Being an artist or musician can be an incredibly rewarding way to exist. You get to create something out of nothing, express yourself, stir up emotions in others, and connect with other people on a level that a lot of people don’t get to. But there is also a side of creative work that we don’t always talk about. Very real issues like inconsistent income, rejection, comparing yourself to other artists, burnout, perfectionism, and of course AI coming for your career and replacing creatives with slop. It all takes a toll on us creative folks and it can be a lot to carry. Not to mention, when our creative work is so tied up into our identity, it can be nearly impossible to separate how we feel about our work from how we feel about ourselves.
When your work feels like part of who you are
For a lot of artists and musicians, art isn’t just a thing we do, it’s a crucial part of how we understand ourselves and move through the world. This can be a mixed blessing where it can create a lot of beauty and joy, but it also makes the challenging parts of the work that much more personal and affecting.
If someone doesn’t like your song, your painting, your pottery, it can be difficult to not take that on as a criticism of you. We can then internalize a matter of subjective taste as some pretty dark thoughts like, “I’m not good enough. I’m a fraud. I’m a failure. I should give up.” Our art is us. Which makes it harder to remind ourselves that a person’s opinion, or a low turnout at a gig, or not landing that design job, it doesn’t actually tell you the full picture of your abilities (or your worth).
When passion and pressure start to mix
One of the things I think can be especially difficult for artists and musicians is figuring out where passion ends and pressure begins. We start going down the creative path because we genuinely love the process. But somewhere along the way, a whole lot of pressure and obligation gets tacked onto that process. Money and attention become driving forces. We start comparing ourselves to others. And with social media so ingrained into the creative field, we can feel stifled and hesitant to even make anything that isn’t worthy of Instagram. Or worse, when we do share our work online, the amount of views/likes/shares it gets becomes a kind of evidence we can twist to criticize ourselves with. Getting under 10 likes on your painting can feel like rejection, when it used to be that you just loved painting and got a lot of joy from one of your friends telling you they loved it.
Perfectionism: every creative’s worst enemy
Artists and musicians can be incredibly hard on themselves. Wanting to improve and build upon your skills is a good thing. Caring about the work is what makes you good at it. But there is a difference between wanting to do your best and the anxiety and fear of feeling like nothing you create is ever good enough.
Perfectionism can make creating art overwhelming. It can make it difficult to start the work, finish the work, take risks, try new directions, accept feedback, and can totally rob you of the joy of the process of creation altogether. I think most artists can relate to this: finding that end point of the work is a hugely challenging part of the process. We could forever tweak, edit, add another brush stroke, change the melody, and on and on because there’s a persistent feeling that what you’re creating could always be made better.
You might even start to avoid creating altogether because you’re convinced that anything you make won’t live up to your imagined version of it. Or you might find yourself constantly moving the goalpost so that even if it is good and technically finished, it still doesn’t feel like enough.
Therapy doesn’t have to take away your creativity
I think there can be a misconception that struggling is somehow part of being a creative person. The tortured artist is a pretty well-established stereotype, and it can be easy to start believing that anxiety, sadness, perfectionism, or emotional turmoil are somehow connected to being creative. And they are because those are all deeply human experiences.
But also, radical idea incoming, you don’t have to be miserable to make work that is meaningful.
In fact, research into creative expression has found connections between creative activity and things like emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and social connection. Taking care of your mental health doesn’t mean becoming less interesting, less passionate, or less creative. If anything, having a little more stability and self-understanding can give you more room to actually enjoy the things that matter to you.
Therapy isn’t about “fixing” the parts of you that make you an artist or musician. It’s about helping you understand yourself a little better and giving you some tools for dealing with the parts of life that can make being a creative person difficult.
If you’re an artist or musician in Ontario having similar struggles and interested in starting therapy, you can book a free consultation with me here.
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