Introduction
There are many forms of creativity; from singing to dancing, drawing to painting. Creativity has the ability to allow people to express their thoughts and feelings within their creative projects. With mental health being a majour struggle for many, creativity can be a profound way for them to exert their feelings where they can create or tell a groundbreaking story. “Anybody can create good artwork. It is the story behind them that makes it great.” Due to the vast amount of ways and forms of creativity, creativity allows more of a chance for the creator to showcase their thoughts and stories throughout their art: whether it is about sharing ideas, giving people an insight into their thoughts or memories, or connecting with those who share similar feelings portrayed throughout their artwork and how they had found an escape from their thoughts, feelings, or reality.
With mental health being a persistent and horrible factor that can affect the lives of many, it can be increasingly crucial for them to maintain and improve. Preserving good mental health is necessary for everybody to achieve and maintain. However, it can become more difficult or even impossible for one to find a way to cope and distract oneself from the negativity that one has or is going through. With the pains and the challenges that people can go through, finding an escape can become more challenging, with feelings of worthlessness, disappointment, and loss becoming so daunting that one cannot or might not begin to believe that there is a way to get better, recover, or find new ways of coping and escaping from the pain.
With the many forms of creativity possible, people will never entirely run out of ideas of things to create, and ways to be creative. Their minds will be allowed to roam and flow free from thought to thought. Due to this, people will never stalemate on one particular memory, emotion, or feeling going through their minds. It can be a positive thing for people to create and design new projects as they hunt for that new story to tell and allow their thoughts and feelings to exert in a safe and healthy manner. Getting creative won’t always be easy as there are many barriers that can block you from creating and expressing your thoughts, feelings, or ideas. There are no right or wrong ways to get creative, however; it is entirely up to the creator to create an exceptional, unique piece of work that stands out above the rest and tells a worthwhile, enticing story.
Aims and objectives
These aims and objectives will help me by guiding me along my research projects; showing what I am to talk about in each aim and what objectives to show throughout each aim. My aims and objectives will help me to structure my project, giving me the understanding and possibility to expand my knowledge in each aim and what I want to discuss and learn throughout the objectives.
Aim 1:
Define Creativity - this aim is to get me to give an understanding of what can be classed as creativity, allowing my readers to gain an understanding of the forms of creativity and can allow me to persuade my audience that there can be many forms that people can get creative.
Objectives:
Within this aim, an objective I have chosen is to discuss what it can mean to get creative: discussing how creativity can have a different meaning to its creators and how creativity can change, and how creativity can be classed as many things. Furthermore, another objective I have chosen to discuss is how it can feel to get creative: showing different ways people can feel while creating, how creative arts can innovate thinking skills, and create improvements that can be seen as a result of creativity.
Aim 2:
Define Mental Health - this aim is to give my audience the ability to understand mental health; how it can hinder people’s day-to-day activity, and stricken them down near breaking points.
Objectives:
Within this aim, the objectives I have decided to discuss are: What mental health is and how it can affect a person. These objectives are allowing me to showcase how mental health can be different within people, the different ways mental health can hinder people’s lives, and how mental health can force them to feel at a loss.
Aim 3:
Establish a connection between mental health and creativity - this aim is allowing me to describe how, by getting creative, mental health can be affected as a result.
Objectives:
For this aim, my objectives are to explain how getting creative can promote different ways of thinking, and how creativity can have impacts on people’s overall mental health. Within this aim, I will be providing and exploring a vast variety of people’s personal experiences - linking my research to the Questionnaires and Interviews that I will be holding.
Aim 4:
Explain different alternatives of how creativity can impact mental health - this aim is a continuation of the prior aim and is going to explore a variety of different effects numerous creative activities could have on mental health.
Objectives:
For this aim, I will be exploring different ways that people can get creative and what good ways people have found to get creative. This aim will be moreso linked to my Interviews and Questionnaires, as to provide examples of the before mentioned. Furthermore, this aim will look to explain further links that creativity can have to mental health and how people can feel whilst participating in creativity, and after that individual has completed a creative project.
