Influence of Mental Illness on Modern Physics

Perhaps I can provide an "insider's view" on this discussion. While I am no math genius I have exceptional mental visualization. On my SAT I got a perfect score on all spatial relation problems. I can easily read text upside-down, mirrored or both at the same time. When I first started working as a drafter I would routinely turn my drawing upside-down and work on it so that I didn't have to lean as far over the board, I would hand letter upside-down also, try doing that sometime. I currently work as CAD programmer, my coworkers have commented more than once on my "creativity". I am regarded as an excellent artist by people who have seen my work. I am left-handed, which also fits the statistical profile for creative people. My dreams are extremely vivid with color, sound and higher tendency than normal for nightmares. My wife often has to shake me awake to stop my moaning as I dream.

I am fortunate that I don't have schizophrenic tendencies, I do not confuse the real world with the imaginary world. My problem however is a continual battle with extreme anxiety and depression. Most people simply do not grasp the difference between feeling a little down and anxiety that makes it a supreme effort of will to make yourself ride an unfamiliar bus or travel to a locale that you haven't been to before. Most of the time I win the battle by using a whole cornucopia of mental tricks to get through the rough spots. A few times the anxiety has gotten the upper hand to the point where my job was threatened because I wasn't pulling it together. The employers are puzzled because normally I'm very studious and punctual, the change to not being able to handle the simplest things is very confusing to the people around you.

I found Tom's comment about avoiding drugs because of the "overstimulation" interesting because I often found LSD and marijuana calming. My mental screen is very vivid and ordinary reality often seems flat and stale to me. The drugs were a way to ramp up reality to where my imagination is normally at. Of course one can't subsist on a steady diet of hallucinogens but I found them calming nevertheless. When I was high I didn't feel the anxiety.

I think the price of being very creative is often a battle with one's emotion. A little noise in the system makes for more varied output but too much makes life a living hell. I think the plans for genetically engineering more creative people will result in a society with great technical and artistic achievement but a high divorce rate with a boom in medication and psychiatrists.

I don't think creative people are any less able to judge the merits of their creations. The history of science is filled with doctors infecting themselves, chemists poisoning or blowing themselves up and so on. How can we think they are less responsible when they often take a supreme risk to make our lives better?

Jeremy,

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your revealing post. That took guts and candor.

PS: I'm a lefty too.[] I have some unique skills as well. I can recite the alphabet backwards (that is just a learned thing) but I can also through concentration, move each eye independant of the other. I can also put my hands and arms in front of me and circle one hand and arm in a forward circle while at the same time make the other go in a reverse circle.

For any that think those are simple skills, let me only suggest you try it first.[]. I always find it hard to understand why others cannot do these things.


"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" -- Albert Einstien

Interesting posts, all. And more than I had hoped for.


JR

Not to side track this thread but quickly I'm just courious. Have any of you tried this manuver?

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"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" -- Albert Einstien

Sure - piece o' cake.

But that's nothing. I can walk AND chew gum. At the same time! Honest.

Nany-nany-poo-poo.

===

All seriousness aside though, I bet most of us here have come to believe that we are "creative" in ways that separate us from the average. And I bet that most of us have heard other people refer to us as "creative". But they are more likely to use words like "weird".

From the inside, being creative seems like a good thing. But it is not without some drawbacks. I see other people that are also called creative, and often hope that I'm not *that* flakey.

Well, of course *I'm* not. Double Duh. But I'm not so sure about you and the others.

Hmmm,
LB

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Mac</i>
<br />Not to side track this thread but quickly I'm just courious. Have any of you tried this manuver?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><b>I can also put my hands and arms in front of me and circle one hand and arm in a forward circle while at the same time make the other go in a reverse circle.</b><hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">



"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" -- Albert Einstien
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I think walking would be a more difficult task. I'm not joking
either. The real amazing acts of physical agility are
observed in gymnasts I think.

Some psychologists believe that any healthy individual,
if taught well, can learn to perform any mental or
physical task that may appear to the untrained as
"gifted". But you have to start at a young age before
your neuron connections and your skeletal muscle system
are fully developed.

On the other extreme is that our abilities are predetermined
by our genetic inheritance. Nature or nurture, that is the
question.

It's obviously a combination of both factors. Without
reading any books or being schooled, a USDA grade AAA baby
would become more illiterate than a retarded kid that
goes to a special education program, as simple example.
But obviously, the healthy child would be able to learn
much quicker and in greater depth than the retarded
kid ever will, once placed in a proper learning program.

Unless one suffered from severe schizophrenia though,
I doubt a creative individual will have problems with
rational thought since that is more like something
learned than some innate ability.