Eccentric painters, melancholic drunkard poets, manic writers, egocentric architects, depressed sculptors may well be stereotypes of "creative" people but if you believe in recent research reports, much of this stereotypes will appear as real people. The 17th century poet Dryden wrote that "Great Wits are sure to Madness near ally'd." And in recent years, scientists have shown that male creative writers in particular show very high rates of mood disorders and alcoholism. Psychiatrists Arnold Ludwig now reports his detailed findings in female writers. He finds that a range of psychopathologies.

Psychopathology and the Female Writer (American Journal of Psychiatry, Nov. 1994)

Writers have often expressed in these pages reasons why they write; it is invariably a desire to express. But why do they want to express more eagerly than the rest of the population? It seems that the reason lies in their being easily aroused or irritated, the signs of bordering on some what abnormal behavior. Are creative writers mad? This question can not be easily answered because madness is not a simple state of mind. Who decides the norms of a society? May be the entire society is mad and only the writers are "normal." What is obvious is that expressive creative individuals have reasons to be expressive; personal experiences, mental sensitivity to issues triggered by chemical brain imbalance (or perhaps a better balance) make these invidividuals see things differently.

Regardless of you own assessment of madness, what you ought to know is that if you have a potential of creativity, watch out, you may also have some other traits that may not be very healthy. As long as these personality traits do not interfere in your daily life, you can survive them but since you are more prone to depression and other mental disorders, some care is needed to make sure you do not go over the bridge without realizing. Alcoholism is one problem so common to poets and writers, as the research from the West proves. There is a need for creative souls to be more careful about their physical health.