What does it mean to get creative?
Getting creative can profoundly affect one's overall thoughts and behaviour: creativity is a way of thinking about a problem in a new manner, changing perspectives until a reasonable way to solve said problem arises. By being creative, you allow your mind to open up and roam free, this enables you to find a new way of working and thinking - this can grant you to become more adventurous in your day-to-day problem-solving and make you keener to take more creative risks.
Being creative can innovate your thinking skills, helping you to be more able to think outside the box by viewing the various opportunities that are possible for you to complete an activity and the best possible way you could attempt said activity. Creativity is a task that involves innovative thinking: allowing you to find alternative ways to create. Anybody can become creative, which can enable people to locate an understanding of one's views and thoughts throughout their creations. Creativity can be used to describe a specific experience the creator has had in life, the thoughts, or feelings that the creator wants to push throughout their piece. Creativity is a form of thinking that allows you to use your imagination, mind, experiences, and thoughts that you have consistently or have had previously.
Creativity is a way to get people thinking about their thoughts, feelings, emotions, historical happenings, futuristic concepts, and many reasons about an artwork. Somebody once said to me: “It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks about your artwork, all that matters is that you got them thinking.” - this shows that no matter what other people may think about your work, you got them to observe and think about your work, whether it is positive feelings about your work or negative - a person's opinion should not change your thoughts and feelings you have of your artwork as you can use their judgement to improve upon your work.
To be creative, you are enabling yourself to become more imaginative with newer stories that can inform, influence, and allow people to find an understanding in your works and projects. Creativity can allow you to be more curious in your day-to-day life: hunting for things that you can incorporate into your works, questioning the things you would usually overlook, and exploring the world around you to a greater extent. Creativity allows you to see the smaller details within things. Creativity can also allow you to reflect on your progress, past experiences, and your works of art: by doing this, you can spot any abnormalities, find things that are hindering your self-improvement for you to work on them, and give the opportunity to be proud of who you are, what you have done, and the upbringing you have had - whether a good or bad one - being proud and feeling at-ease of your past will be something that creativity will help you locate. Similarly, creativity can also allow you to become more logical in your thinking, this can allow you to think back on the past logically, where you can focus on the better times you have had, more than the negatives.
As a result of being able to create, you will begin to notice the extended improvements in your overall thoughts and behaviour: throughout your creations, you will be likely to take more risks, embrace the failures that you may face, and ultimately, believe more in yourself and the work process. Due to the possibility of your progress throughout creativity, you may see significant improvements throughout your life where you can innovate and incorporate the thought process and moments you have found throughout your creative process.
How does it feel to get creative?
Creativity can feel different for everybody. It can also feel different depending on the time you choose to create, the things that you make, and the ways you’re creating. Creativity is, like any art, subjective as there are no right or wrong ways to create, people can-and-will have different ways that they feel is best for them to create. There is no ‘best’ way to create; it is entirely up to you, the artist, to choose how to create, and what you feel is the best way for you to create and express your creativity.
Creativity incorporates freedom throughout the creative process, allowing you to use your imagination and build on your skills. Creativity provides feelings for you to endure while participating in your creative process, feelings that you might not have felt before or in a long time. Such feelings could be happiness, joy, contempt, and so many more.
Creativity can help to promote a sense of accomplishment that allows you to understand and explore your thoughts and feelings; building a brand-new world within your mind that you can incorporate into your art. Creativity allows you to create a sudden spark for the worlds you create: exploring the vast landscape and stories that you have let yourself create, the dangers and safeties, the shocking and favourable places, things, and people that are throughout your creative journey. Creativity allows you to feel the curiosity to create, explore, and understand your stories and creations, which can motivate you to continue the hunt for the next instalment of your stories.
Creativity has, for some, allowed people to feel the ‘magic’ that resonates throughout the journey. Creativity has also allowed people to create an understanding and exploration of their minds. Creativity creates a thrilling and exciting experience that inspires you throughout your life, not only to get more creative but with doing your hobbies and going through your day-to-day life.
