority of people with SP migth have developed some skills done in a daily task. (cook,software,drawings,writing,music, etc) product of the boredom. so such skills might be quite impressive too.
A mental ill its in the most of the cases. something not asked for.

 

[Anonymous]

give it a break yoss. I don't think any real artists would ever reach his/her goals if they were not ambitious as hell. and why are they ambitious? because they are aware of their capacities. they know they could do it. and they indeed can if they are smart enough. u do need some vision. Sp might be different, but Shirley Manson has/had SP or anxiety so there are alwats exceptions (in all fields of human knowledge)

 

[Anonymous]

nobody is hiding for being phylosophycally. i think that's indeed one of main probs, thats might be the way we are.

 

[wistful_dementia]

The more you ignore me....

Yoss is right.

Your worriness, is that you.... the person who keeps signing on with the smiths titles?

 

[Anonymous]

sh! i dont think artists necc need to be ambitious or confident to be successful. for an artist theres is no choice but to create..sometimes the creations are discovered and sometimes not...partly due to luck id say...i bet theres loads of good stuff..writing, art, music....sitting about in peoples studies...never having been discovered..oh hang on you meant that artists who are recognised by society (via the media) are ambitious right? does art have to be validated by society to be art? who decides whats art and who decides what an artist is?

i think yoss makes some seriously good points, and yoss, i dont think you should give it a break. sheesh dont start on my life though you might be a bit too close to the bone for me!

 

[Anonymous]

yeh, bigmouth i meant artists who are recognized by the media because they wanted to make money out of it. (like Dali, or famous musicians ). Art doesn't need to be recognized to be art, for example pyschopathological art ( the ones made in a nuthouse by patients) are often destroyed, its considered offensive and product of the devil instead of art. In the other hand art (artificial things ) is anything that a human created. so everything artificial would be somehow art. I don't have anything in particular againts Yoss, I was relating too much with worry's post and i guess i was trying to encourage him to make music. just as yoss tried in his own way i guess, but i noticed this late. Oh well, no hard feelings Yoss i also recognize your points.

 

[Yossarian]

No hard feelings Guest. I was a little confused when I read your first post. Worrywort asked for our honest opinion so I gave it.

I would certainly never try and discourage anyone from pursuing things they love. Especially anything artistic, creative or to do with personal expression. Nor that SP is a barrier, just having SP didn't make us better people. Many here ask for 'normal' people to accept us as equals, human beings in our own right then criticise 'normal' people for being shallow and stupid etc. I may have many faults but I try to keep hypocrisy to a minimum if I can.

If you look at the lyrics of songs that I have posted here you will see I am hardly the type to skip through fields trying to teach the world to sing. I just don't think I am a better or more profound person for my misery. This is what the topic was about after all.

I think if art is an expression of a persons thoughts and emotions, then the more emotions and experiences that person has the more choices/options the artist has and the more meaningful the choices he makes become. Think of it as increasing the artists pallette.

I won't apologise for arguing that worrywort or anyone else should be happy. Or at least try it. Personally I love beautiful sad songs about loneliness but I would rather be loved and have silence.

I do relate to the fear of change. I have lived with this for a long time. I just think we are more complex, richer and deeper than just being scared. I think too many, as I have done myself, give too much credit to SP for who we are. We are better than that. All of us. It is fear that makes us scared of change. The same fear that we have lived with for too long.
Trust yourselves, have faith in who you are. You deserve the credit not SP. When SP is gone you will still remain.

If you still want pain and sorrow, you will get it. SP is only one of many sources of misery.

Anyway, sorry to retread old ground. Just to contradict myself here is an extract from a poem by Stevie Smith called The Sorrowful Girl:

Muriel, Muriel, marry me Muriel,
And I will comfort you as well
And bring life to your pale hair
And your languid air.

Ah then I shall not be I, for I am here
With my languid air and lifeless hair
And I do not feel cold or heat
I am imprisoned and do not need to be freed
My prison is my sorrowful mind
And I do not wish to leave it behind
Wake me not, leave me here, leave me alone
I am as god made me, a sorrowful one.

And singing she sang, I am sorrowful, sorrowful
And because I am sorrowful I am beautiful.

 

[Anonymous]

muriel should wake him. now wheres that nutella? hmph sundays rock. X

 

[blank]

I don't have time to read everyones replies, but what I would say is ... yes it is glamourised.

Think of a lot of the famous artist out there.
I think the reason that Van Gogh, Picasso , and Dali are touted as being so great is that they were wierd .
People are entertained by the fact that they are so different, but if they were to actually know the person they would shy away from them.

Which do you think would carry more viewer interest - a movie of a phobic artist that lives up in someones attic and paints, or a comman person that paints very well, but is otherwise boring.

The reason artist have to die to become famous is that no one wants to be around them when they are alive.