Sometimes I wonder which is truly more beneficial for wellbeing: creativity that expresses and explores thoughts & feelings directly, or that highlights something totally different? Is creativity most helpful as a tool or as a haven? This could apply to visual arts, music, dance or drama. Should they help shut out the darkness or delve into its midst?
As mental health has emerged out of the shadows in recent years, stigma has gone away – or has it? I’ve started to think that it has merely changed. Where once people were afraid to admit to mental health struggles, now we talk more openly, but the response may still be negative. More and more, the media & individuals have started to raise doubts about the “mental health epidemic”. Debate is raging in some quarters. Surging rates of anxiety and depression in young people have led to Gen Z being labelled snowflakes, and the media questioning why so many struggle with school and university attendance or in-person working. Across age groups, those on long term sick leave is at a record high in “Sicknote Britain”. Different ideas get explored. There’s prevalence inflation, the theory that the more people talk about mental health, the more they assume they themselves have mental health issues. There’s research into how contagious mental health issues can be – are you more likely to experience low mood if people around you do? And then there’s controversy around resilience and coping strategies.
Yes, these debates have a place in any truly open exploration of mental health. But it’s a balancing act for they can be profoundly damaging. They are becoming the new stigma. Generalisations damage too, yet working to explore and unravel some of the root causes of surging problems is a more practical way ahead. Is 21st century living to blame – loss of community, high costs of living, climate emergency? What about the impacts of so much violence and horror in entertainment, gaming, film? Or lower levels of religious faith? To what degree should we look at social determinants of mental health as opposed to the personal?
To encourage us all to unpack how we feel and why demands as many tools as possible, and this is one place where the arts have an important part to play. In visual arts, visualization, symbol and colour can all help. Visualization thinks through how you respond to a particular situation or event and considers how that might change. Using art to visualize helps you spend longer on thinking things through, taking time to reflect and dig deeper – and if drawing is not for you, you can use stick figures, symbols, assemblage or scrapbooking. Or where anxiety is rooted in fear for the future, using art as activism can help express but also empower – maybe upcycling or crafting posters and banners.
Dismissing or doubting mental health issues still threatens progress. Doing something active to understand what is happening in everyday lived experience is vital. And all artforms can add a layer to that quest. But the arts do also boost wellbeing in other, less direct ways. Painting the beauties of autumn may not unearth how you feel but it will rest and recharge. I think we need to balance the two – and that treating the arts as an escape or haven is not about jollying someone along or distracting them, but has real benefits.
The very use of arts for wellbeing and creative health are interlinked with today’s more open attitudes to mental health. They have such a lot to give in diverse ways, and all this too must not be lost or undermined. Centering the debate more on practical ways to address mental health is one way to move ahead.
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