State of mind "cheating"

No. Not the way I see it. People get ideas all over the place and from different things. And if a good story comes from it, who the hell is going to care where the initial inspiration came from?

Um, using the brain you have to best advantage is the opposite of cheating

You asked this before. Maybe keeping this in one thread would be more useful.

It doesn't sound like cheating to me, as log as you're not lifting stuff from other writers I don't see a problem.

I'm bipolar. I get most of my ideas while in a mild manic state. That's also when I do a lot of my planning and even the writing itself. I figure, with something like that, I have to live with the negatives, so I might as well take advantage of the positives when I can.

Helix said:

You asked this before. Maybe keeping this in one thread would be more useful.

Click to expand...

Thought this looked familiar...

As mentioned in the other thread, since you aren't the only person with OCD - not even the only writer with OCD - I'm not sure how it comes across as "cheating" to use the mind you have. It's only cheating if you're telepathic and stealing other people's thoughts for yourself. (And playing with mental states and medications... not necessarily a great idea, IMHO, even for the sake of the craft.)

Going on and off your medication seems a little unhealthy to me, but when it comes to writing I don't think it is "cheating". Some people write to music others need complete silence. Everyone is different and whatever works best for you should be done.

rwm4768 said:

I'm bipolar. I get most of my ideas while in a mild manic state. That's also when I do a lot of my planning and even the writing itself. I figure, with something like that, I have to live with the negatives, so I might as well take advantage of the positives when I can.

Click to expand...

This is me too. Right now I'm struggling for ideas. But I wouldn't stop my meds just to go manic to find them. (This is just me now) Every time I'm off of it, it always bites me in the ass in a bad way. But I can understand you wanting to be off of it for a while to be more creative. It's certainly not cheating as far as writing goes, but cheating on the meds though, I would say, yeah then. That sounds unhealthy to me as well.

Undercover said:

This is me too. Right now I'm struggling for ideas. But I wouldn't stop my meds just to go manic to find them. (This is just me now) Every time I'm off of it, it always bites me in the ass in a bad way. But I can understand you wanting to be off of it for a while to be more creative. It's certainly not cheating as far as writing goes, but cheating on the meds though, I would say, yeah then. That sounds unhealthy to me as well.

Click to expand...

Just wanted to clarify that I don't go off the meds. They just don't get rid of the mania completely. Given a choice between mild mania and sleeping at least twelve hours a day due to the meds, I decided to go with the dosage that allowed me to get the closest I could to a normal life.

When I was manic without meds, I got ideas, but they were a little on the ridiculous side. I just view what I'm trying to do now as controlling my bipolar and taking advantage of the positive sides of it.

I have the same issue you do. Don't worry about it so much. All it's accomplishing is making you crazier.

You need to learn meditation so you can cut Obsessive thoughts off before they have a chance to take root & realize the difference between good & bad thoughts.

Also, don't screw around with your meds so much, either stay on them, or get off them. If you keep flip flopping so often, it'll mess with your nervous & adrenal systems & may cause your OCD to get worse to a point where the medication might not be able to help one way or the other.

rwm4768 said:

I'm bipolar. I get most of my ideas while in a mild manic state. That's also when I do a lot of my planning and even the writing itself. I figure, with something like that, I have to live with the negatives, so I might as well take advantage of the positives when I can.

Click to expand...

This.

BPFTW, if you know what I mean. (-:

satyesu said:

Just to clarify: I don't intentionally go off my meds.

Click to expand...

Well, alright then, but, still, the rest of what I said. I hope you figure it out.

You aren't cheating Like someone said, we all get inspiration from different places and area's in our lives. I get a lot of idea's for stories while i'm sleeping. Or randomly. Other people will get idea's from so many places like while their outside, or maybe after they go through certain situations

You have asked this before and my answer is the same as it was then, abusing your medication in any way to chase the muse is a dangerous and bad idea. If you're on something addictive and go off it, you may actually be more likely to get addicted when you go back on it. If you're taking one or two pills more and it's addictive, you run a higher risk of medical complications and developing an addiction as your body becomes unable to process the medication properly. The best course of action is to never go on and off meds intentionally.

And when all that is said an done, no the products of forgetting your meds accidentally once in a while isn't cheating. It's no more cheating than if I'm in a weird state between psychosis and normal thoughts and get an idea, if I get an idea when my brain isn't acting up, or I'm depressed. My form of depression is catergorized by having much higher amounts of psychotic episodes than other forms of depression, and no hypomania or mania. Using the ideas I get at any stage of things isn't cheating, it's taking advantage of a medically shitty situation and harnessing it.

TLDR: No, it isn't cheating to use it to your advantage. But it is dangerous to mess with your medication to achieve the state that generates the most ideas.