Did prescription drugs destroy my creativity?

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So, I was (mis?)-diagnosed with ADHD as a kid. Got the Ritalin treatment. Over the course of my life I've been on that, and other drugs. Wellbutrin, Adderall, stuff I can't remember the name of. When I was a kid I used to draw, and I was great at it. I used to write stories, songs, poetry, music. I was the definition of a tortured artist. I eventually stopped taking any drugs of my own volition because I hated the way they made me feel more than I hated my normal state of being.

Now that I'm grown up, doing any type of creative work is nigh impossible. I simply can't apply myself creatively any more. My mind has atrophied to the point of "work, sleep, be lazy." Have I just procrastinated to the point that I can't do anything else? Or was my brain chemistry permanently altered by the drugs? Does anyone else here have experience or data on similar effects?

I'd give almost anything to regain that creative spark

I think it's just the time demands of adult life. I had the same thing happen and the only way I can get around it is to scale back on those demands. Dramatically.

Welbutrin and Lexapro destroyed my creativity when I was on them, but it came back when I stopped taking them. I have also lost my creativity when I was overtired or overstimulated, and I wonder if that's what's happened to you. As tSunshineLove suggested, your life as it now may simply be too demanding for your brain to have energy to be creative. Of course, you know your situation best, but I find it hard to believe that drugs would impair your creativity after they were out of your system, unless they either interfered with the development of your brain or prevented you from going through necessary stages of maturation, and either of those seems really unlikely.

It is absolutely the drugs. I had my Asperger's diagnosis years after ADD, but it was to late, narcotically speaking. I was put on Ritalin at 3 years of age, and even though I spent months in a child psychiatry ward at age 9 where they took me off medication . . . an unlikely occurrence at age 18 resulted in a brand new appreciation of stimulants for existence.

I'm pretty dull now. However, due to certain glimmerings of feeling, I assume it WILL come back, perhaps at about 32 or so.

That said, yes. These drugs are harmful. They are NOT worth any temporary effects, and will damage a young mind irreparably, especially before 25. If anyone needs to hear more, I am glad to type.

I felt as though Prozac does that to me. Worst when I was first on a low dose for OCD. The loss of creativity came out as a "blah" attitude toward issues for which I usually would feel passionate opinions, and would write about. I love to write (letters to Editor for newspapers, etc.), I found myself empty of any drive or ideas to do so when I started Prozac. After being on it for a month or so, and it had stabilized, I started to feel a little more like writing. No permanent changes.

Charles

Yes-- Zoloft completely removed my creativity. I look back on the prose and music i wrote when i was depressed/bipolar and it seems like it was written by someone else. Frankly i am impressed with myself, but i surely couldn't write like that now. On the plus side, i'm no longer suicidal, so its just an ugly truth some of us have to face.

I was constantly going on and off of my Celexa in college without keeping track so I can't say for sure. It probably did in a way because I know I was struggling in my script writing class and a couple of creative writing classes. However the classes themselves place a limit on your creativity for each assignment and I find a few broader stories are easier to write than forced multiple short ones.

I've been a helluva lot more creative in my writing though since I've been off the drugs but that could be the withdrawal that is sparking the creativity and not the absence of the drugs themselves.

I've had prescription medications interfere with my creativity, but it returned when I discontinued them. As I get older, I am just not as creative as I once was. For me, it's a matter of time and having other responsibilities.

The prescription drugs certainly messed up my math skills and my memory, but it didn't affect my creativity. The only thing that affects creativity is being a member of a society that shuns creativity, and the less I cared about fitting in, the more creative I became. Of course, I have no way of knowing what my life would have been like had I never been forced to take pills up until I was 22, and even then, I stopped cold turkey (against doctors advice, but doctors don't give a s**t) and I've been fine ever since.

Sorry for jumping into this so late, but I'm new to the forums.

I ended up on Lexapro in a round-about way. I was sufferring from severe tinnitus which was actually preventing me from sleeping which increased my anxiety which increased the effects of the tinnitus, etc. Once I went on the Lexapro, the tinnitus didn't go away, but it became background noise that didn't really bother me. Now the noise is more an indicator of anxiety rather than a contributing factor. My wife has said that there were dramatic differences, but she couldn't (or didn't want to) tell me exactly what they were. But she can tell when I miss a dose.

With that said, the Lexapro "levelled me out" and it had a significant impact on my creative process. Before the meds I would procrastinate, get blocked and then have a burst of creative insight and manic productivity. Obsessing and working through the night was pretty common. However, when I objectively compare my work before and after the meds, they're really pretty similar. It just felt like I was being more creative because of the "eureka" moments. It's hard to tell whether I would have come up with identical insights on and off, but I think that it's mostly a perception thing and not an objective stifling of creativity. Off the meds, the same process are going on but they're more chaotic and off my concious radar. On the meds, I'm more aware of them and in control, so it feels less like creativity and more like work.

Just my experience. Your mileage may vary.

No complaints here. I find cannabis increases my creativity.

Isn't it the same thing as reducing rigidity?

Petition? http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1419

I experience a loss of creativity on Concerta, but it comes back after it wears off.

SSRI-based anti-depressants robbed me of any will to be creative (in my case, write), nor were the final products any good if I forced myself to write anyway. Wellbutrin has done the complete opposite: creativity in bucketloads. Given that other people in this thread have had completely opposite experiences with Wellbutrin, I think prescription drugs really do affect everybody differently...

Prescriptions and medications f****d me up as child. I wish I never had taken them.