Furthermore, Creativity allows you to have a better overall mood, while you have completed a long and drooling extent of creating or a project that you have been completing for a very long time, you will feel good about completing that stint or project, thus making your overall mood be greater throughout the day.
What is Mental Health?
Throughout many peoples' lives, mental health can impact them regularly; by changing their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Mental health can change how a person sees things, acts, and thinks. People can be changed by a simple thought, feeling, or thing that they have been told or that has been on their minds. This can hurt them throughout their whole lives, tearing them down to a breaking point. With many people struggling to battle against having another mental health breakdown, it has become so much more meaningful for them to get the assistance and help they need, to guide them through it.
Mental health can challenge us all as it can tear a life apart - ripping it to the point that the person has no idea what to do that they could want, think, and sometimes do things that could hurt them or can force them to take their own life. With all the hurt, sadness, anguish, and suffering one can face, mental health can become increasingly daunting. Mental health can be hard to escape from, and could bring fear into that person's life: scared of what to do, whom to turn to, whether it will get better, etc. A person could get forced into an endless cycle that hurts them to the point that living is barely and sometimes seems like it is impossible or improbable to live through.
Mental health issues can be caused based on a number of reasons - such as biological or psychological reasons, or overall exposure to social, economic, or environmental issues that are bringing stressful problems to an individual. Anybody can suffer from mental health issues or challenges that could range anywhere from minor to severe in effect. Mental health affects how a person thinks, feels, and acts: it can hinder how a person handles stressful situations, and relate to others and can cause the person whose suffering to feel at a loss or like they have nobody that can help them, and mental health can force that person to make irrational and potentially harmful decisions.
Mental health is something that many people struggle with; it will never be easy to fix or get out of the negative loop, but there are support mechanisms and people that can aid you through your negative experiences. Charities such as Mind, Childline, and Samaritans are some examples of charities that aim to support people with their mental health. These charities are all British-based and work on providing people with a safe space where they can discuss how they have been feeling, and explore numerous methods that the individual could incorporate into their lives to see change and understand why, or how they may have been feeling like. These charities work as a charitable service that provides real experiences people have gone through, and how they have made changes that have resulted in their mental health becoming greater. These charities also provide some in-depth detailing into different mental health problems, how they can impact a person, and some examples of changes that could be made to tackle and make improvements to turn them around.
How can Mental Health affect a person?
Mental health has the ability to affect a person substantially by dragging them down to a breaking point where they feel at-a-loss and feel as if there is no coming back, no improvements that can be made, and no chance of things ever getting better. Mental health can affect anyone from any background, changing the way they think, feel, participate in things, and act: mental health can change a person from an often very loud-mouthed and outgoing person to a person that hides away in the shadows of fear - in the darkness of the night where only the thoughts that emitting in their minds overshadows the good things about them, secluding them from the people and times they used to be around and like.
Negative mental health can cause people to believe or feel negative things about themselves. This can force that individual to participate in harmful actions that cause them to feel worse about themselves; some examples of this could be eating or sleeping too much or too little (more or less than they would normally), keeping themselves away, and pulling themselves back from people or activities that they would normally be with or do, having a lingering low-mood or loss of interest with things, feeling drained or having low energy to do things - negative mental health can change many things in a person, it could cause them to take more unlawful risks, risks that could bring them into dangerous situations, or the complete opposite. Negative mental health is something that should be taken very seriously: if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, talk to someone you can confide in.
Mental health can affect a person’s overall health, increasing their chances for potentially life-changing and long-lasting conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Mental health conditions can affect a person’s whole life; changing how they think, feel, and cope with things. Similarly, mental health conditions can become dangerous to those people it affects: increasing their likelihood to self-harm, or worse, becoming suicidal. Mental health can change over time, it may become less stressful at one time, to more stressful and severe at another time.
What is the connection between Creativity and Mental Health?
Getting creative can inspire and incorporate different and new ways of thinking; helping people to express themselves throughout their creative projects, and providing a range of things and places they can escape to. Creativity can improve people’s ability to innovate, explore, problem solve, and a number of other things that can change the creator’s life, work, and hobbies.
