Again , we return to the basic foundational criteria for bipolar disorder and major depression , which is that the pressured speech , the not sleeping , the incredible increases in energy and the flights of ideas are generally not going to lead or I think it's fair to say are not going to lead to good places , in fact , often lead to bad places . But we would also be wrong if we didn't consider the fact that there is a somewhat inextricable relationship between mania and creativity . And it could be that hypomania or brief periods of mania , maybe even an hour a day or 30 minutes a day of composing or writing poetry , maybe even some of the lows that we feel right , some of the sadness , some of the grief , some of the nostalgia that we feel provided that it's not pathologic and that it's not persistent for the four or seven days that are diagnostic of bipolar two and bipolar one disorder respectively .
And again , they're extremely maladaptive , much , much higher instance of , of suicide et cetera . But we'd be wrong to say that certain aspects of manic episodes don't lend themselves well to creativity or that certain aspects of major depression don't lend themselves well to creativity or to the performing arts or to poetry that said in no way , shape or form . Do I believe that being depressed is a good thing ?
And it could be that hypomania or brief periods of mania , maybe even an hour a day or 30 minutes a day of composing or writing poetry , maybe even some of the lows that we feel right , some of the sadness , some of the grief , some of the nostalgia that we feel provided that it's not pathologic and that it's not persistent for the four or seven days that are diagnostic of bipolar two and bipolar one disorder respectively . Well , then we can start to view emotional states as something that can actually lend themselves to positive outcomes and maybe even to creativity and to improved occupations . So it's important that we have a nuanced view of what sadness versus depression versus major depression are .
And in fact , it's been explored at a research level . Really , there are data pointing to the fact that certain individuals of certain occupations tend to be more creative and that creativity is associated with . Again , associate this isn't causal , it's associated or correlated with higher levels or incidents of bipolar depression and maybe even other forms of depression .
Certainly we're not saying that it's not that being a poet is gonna give you depression . But it turns out that people with depression and people with depression and mania seem to gravitate towards poetry or at least are very successful at poetry . Again , associative correlative , no causal relationship here .
