How to Maintain Mental Wellness for Creative Well-Being
- Adilla
- Jul 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 11
Mental wellness has slowly become a focus in the creative industry, where news like animators leaving in the middle of animation projects to prioritise themselves or even passing on an animation project when expectations and schedule would jeopardise their team's health.
However, this begs the question of, “Are creatives more prone to mental conditions?” Or is the creative industry truly that hard to find a balance between work and life?
Either way, prioritising your mental wellness is important, especially in an industry that doesn’t seem to have any mercy for its creators.
Table of Contents
Why Are Creatives More Susceptible to Specific Mental Health Challenges?
Mental health may not be like diseases, where one person might be more vulnerable to catching a cold. Factors like work, personality, and environment are the driving causes that lead individuals to be more susceptible to mental health challenges.
Creatives are more susceptible because of the type of work they do. Since they are subject to the unpredictability of their schedule, accidental self-isolation, and financial security, to name a few. Some even call it creative depression because of the link between their creative work and the factors of their workspace.
7 Common Mental Health Challenges in the Creative Industry
This list will consist of common challenges that creatives go through, excluding severe conditions (but if you are experiencing severe mental health conditions, our heart is with you, so please seek out professional help).
Creative Blocks
Not as serious as a creative burnout, as creative block is a temporary period of being unable to draw out ideas or inspirations.
Creative Burnout
Creative burnout is a state of exhaustion and disconnection from creative work, unable to perform any creative task without feeling exhausted or dread.
Perfectionism
A double-edged sword for creatives, as an excessive need for perfectionism will lead to mental stress.
Procrastination
Typically blamed as being lazy, but are suffering from the fear of failure or are so overwhelmed they are paralysed from their work. The main difference between laziness and procrastination is that if it's the former, you would be enjoying yourself.
Comparison Culture
Many creatives struggle with self-esteem issues, particularly when their journey isn't a steady path of growth. This can lead them to compare themselves to others, often seeking external validation.
Anxiety
There are several factors in how anxiety can seep into the minds of creatives; some can turn it into a source of inspiration, but many creative minds that suffer from anxiety are hindered in their creative performance.
Financial Stress
As much as we would like to believe that money should not be an excuse for not being able to creatively perform, financial security gives mental peace for a lot of people. Without that stability, it puts a lot of mental strain on creatives, especially in an industry where creatives are not rewarded as they deserve.
4 Key Pillars of Mental Wellness for the Creative Mind and How to Cultivate Them
Physical Care
If you’re wondering why this is at the top and not specifically your mental health, your physical health is the foundation of your overall well-being. A study even shows that individuals who lack physical activity have higher morbidity rates.
So, before we get to your mental care, check in with your physical health. While exercising is part of physical care, what you eat is essential to your mental wellness. As much as coffee and sugary snacks help keep you going (yes, we know it's hard to let them go), these can bring you more harm than good if you don’t balance them out with a healthy, balanced meal.
Besides that, a reminder for all creatives to get enough sleep every day. While it is common for our creatives to function in the wee hours or even get bursts of inspiration at midnight, always find the time to get the full required hours of sleep.
Mental and Emotional Care
Understanding where your mental and emotional concerns stem from is a crucial step in mental wellness. The self-awareness of understanding these will lead you to manage them better, indirectly managing your stress too.
However, all of this should start with self-compassion. Accepting imperfections is the first step in building your self-esteem back and reducing self-criticism.
Cognitive Stimulation
Although this seems counterintuitive, as it might seem to add mental loads, learning new things helps keep your mind sharp and could help develop new ideas and inspiration. This will also help develop your cognitive flexibility to adapt to new situations and perspectives, leading to new ways for creatives to problem-solve.
Other than that, practising mindfulness and staying present in the moment may not sound like cognitive stimulations, but this can help you to stay focused. By staying present, your mind will feel less cluttered, making it easier to produce new ideas.
Meaningful Connections
Don’t underestimate the power of a strong social support. Positive relationships can help give you a sense of belonging, reduce the accidental self-isolation in creative works and provide a support system when you need a listening ear.
Even in your workspace, seeking and engaging with your team members to ask for constructive feedback will help battle your need for external validation. This could also help you gain new ideas through collaboration with your team.
Professional Support & Resources for Creative Mental Health
If you need extra resources to assist you in improving your mental health, here are some supports you can look into:
Self-Help Books
Here are self-help book recommendations from different creative communities:
The Art Spirit by Robert Henri
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Art & Fear by Bayles and Orland
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Living The Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachery
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Keep Going by Austin Kleon
Self-Care Apps
Here are self-care apps that can help you stay accountable in your journey for mental wellness:
Meditation
Daylio
Calm
Headspace
Habitica
Sanvello
Professional Contacts for Mental Health in Malaysia
With the awareness of mental health, Malaysia has a handful of official resources for individuals who need professional help. Here are the organisations that can help:
Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA)
Befrienders
SOLS Health
The Mind Hub
Lifeline Malaysia
National Coalition for Mental Wellbeing (NCMW)
Mental Illness Awareness and Support Association (MIASA)
Talian Kasih
The several actionsFuture of Creative Wellbeing
While emphasising the importance of wellness in the creative world is a slow process, there are several actions that can help better secure the future of our creatives:
Advocacy For Mental Health in Creative Industries
This may be hard to do at a larger scale, but starting small from your own workspace is a good way to begin advocating for mental health. If you are a leader in your team, focus on promoting well-being, destigmatising mental health struggles and ensuring that your team has access to supportive resources.
Technology's Role in Supporting Creative Minds
As previously mentioned, technology can support the mental wellness of our creatives. Beyond the apps that are meant for mental health, the platforms and software they use as they do their work must be utilised in that sense as well.
For example, our TESSR software believes that by nurturing our creatives, they will naturally excel with project management that is meant for the creative minds.
Conclusion
The irony of art healing us but creating it would cause mental stress isn’t lost on us. But that’s proof of how much heart and soul creatives sacrifice to create what fuels us. That’s why mental wellness for our creative creators is so important, so they can continue to create without sacrificing their well-being to heal us through their creative ideas and products.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is doomscrolling an effect of mental health challenges?
Unfortunately, yes. Doomscrolling could be a sign that you are mentally burned out. If you find yourself excessively scrolling through social media, take a pause and ground yourself to stay in the present. Find out why you were doomscrolling in the first place and work from there. All the best!
How would mood tracking help with my mental wellness?
Mood tracking helps build the self-awareness of your mental and emotional state so you can better manage them.
Is there a way to deal with creative blocks?
Yes, one of the ways to deal with art blocks would be doing a creative mind map, as it helps with visually organising your ideas and finding connections between solutions and problems. Have a try at it!
Author Bio
With a background in Arts English, Adilla has been a casual writer for various hobbies like parodies of animated shows and plots for board games. She loves to read anything and everything from fantasy stories to articles on tips and tricks. Now an advocate for mental health and effective project management for the creative industry. Currently, Adilla resides in Malaysia and is a creative writer at TESSR. To know more about her, check out her LinkedIn.
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