4 ms·

We don't really know the full relationship between substance abuse and mental illness. There's a very well-known correlation between the two, but it's questiona

by j_baker 12y ago

We don't really know the full relationship between substance abuse and mental illness. There's a very well-known correlation between the two, but it's questionable whether the substance abuse causes mental illness or the mental illness causes the substance abuse. It's likely some combination of the two: the substance abuse aids the mental illness and the mental illness aids the substance abuse.

jeorgun 12y ago
I think the implication was more that the substance abuse effected their creative output.
coldtea 12y ago
Or, you know, actual sensitivity and sadness for something causes both depression and substance abuse. It's not like don't have things to be sad and depressed about, creative people doubly so. Thinking it's all just chemicals gone bad in the brain is the fad of the day, like electroshock treatment for gays and ADD over-perscription in previous decades. People are always conflating circumstantial pepression with "mental illness" but it's not the same. Or, even worse, a lot of persons with circumstantial pepression prefer to think they have a "chemical imbalance" to get people to think they are absolved of any influence in the matter. Which is the wrong reason, because with circumstantial depression you also don't have much, if any, influence in the matter. It's not like you can reverse the loss of a love or failed ambitions, for example, and just rewire your psyche to not care about those. (Doctors of course, eager to prescribe anything and with no time for subtle distinctions, easily assure them that they indeed have a "mental illness". There was a whole counter-culture movement in medical circles criticizing that in the '60s and '70s, with is sadly forgotten.).
- beatpanda 12y ago
  Not quite forgotten: http://www.theicarusproject.net http://www.theicarusproject.net

4 ms·

We don't really know the full relationship between substance abuse and mental illness. There's a very well-known correlation between the two, but it's questiona

by j_baker 12y ago

jeorgun 12y ago
I think the implication was more that the substance abuse effected their creative output.
coldtea 12y ago
Or, you know, actual sensitivity and sadness for something causes both depression and substance abuse. It's not like don't have things to be sad and depressed about, creative people doubly so. Thinking it's all just chemicals gone bad in the brain is the fad of the day, like electroshock treatment for gays and ADD over-perscription in previous decades. People are always conflating circumstantial pepression with "mental illness" but it's not the same. Or, even worse, a lot of persons with circumstantial pepression prefer to think they have a "chemical imbalance" to get people to think they are absolved of any influence in the matter. Which is the wrong reason, because with circumstantial depression you also don't have much, if any, influence in the matter. It's not like you can reverse the loss of a love or failed ambitions, for example, and just rewire your psyche to not care about those. (Doctors of course, eager to prescribe anything and with no time for subtle distinctions, easily assure them that they indeed have a "mental illness". There was a whole counter-culture movement in medical circles criticizing that in the '60s and '70s, with is sadly forgotten.).
- beatpanda 12y ago
  Not quite forgotten: http://www.theicarusproject.net http://www.theicarusproject.net