Of the 40 different people that have answered my questionnaire, 57.5% of them said that they get creative frequently, with a further 32.5% saying that they sometimes get creative. A number of those people suggested that creativity is their passion and that it helps them to feel productive and motivated to keep going. A number of people stated that creativity helps them to feel whole: helping them to keep them calm, motivated, and productive.
For this questionnaire, the type of creativity that people do the most is drawing, with 82%, 32 people who get drawing on a regular basis. Writing is the second most that people have used to express themselves and exert their feelings; 52.5% of people write.
A person that I have interviewed on this topic has stated that creativity is a way for them to escape from their living situation and thoughts about themselves: they said that they are not supported by their family with who they are and identify as. They identified that creativity is their way of escaping from their ‘prison’ and exploring themselves and their self-identity. This individual uses editing as their primary form of creative expression; editing videos and incorporating their humour and who they are throughout the editing process. This individual has used journaling and writing, building in Minecraft, and building Legos for creating their artwork while feeling a sense of calmness, creativity, and happiness throughout these projects. They have said that they feel a sense of accomplishment when completing their artworks, they also like to share their artworks with others as it allows them to feel positive about others being able to see and understand their feelings: critiques are also valued by this individual as it allows them to improve upon their artworks.
This person has an alter (which is understood as another personality, and to some, another person within them), and their alter has allowed me to interview them on the topic. They said that they use creativity as their way of feeling good about themselves, it has helped them to escape to their imagination and where it may take them. This alter is around 5 years of age and has created a vast variety of places, such as their Village which is made out of Lego, and their Den which is their ‘safe place’. Explore their world with their best friend, a stuffed toy they have named Pippin. Pippin and they have created a number of things out of Lego which they then incorporate into their worlds and imagination, as well as getting up to various activities in their Village. They have said that Pippin has helped them to feel safe and loved.
The reason that 35% of these people get creative is that it has helped them to escape or explore their thoughts and feelings. Some people said that creativity is a way to commit to their thoughts rather than escape them. After completing a project, people have said that they are able to take a step back and feel proud of themselves and their accomplishments. Many people said that they feel empowered to start another project, with some even suggesting that they feel emptiness when they have finished a project. One person said that they have felt sadness after completing a project, saying that they are sad that the journey for that piece of work has come to an end.
Almost all participants have said that they show other people their creations, with just shy of half saying that they would only sometimes show others. However, there was 5% said they do not share their creations with others; this could be because they are scared of what others may think or say about them, or because they may have gotten negative comments in the past and would not like to have the same response.
Positive and negative criticism about creation could affect a person’s belief about their own artwork. Results of the questionnaire suggest that, with positive criticism, they feel happy, eager to do more, proud, and have helped them to improve upon their artwork. However, people have stated that when they receive negative criticism they have felt sad, hurt, and negative. On the contrary, people have also said that despite the negative criticism making them feel sad, they are able to take it onboard and inspire them to practise and improve for future projects.
Throughout my experience, I have been able to see the benefits that getting creative can have on my mental health: finding an escape from overwhelming and repetitive negative thoughts has always been a challenge for me. Struggling on my own, I challenged myself to get creative; by doing my drawings and artwork, I found the escape that I was desperate to find. However, during this time, some negative criticism was given to my artwork, which affected my belief that I could make good art. As I was believing my art wasn’t good, my interest in art declined and I began disliking drawing. Despite the unhelpful and negative thoughts about my own artwork, I continued to do the occasional drawing and still found some inspiration and motivation to continue doing my drawings: keeping up with the drawings continued to help me escape from my negative thoughts and problems. Although I began to dislike the creative process, in college, I gained the motivation and inspiration to get more creative; delving into the art of writing, music production, and a number of other creative activities. As I struggled to figure myself out, I began to understand my feelings more and open my mind up as for my creativity: this aided me to change my future prophecies, giving me the confidence to allow myself to continue my creative journey in the coming years.
Creativity has given me inspiration, motivation, confidence, and has helped me to figure out what I am wanting to do in the future: it has allowed me to escape, find new and different feelings, and it has given me the strength to continue battling through the pain and negative thoughts and feelings.
