Comment - creativity and addiction

http://blogsskumar2009.blogspot.com/

Dear Sid,
I enjoyed reading your posting on creativity and addiction; you have done a thorough piece of research into the subject. I totally share your thoughts about substance misuse. It is difficult to understand how these writers managed to create anything under the influence. Being stoned or drunk wastes a lot of valuable time, and these talented people could have been more productive, and healthier, without their addictions.
I don’t see that people gain any special insights from the chemical alteration of their brain biochemistry – dreams and nightmares can produce similar psychedelic and surreal states, without causing all the medical sequelae of substance misuse.
It is possible that some of these famous writers may have had underlying mental health problems or personality disorders. The substance misuse may have been their way of handling distressing thoughts, feelings and emotional states.