This question refers to the many mythologies about creativity, including notions regarding the role of inspiration, artists possessing unique extraordinary talents, and the idea that psychiatric treatment will impair creativity. We’ve been taught to admire the supposed depressive geniuses who sing our favorite songs, make our biggest films and, write our most celebrated poetry. This attraction leads to the misguided conclusion that mental illness feeds the creative personality and that affected individuals would be incomplete without their “madness.”

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves many processes: thinking, analyzing and then producing.

The single theme that unites all highly creative people is intense motivation. Both depression and bipolar have a strong negative effect on motivation needed to solve problems. In order to be creative, sleep and relaxation are extremely important along with a reasonably calm mood. Depression may be the most powerful creativity suppressant there is. When people with bipolar are manic, they can be very original, but they're not necessarily able to follow through and develop their ideas into creative accomplishments. Creativity doesn’t just happen. Researchers have also found a link between the length of a bipolar child’s illness and creativity: the longer a person was sick or manic, the lower the creativity.

The idea that mental illness facilitates brilliance is a very unfortunate stereotype that ultimately leads some to avoid or delay seeking treatment because they fear losing that supposed edge. But listening to the words of individuals struck by both creative ambition and mental illness should remind us that the sound mind is most creative and that the act of maintaining such a state may require treatment.

Richard Berlin's book Poets on Prozac shatters the myth that psychiatric treatment will impair creativity. According to Poets on Prozac, when people are suffering with the most severe symptoms of their psychiatric disorder, such as addiction, schizophrenia, mania, depression, eating disorders, or anxiety, they have an impaired ability to function at many levels, including planning, motivation, energy, and attention. Effective treatment can help them function at their highest levels of creativity.

The “mad genius” myth has many sources, and as result, psychiatric treatment has never received an accurate portrayal in popular culture, which contributes to the stigma about mental illnesses. I believe education is the key to decreasing stigma, offering people reassurance that effective treatment will not impair creativity but will enable them to function at their highest creative level.