Conclusion
Throughout this research, I have found and evaluated the effects that creativity can have on people’s mental health. I have provided a mixture of people’s experiences and I have included experiences of my own: as I have seen, creativity has had profound effects on my mental health, allowing me to escape my mind and focus on telling a story throughout my creations, I have also been able to show that creativity has had effects to others’ mental health, and I have given a number of different examples of how creativity has impacted people in different ways. I believe that creativity should be given to people as a way of working on mental health, giving the possibility for people to explore their inner thoughts through their art, and providing them with an escape, or some motivation to keep going.
Mental health can affect people from all different situations and backgrounds: from causing self-hatred, darkness, fear, and many other different negative emotions that can cause them to be near to breaking point. Throughout my experience, I have seen a mixture of these feelings as they have hindered my self-development and have begun to tear me down to a place where I have become stranded in my own sadness and pains.
These experiences have allowed me to see the difference in behaviours and energy that has been incorporated into my life. Opening up opportunities for me to improve and inspire others to get creative, these experiences have allowed me to escape the ever-growing pain and heartbreak that has been inflicted upon me.
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank all the people who have helped me throughout this project, each one of these individuals was helpful in showing and inspiring me throughout this project. Without the help of these people, I would not have been able to finish this project, as I would not have been able to provide any additional experiences and challenges that people have had throughout their creative and mental health journeys. I would personally like to thank these specific people that have provided me with the most helpful throughout this project helping me to construct this project, providing their own experiences and helping me with any questions I may have had: my tutor, Ellen, who has helped me to understand what is needed and helped me to construct this project, and my friends, Q and F, who have held an interview with me and given me some extensive information of their experiences with creativity.
Appendices
Appendix A1: How does creativity make you feel?
This is a blank copy of the questionnaire I sent people, asking them about their experiences with creativity and how it has made them feel
Appendix A2: How does creativity make you feel? (Responses)
This is the responses that people gave to the questionnaire.
Appendix A3: This is a chart to show how many people complete creative activities:
Appendix A4: This is a chart to show how creativity can help people with their feelings:
Appendix A5: This is a chart to show how many people show their creations to others
Appendix B1: This is a transcript of my own experience I have had through creativity and mental health:
Battling through sadness and depression when things were tough, it had always been hard for me to escape from reality and the thoughts I was subjected to most of the time. While I had always been a creative individual, I still always found myself struggling daily. Finding pain in things I completed, ways to criticise myself about my creations, works, and pieces, I always thought against my emotions, working upon improving them and helping myself to get away from my thoughts and the bad times. Creativity has made me see things in a different light: showcasing my talents and projects to others always gives me a boost of helping me continue with my creative projects and allowing me to submerge myself in the creative world over and over again.
However, during a lesson in year nine, there was something that affected me and my creativity negatively. Something was said about one of the pieces I was working on at that time. This piece was a half-drawn picture of a Bugatti Veyron, my favourite car at that time. As I had finished my work for that lesson, I chose to work on the drawing. When I was working on this, my friends and some peers in the class were wanting to see my progress on the drawing. When I had shown them, a person gave me the feedback that it “wasn’t realistic enough.” This comment is what made me begin to dislike doing drawings and artwork altogether, stopping me from drawing as often as I would have liked to. Trying to not think about their opinion, as my other friends: friends which I had trusted far more than the person that stated their negative opinion about my artwork, had stated that my artwork was good and that I shouldn’t let what they said affect me too much. But, every day before this, all I could think about was that the drawing was not realistic enough: this impacted me as it made me stop drawing that picture, which, in terms, caused me to stop drawing altogether, apart from in my art classes, where I became upset and started to dislike doing art and working on artworks.
Due to all the bullying and name-calling, I had been called previously throughout high school, this comment is what made me lose hope, making me upset about things, think about everything that had happened, everything that was said to me, and things that I had previously done in the past, I became depressed and started to feel hatred toward myself: this was also impacted on heavily as I was continuously called gay which I very much didn’t like to be called, and after high school, I started to accept my feelings I had towards my closest friend that I had spent most of my days in high school with and stated to have feelings toward them.
