Intensity may often be part of the life of creative artists and high ability people, and accompany their trait of high sensitivity.
But living with intensity may mean respecting our needs for mental health and stability, while working with powerful emotions and other forms of intensity, while not trying to suppress or “fix” them.
You can see some forms of intensity in many actors, musicians, and other performers. It is one reason they have such power and presence.
“Intensity is not something I try to do. It’s just kind of the way that I am.” Lance Reddick
[Photo collage at top: red bg from facebook/LanceReddickOfficial; dark bg from article “Lance Reddick died suddenly today & many people slightly ignored this – From the Wire to the recent John Wick movie” By: TB Obwoge, Medium 17 March 2023.]
Jodie Foster once commented about Russell Crowe, “He has that glacier intensity.”
From post: Working With Your Intensity Through Creative Expression.
[Photo: Crowe in “A Beautiful Mind” – see quotes about the real John Forbes Nash, Jr. in article: Creativity and madness: High ability and mental health.]
The book “Enjoying the Gift of Being Uncommon” by Willem Kuipers uses the term Xi for uncommon people, which can stand for eXtra intelligent, or eXtra intense.
High ability people often – even typically – have personality characteristics that include high intensity or excitability.
This is another trait that earlier in my life led me to think I was “crazy” – partly because it was an inner experience I had not read about or heard others talk about, and it is in many ways private. I tended – for a time, at least – to think of it sometimes as being “pathologically” passionate or emotional.
Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski developed a theory of personality and emotional development that is often applied toward understanding the psychology of extra intelligent and intense, gifted and talented individuals.
One aspect of his Theory of Positive Disintegration is the concept of unusual intensity and reactivity, which he called overexcitability.
In their book “Living With Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults,” Susan Daniels and Michael M. Piechowski explain, “Overexcitability is a translation of the Polish word which means ‘superstimulatability.’ (It should have been called superexcitability.) …
“Another way of looking at is of being spirited – ‘more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, energetic’…It would be hard to find a person of talent who shows little evidence of any of the five overexcitabilities.”
But they also note that many people may not welcome such traits: “Unfortunately, the stronger these overexcitabilities are, the less peers and teachers welcome them.”
From my article The psychology of creativity: performers and excitabilities.
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“Use your fire without getting burned.”
Aurora Remember describes her site Embracing Intensity:
“Have you ever felt like you’re “too much” or too intense? But at the same time, you may feel like you’re never enough?
“Embracing Intensity is a community, podcast, and other media dedicated to help you use your fire without getting burned!
“Combining real-world experiences and educational knowledge, Embracing Intensity helps you identify and use your neurodivergent strengths, while supporting your challenges.”
Learn about free resources and more at Embracing Intensity.
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Don’t tone it down
In her article (on my TalentDevelop site) Creative People Shouldn’t ‘Tone It Down’, writer, writing coach, teacher, and speaker Cynthia Morris comments,
“I’ve been accused of being ‘too much’ all my life. Too loud, too fast, too smart, too multi-talented, too audacious.
“I’ve never been able to live according to that external standard of ‘just right’. Artists are often ‘too much’. It’s the job of the artist and writer to reflect what they see and feel.
“This expression of their art and talents must be larger than life. The trouble is, our expression doesn’t always jibe with what’s going on in the ‘normal’ world.”
Do you ever “stifle yourself” to more easily get along with that ‘normal’ world?
I certainly do – but it can be an emotionally costly choice, and one that inhibits creative energy and expression.
[Photo above: actor Sarah Bernhardt, 1862–1923.]
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Using intensity and pain
Cheryl Arutt, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in creative artist issues among topics, notes that “Creating art has always been a way to channel emotional intensity.”
She points out in a world “where destructive acting out is all too frequent (and meticulously documented and sensationalized on the news and TMZ), sublimating painful feelings by expressing them in the form of artistic expression allows the artist to choose to ‘act out’ in a way that is constructive.”
She adds, “Many creative people carry the belief that their pain is the locus of their creativity, and worry that they will lose their creativity if they work through their inner conflicts or let go of suffering.
“These artists hold onto their pain as if it were a lifeline, even finding ways to enhance it, leading to some patterns of behavior that won’t ‘turn off’ even when they want them to.”
The challenge for creative and intense people, she explains, is “Finding ways to maintain that optimal zone where we are neither under- or over-stimulated” which “allows us to use our minds to respond rather than to react.
“If you are an artist, you are your instrument. The greater access you maintain to yourself, the richer and broader your array of creative tools.”
From one of Dr. Arutt’s guest articles on my site: Affect Regulation and the Creative Artist.
Also see another article of hers: The Artist’s Unconscious.
For more about these qualities of intensity, see the articles:
Excitabilities and Gifted People – an intro by Susan Daniels
Dabrowski Excitabilities – Michael Jackson
and my site: Highly Sensitive.
Also see multiple posts on Intensity on my High Ability site.
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Lesley Sword, Director of Gifted & Creative Services Australia, explains that the term overexcitability “conveys the idea that this stimulation of the nervous system is well beyond the usual or average in intensity and duration.”
She notes that “Michael Piechowski, who worked with Dabrowski, explains overexcitabilities as “an abundance of physical, sensual, creative, intellectual and emotional energy that can result in creative endeavours as well as advanced emotional and ethical development in adulthood.
“He says that the overexcitabilities feed, enrich, empower and amplify talent.”
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Nicole Kidman gave a nice description of what many other actors and other artists experience:
“You live with a lot of complicated emotions as an actor, and they whirl around you and create havoc at times. And yet, as an actor you’re consciously and unconsciously allowing that to happen. ….
“It’s my choice, and I would rather do it this way than live to be 100… Or rather than choosing not to exist within life’s extremities. I’m willing to fly close to the flame.”
[From my Nicole Kidman profile.]
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Related podcast episodes
Getting out of our heads, working with emotional intensity, and more with Christine Fonseca
Creating to channel emotional intensity - an interview with psychologist Cheryl Arutt
How mental health symptoms can be reframed as positive - Chris Wells on Overexcitability
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Perfect timing for me on this post! Lately I've really been reflecting on what makes me, at times, intense and excitable. I appreciate this post for exploring this topic and the connection with creativity, thank you!
Im teaching an online course right now, at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, for the masters and licensure program and gifted education- Creativity and Giftedness. And this applies directly to one of the modules where
“C”reative people were interviewed. One of them, a family