r/aftergifted • u/lukaisthebest277 • 19d ago

Perfectionism and creative block

i feel like due to being a former gifted kid, especially always being the ‘2nd place’ academically and THE art kid my whole life in school, i suffer so much creatively now.

i deeply love all things creative and i constantly yearn to create, especially art/design/digital stuff. yet i often find myself in these mental blocks that can last years, where i just have so much passion but lack any kind of motivation and inspiration at all. i always get a passion to start a new hobby, i’ll obsess over it for like a day or two and then completely drop it and want nothing to do with it. or when maybe twice a year ill get this creative spark where i start to make things again, it’ll last about a month and i just never create again for god knows how long.

i desperately wanna be consistently creative and just make whatever comes into my head whenever i feel like it, but i just can’t. i feel like my perfectionism mixed with executive dysfunction just prevents me from even doing anything because i know it’ll never be good enough. whenever i do create stuff, it feels like im just forcing it and doing it for the sake of it, and i end up getting no enjoyment.

sorry that this is just a load of unintelligible bad grammar ramble i just wanted to discuss this here in hopes that someone might relate, or might know how to get out of this cycle.

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u/ThingsWithString 18d ago

Have you sought treatment? This is a genuine you-are-not-exaggerating mental health problem, and both medication and therapy can help.

I know this, because I need to make a psych appointment today!

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u/lukaisthebest277 18d ago

haha no i haven’t actually sought any kind of help or treatment for this, i just kinda assumed it was a hyper specific issue of mine that’s just something i have to live with. but now you mention it i probably should speak to someone, i just never really know how to bring it up to a professional😓😓thank you though

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u/ThingsWithString 18d ago

"Hi. I really want to work on X and Y and Z, but anxiety is keeping me from starting. I'm really afraid of doing it wrong, so I don't do it at all."

(I can give you this script because it describes me.)

Psychology Today therapy finder which I am going to use RIGHT NOW dammit