"BLOG POST"

“Creation which cannot express itself becomes madness.”- Anais Nin
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19959565
Please read this article, it's not too long
Sorry to post something so off-topic. Please do not let this distract you from the Discussion Leader's Questions. I'm not sure if anyone has ever heard of Anais Nin before, or has heard of her,  or has ever considered this topic of creativity being linked with insanity before, but trust me-- she is really on to something. Anais Nin is a very calm, loving, and graceful writer, but she is indeed crazy.

As was Virginia Woolf! and Nietzshe! and Lady GaGa, and Kurt Cobain, and Sexton, and Van Gogh and pretty much any free-thinking artist that has ever been worth paying any kind of attention to.
I think that this article is significant, because it basically confirms something that I always suspected, or at least supports something I have always believed, which is that artists of all kinds are often trying desperately to keep themselves alive and functioning.
Anyone here with any kind of creative drive, an instinct that all of us have in varying degrees, knows what I'm talking about. For as long as I can remember, if I go a few days without writing, or at least reading, I get sick and restless. I can't sleep and I keep myself writhing in bed thinking about all of the worst things that exist in the world- murder, torture, disease, etc. If I go a few weeks without drawing, I start to feel very depressed, unable to name a single good thing, a single source of light in life. a great knot of energy forms between my shoulder blades, and makes me very uncomfortable. My spine begins to feel like it's full of poison. It can get pretty dark.
Am I trying to say all artists have a mental disorder? No, and neither is the article. To a certain extent, creativity/creative output depends on a honed discipline and personal cultivation of skills. Many people can simply learn to be artists, out of respect for it, and love for it. These people can produce wonderful works of art.
However, artists that are less than insane are often... lacking. They lack the desperation, the true recklessness, of great artists. Great art is achieved through great pains, labor, and personal sacrifice. 
My brother, who happens to be transgendered, is the same way. I believe that his 'gender issue' (pfff)
is partially the reason that he became an artist. For as long as I can remember, the only thing he has ever been able to to do to calm himself down (we both anxiety disorders) is draw. It is the only thing he has ever been able to do for more than an hour at a time.
 He is younger than me, but he received a few scholarships for his art and was able to attend college this year. His major? art therapy.
I believe that his area of study will prove to be important in areas of psychology in coming years, because of research like the research in this article, that suggests that art really does change lives, and has the power to help people escape whatever discomfort their mind puts them through.
And especially for women, I think that the very particular discomforts and mental pains we are subject to has the potential to inspire some stellar artwork.