Does Creativity increase chances of becoming addicted?

Question

I'm mainly thinking about all the musicians, artists, writers, etc who were major talents in their fields but were drug and/or alcohol addicted.

Do the two, high creativity and addiction, necessarily go hand in hand?

I'd like to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

Answer 1

I think getting addicted has more to do with your ability to stop things, or not. If someone uses their creativity while intoxicated on whatever that can make things hard, but eventually the creativity will leave with your mind. It's still a matter of how much self control a person has. That's my opinion.

Answer 2

I watched a show about this once on one of the learning channels. Some times the creative person in which we are speaking of, may turn to certain addictions for many reasons. One being the need to relieve their mind from the constant thinking that is the very core of their own creativity. Another reason was that they found their addiction to be very easy for them, some thing like gambling is a common form of addiction for a person like this. Of course there are the ones that receive the gene from a parent that contributes to their addiction. Some are prone to their addiction for the same reasons an average minded person would be. They may turn to it for comfort or relief from other problems such as physical or mental abuse.

Answer 3

I would have to say NO. I personally am very creative. Through out my entire life I have been drawing, painting, writing short stories, a novel, poetry, film scripts, filming those film scripts, inventing board games, creating comic books, writing and recording songs. And I've never been addicted to any drugs. I drink recreationaly like most normal people, but I've never felt the slightest compulsion to drink excessive amounts or too often. I used to smoke marijuana but that's also perfectly common for people in their teens and early twenties (which is when I used to smoke) and I, like most people, smoked it because it was fun. not because I "needed" to. Marijuana is not an addictive substance chemically, and I was not addicted to it mentally either. So to recap, I'm creative and I don't get addicted to things like that.

Also, as for famous creative people...sure there have been lots of them that were addicted to drugs. But there have also been a lot more that haven't. It just seems like so many of them are addicts because that's what you always hear about. No one bothers to mention that someone is NOT addicted to drugs if that's the case.

Another type of addiction, though, could be addiction to things other than drugs. Arguably, you could say that Michelangelo was "addicted" to his work. Lots of famous writers have expressed an "addiction" to writing. And I myself could possibly be considered "addicted" to making all the things I make. If I go a day without drawing or writing something I feel like I'm wasting my life away. Also, I sometimes feel like I could be considered addicted to other people's creative creations. Like I'll get addicted to everything Star Wars. Or I'll get addicted to comic books. Where I just get so incredibly into what ever it is and I just keep reading all about it and being so interested in it and thinking about it all the time and drawing the characters and stuff like that. but that's probably just because I think it's cool and I get inspired by it.