Writers on drugs

In today’s on-line Guardian Alex Preston (writer) asks “Does Prozac help artists be creative? - More than 40 million people globally take an SSRI (serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant, among them many writers and musicians. But do they hamper the creative process, extinguishing the spark that produces great art, or do they enhance artistic endeavour?”

Preston chatted with a few artistically creative friends (I guess that they are mostly Guardian readers like myself) and found that most had been or were on Prozac and that they had mixed responses to it. 

I was on Fluoxytene (basically Prozac) to combat depression for about a year a couple of years ago. As I remember it the drug seemed to prevent the worst of the anxiety and panic attacks. But there was and still is the issue of ‘agency’.  What are the causes and conditions for the many thoughts and feelings that pass through my ever-active, attention centre? There are seven possibly interacting factors:

1. I am now over 60 so old age will be involved. There is mild cognitive impairment.
2. I practice mindfulness meditation both at home and with a Sangha in Findhorn (I completed a formal eight week course of MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction)).
3. I had several sessions with a psychotherapist in Buckie
4. I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) in October 2010. So some of the dopamine producing nerve cells in the substantia nigra are dead or dying.
5. It took some time to figure the best type and levels of medication. I am presently on a mix of Madopar and Ropinerole and this is working well.
6. Creativity (blogging) has recently been quite high but was hammered by a recent urinary infection with associated antibiotics that left me knackered.
7. I live alone and work from home (except that I have retired from paid work). But I interact with various individuals and groups by way of keeping in touch with reality.

voice of the people

Preston’s article is based on a few anecdotes from a biased sample. Vox Populi. He admits this but it does not seem to worry him. He is a ‘writer’ rather than a scientist. What matters is that people attend to and buy what he writes.

As a journalist he has to produce material that is acceptable to editors and that follows the style guide for particular publications. (At the end of the article he plugs a couple of books that he has written.)

During 1998/99 I was involved with a home study course in ‘Article Writing and Freelance Journalism.’  My tutor was a crusty old newspaperman who was amazed to come across someone over 50 who still had ideals and an urge to make the world a better place. He was very pragmatic.

The bottom line was getting paid by an editor. Product has to meet the market. Therefore (a) research what the market needs and wants, (b) get the go ahead from an editor to expand a brief, and (c) only then get involved with the writing. Those who write first and then go looking for a buyer are likely to be artists starving in attics.

Journalists are word smiths, often cynical. Many take drugs, especially alcohol.

Writer’s are more than word smiths. The content of their stories are meaningful to them. Most novelists fall into that category. Many freelance intellectuals are also in that group  – people on my present bookshelf who might be included are Sam Harris, Michael Schermer, Ken Wilber and the late Christopher Hitchens. Most had a formal training in academic work when young but broke away from the institutions and became highly energetic independent intellectuals.

In 1998, after three years in Lesotho, I broke away from an institution (the UK Department or International Development (DFID)) with it’s long contracts. I became a plain language writer/ editor and worked for a range of employers on many one-off documents. I like to think that they were of high quality - there were many one-page spin-offs.

But there was a price to pay. I burned out – twice! The first time was when working on a tutor book with a friend in Geneva. I recovered from this and worked on several other books before burning out for a second time. It was then that I was diagnosed with PD and gave up paid work.

Priorities changed after the second burn out. Work on ‘development’ stopped and I concentrated on understanding and writing about my experience of mindfulness practice in the light of new thinking about neuroscience and evolutionary psychology.

And that is where I am today: an aging, mindful, meditator and freelance researcher, who is also a ‘writer’ (blogger) on drugs and with incurable brain rot. Most of the time this is pretty cool.