Creativity and mental health: Where do we overstep

Rovaldo Kavanga
Kalistu R Mukoroli, PR and brand strategist

We tend to preach about being creative, but isn’t this contributing to mental health issues? Creative people always push themselves to the edge to ensure that their next project is better than their previous one, but what we don’t realise is that this harms their mental health if they think or believe that their work is not appreciated.

Questioning themselves over and over about their talent and sets of skills. It is a tough world out there indeed, and the pandemic has made it worse. The creative industry doesn’t operate like any other; they work odd hours, which helps with being productive. Sleeping during the day and staying up all night working is what many creatives do, but other people see this as being lazy. Are they lazy though? I doubt it.

Very few people in the creative industry speak boardroom language at all, but they are expected to do so. Maybe those in the boardroom need to learn how creatives communicate, rather than thinking that the creatives are not serious or don’t know how to communicate. All this contributes to the mental health of that creative person. Creative peeps, on the other hand, need to learn how to convey a message so that everyone can understand.

Creativity is awesome and tapping into it can help with creating a positive energy in any environment. Being creative is plenty important and that’s what fuels the creative industry.

Show some appreciation and support to the creative industry; everyone is not well. The creative industry is not well but sorting it out starts with all of us. The focus of this write-up isn’t about mental health or the creative industry solely, but it’s the start of both conversations that need to be held together.