During a not-too-great day, where I was feeling hatred towards myself again, I wandered off to a field where I knew I would be able to just stay and not worry about anything. As I sat, thinking about things, I gathered a thought about a picture that I could create. This picture was of somebody that was sitting down at the foot of a tree in a huddled-up position, looking both sad and lonely: sketching out this drawing, I started feeling empty and as all my thoughts and self-hatred toward myself had gone. Looking back over this, I realised that the picture I was creating had been based on me and the feelings that were present around me at that moment. As I continued drawing, I decided that I would create a final product out of it; letting my feelings and thoughts be taken away as I came to the end of creating that piece.
From a young age, I had always been a creative person: I would go dancing through primary school, partaking in the Cadi ha [Welsh Folk Dancing] up the streets of Holywell, I participated in the Eisteddfod (or Urdd, a Welsh competition, that I would perform a dancing routine along with other people from my school) and I would always doodle on pieces of paper. In year 6 I began to learn how to play the guitar, which unfortunately I stopped after that year due to not being able to afford lessons. During this time throughout primary school, I had lots of fun and enjoyed my time, partaking in the dancing, doing the occasional doodlings, and learning and playing the guitar.
Listening to music has allowed me to open up my mind, this has helped me by giving me the possibility of viewing things differently, thinking about my thoughts and feelings furthermore, and helping me realise that some thoughts can be overcome by arts and creativity. The feeling that came to me whilst listening to music has allowed me to delve into the possibility to create and produce some music. A song that my friend and I have written. This song is based on thoughts and feelings that have occurred in me. Working with a good friend of mine, who is from America, we were able to create, write and produce our first song: Life got you down.
Due to the negativity I have been subjected to throughout my artwork, I have the tendency to be very self-critical towards the artworks I am doing or have completed: this has the ability to stop me from wanting to create as I may feel as if I am unable to create good artworks, or that I or my stories are not good enough to be showcased throughout the people who see my art. With my online presence, there are many people that can view my creations; many of which have given me some good feedback.
Appendix B2: This is a transcript of the interview I held to get other people's experiences through creativity and mental health
Q and F
This individual has used creativity as a way to escape from their living situation and thoughts they have had about themselves: this is mostly due to their family not supporting them with whom they are; a non-binary individual. They said that they have mainly used creativity as a way to escape their thoughts when they were struggling to identify themselves, they began to use creativity to escape from their “prison” of themselves; being trapped in their flesh consistently [Gender Dysphoria], and due to them not understanding their sense of self-identity. This individual focuses on the editing aspect of creativity where they use YouTube as their primary source of showcasing their artworks: they also do other creative projects such as writing, building in Minecraft, and building Legos: while creating their works of art, they feel a sense of calmness, creativity, and happiness from these projects. After completion of an artwork, they have felt a sense of accomplishment. They like to showcase their works to others as it makes them feel positive that others can share their thoughts on their work; giving their critique is also appreciated by these individuals as they can use it to improve upon their works.
This individual also has an Alter, which is also known as a dissociative identity disorder; people with this may feel uncertainty about their identity: who they are and are not, and they may also feel the presence of others within them. Their Alter [F] has been able to use creativity to help them feel good about themselves, helping them escape to where their minds take them. F is around five years of age and can explore a vast amount of places; such as their Village which is created out of Legos, the den they had made, and creating other things made out of Legos. F does all this will their friend, a stuffed teddy that they have called Pippin. Pippin and F have visited a variety of places in their imagination, getting up to a variety of activities such as exploring their village and building other things out of Legos. F also keeps a journal that both F and Q share and write in, in this journal they discuss their feelings and what they got up to during the day. Pippin helps F feel safe and loved, as they spend their time venturing through their vastly growing village, discovering the new places and things they can find, with their den being their safe place, keeping them away from the ‘Badman.’ Their village is an old, fantasy village that supports old, stony houses, and tree houses while their village is in the presence of dragons.
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