Even Rock Stars get the Blues

BEFORE I GET INTO The BLOG, I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT The RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION: OUR BLOG WILL CONTINUE FROM OUR NEW HOME:  http://www.mhcd.org/blog This article talks about Bruce Springsteen’s depression. In the article he says: “…his ambitions have been driven by three separate but connected emotions: pure fear and self-loathing and self-hatred.” These are three enemy’s no one should have bothering them. Although Springsteen conquered his demons by them forcing him to go on stage and perform. “Rather than having a polarizing effect on his creativity, Springsteen’s emotional headaches forced him to the stage…” If only for all of us our demons forced us to do some good for everyone. That would be great.
Springsteen goes on to say: “With all artists, because of the undertow of history and self-loathing, there is a tremendous push toward self-obliteration that occurs onstage. It’s both things: There’s a tremendous finding of the self while also an abandonment of the self at the same time. You are free of yourself for those hours; all the voices in your head are gone. Just gone.” You’re free to perform and do it good. That is what Springsteen brings to the table when he performs. It is something I think all would like to enjoy whether or not they have a mental illness to just be free and out of yourself for a few hours.
The article goes on to say: “Things got so bad, says Springsteen’s biographer and friend Dave Marsh, that the artist in 1982 even contemplated suicide. ‘The depression wasn’t shocking, per se. He was on a rocket ride, from nothing to something,’ Marsh said, of the period surrounding Springsteen’s career-defining stark, acoustic effort ‘Nebraska.’” It always surprises me when people turn something wrong into something great. Even in the worst of times to turn it around and make something to be proud of. You have to see the blue skies even when it is gray and cloudy.
The article goes on to say: “The Boss’s emotional turmoil wasn’t a complete surprise, the New Yorker writes. After all, Springsteen openly discussed the inspiration behind the song ‘My Father’s House’ (from ‘Nebraska’) onstage, revealing to his fans that the song developed through conversations with his psychotherapist.” What a way to get inspiration. He goes on to say: “Said Springsteen, ‘If you are extremely pleased with yourself, nobody would be … doing it! Brando would not have acted. Dylan wouldn’t have written ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ James Brown wouldn’t have gone ‘Unh!’ He wouldn’t have searched that one-beat down that was so hard. That’s motivation, that element of ‘I need to remake myself, my town, my audience—the desire for renewal.” They all went on to greatness. To keep searching in yourself until you find something great that most everyone loves or even that you love.
The article ends with a good comment I believe: “…Illustrate that self-doubt and self-criticism are pervasive among artists, and that each finds his or her own rationale and comfort level in discussing them with the public. The fact that Springsteen has hardly touched on these feelings in public all these years also shows that it’s a sensitive subject, and no one wants their work misinterpreted.” With all the bad news lately, these are stories of inspirations at a time when they are needed. That not all people with mental illness do bad, some do good. JUST A REMINDER THAT THE RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW ADDRESS: OUR NEW HOME IS: http://mhcd.org/blog

Can I draw a Picture?

The word lackadaisical is a loosely used word in this society. We as humans search for the highest of levels of human thought and functioning and what this leads to are studies between the artistic and the disturbances of mental abilities. This is one reason why I brought up the word lackadaisical. Lackadaisical is defined as showing a lack of interest, loss of self-esteem, or being without spirit. Can I draw a picture even with words with such reality?
We look for what is natural or the self motivated person as opposed to the normally defined individual by the authority of society or the socially approved person. Mental illness is viewed from a different perspective, which suggests that some people, who are thought to be mentally ill, have as great an artistic ability which may help them overcome their illness or symptoms, as the artistic abilities of such the normal societal individual.
There has always been a relationship of art and mental illness. As I was a teen-ager, I knew of artist with whom I had associated who were known to have at times spent a portion of their lives in mental institutions or under the care of doctors and taking psychotropic medications. “To compare the artist to the mentally ill” person we have to understand, what is the nature of an artist in relation to someone mentally ill and how do we look at the artist or the illness of a person who has the ability to create.
Artists as well as the mentally ill search for a sense of life, a universal embellishment of the self, and as consumers we are searching for a conscious awareness in communication with the depths of our being. Though the mental consumer is not accepted as a great artist, poet, writer, or even scientist we have to realize we are as fortunate as our opposites and so at times we feel we are with a predicament trying to express our selves through our artistic means.
If we live in our own world to create, we know we have chosen to share with a confidence, and with feelings that we are as much real as those who would tend to think we are different in this society, by maintaining a grasp on reality by expressing through a means which can be accepted by the many who care to share the expressions through art and the willingness to understand the grace of what is created to be communicated.
Written by Donald Sammons