Blogpost 9: Art can help

People have been talking how mental illness is connected with creativity? For example, an artistic person tends to be mentally ill because of his mind works or because of the production of his imagination? Art society has been campaigning against the stereotypes in artists and mental illness. So what if, instead of thinking that creativity is linked with mental illness, why not think that creativity can be a cure for mental illness?

In an article I’ve read “What Is Art Therapy?” in psychology.about.com which was written by Kendra Cherry. In her article, she explains how art can help their patients to overcome stress, be focused, and improve their mental health; they consolidate the techniques in psychotherapy and creative process.

She said that “It may surprise you to learn that art can be an effective tool in mental health treatment. What could art possibly have to do with psychotherapy? As an expressive medium, art can be used to help clients communicate, overcome stress, and explore different aspects of their own personalities.”

Yes, maybe some people will be surprised especially those who stereotypes the artists. But for me, it is no surprise at all. Because sometimes when I’m really stressed or I think that I’ve had enough with studying, I just get a piece of paper and pencil. I draw whatever comes to my mind and 5 minutes after sketching, it started to wear off the stress and I felt at ease. And after that I’ll continue my studying and becomes really focused on it.

Now that we’re already talking how drawing makes me focused, I remember in my last lecture in BehaSci about doodling in class can make you smart. So I research about it and came across an article entitled “Doodling should be encouraged in boring meetings, claims psychologist” in theguardian.com written by Ian Sample. He explained in his article what is actually happening when we doodle during lectures, seminars and meetings. He also mentions Jack Andrade’s survey, where he asked 40 volunteers to listen into a 2 minute telephone conversation while shading, to see if they can remember the details of the conversation. And yes, most of them remember it accurately.

He also said “A study that compared how well people remembered details of a dull monologue found that those who doodled throughout retained more information than those who tried to sit and listen.”

As I have remember it right, recording information using different drawings, colors, typography can help retain the information in our brain longer. Because we can concentrate more on a thing if we are doing something that doesn’t bore us or that we really enjoy.