Bipolar Disorder and Art

by Kristy Morgan

Creating art is very beneficial to me. In my particular case I suffer from bipolar disorder and tend to get depressed pretty often. For some reason drawing and painting has always been an easy way for me to "escape" so to speak. It's very therapeutic for me. Sometimes I'm so depressed that I really don't want to do anything at all (including art) but art is the one thing that I can go ahead and make myself start and then I get so into it that I don't want to stop. I think it's mostly the process of creating something that I enjoy so much rather than the actual outcome. There really is something amazing and fascinating about art. It’s pretty cool to be able to create something out of nothing. There are so many different ways of using art. Some people just do it as a hobby and others use art to truly express themselves or to make a statement. Even cavemen painted. Art is one of the things that makes us human. It’s one of the things that connects us all regardless of background or culture.