I wrote a number of short stories, poems and music until I had my first major mental breakdown, at age 28. I lost confidence in my creativity, and have only been regaining it since I started doing music again.
@Glisten it takes having the courage to do something very badly, or have things fail to nurture your creativity...and in this country we're very judgementally harsh when people fail...and fear of that judgementalism really stifles creativity. An artist friend of mine says freedom is being able to be bad at something and do it publicly because you know you're honing and nurturing your art and getting better at it.
That's something that those of us with mental health conditions need to keep in mind, that others will judge us, but we can choose not to let their views stop us from persuing our passions, afterall we're not doing it for them we're doing it for us first and foremost. Arts are a public showing, but a private passion, and unlike in people's minds, in the arts there's no such thing as right or wrong, good or bad, there's just what feels right or complete and what doesn't.
