Do you have to be Mentally Unhealthy to write a Good Novel?

The Relationship between Creativity and Mental Health

One of my friends and Japanese writer, 月ノ羽衣 wrote an interesting story based on her experience. When she was younger and she was seriously ill, she found somebody’s post on an Internet forum;

「良い小説を書くために、精神的な病気になりたい」 “I want to be mentally ill to write a good novel”

I think it is a stupid comment, don’t you?

I even feel angry because I had some close friends who were mentally ill and played with knives on their bodies.

月ノ羽衣 said that she argued with the person for a while who left that comment on the forum because she couldn’t ignore the silly idea.

Her story reminds me of a writing job which was offered to me once.

When I was a beginner as a gig writer, I had a client who offered me a job writing about anorexia, the eating disorder. I researched online and found a few people who had written about how to get anorexia. I didn’t know that there were lots of people who wanted to get an eating disorder because they wanted to lose weight in order to have model-like bodies. I don’t know if it is the case with an English search, but it is when you search in Japanese.

It was incredible that there were so many websites who were talking about this eating disorder. Some of them tell you how to vomit, how to hide your illness from your family or other tips for being ill.

What a crazy world! Some people want to get anorexia because they want to look nicer — in a way that they believe it is ‘nicer’ — and other people want to get mental illness to become a better novelist.

There are lots of Medium writers who write about mental health, and I know some creative people who are struggling with their mental condition. I have written a comment before, “ insomnia, dark nights, depression can stimulate creativity, which is not really healthy.”

There seems to be some relationship between creativity and mental illness. Still, it is not clear whether you can be creative because you are mentally ill or you have a mental issue because you are a creator.

It is true that there are many creative people who have a mental issue. Or, even if you are not a creator, you might have been in a mentally unstable condition once in your life, as if you were standing on the very edge of the cliff? — I had.

The person who said that “I want to be mentally ill to write a good novel,” shows a lack of imagination. It was somebody who couldn't imagine how people around him/her would feel when he/she had a serious illness. It is so insensitive!

At the end of her story, 月ノ羽衣 wrote:

精神疾患が小説家になる秘訣なら、小説家なんてクズである。 If the mental sickness was a secret of being a good novelist, the novelist would be rubbish.

I totally agree with her. I want to give her a big “Bravo!”

This post was inspired by the story below:

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