Ep 130: You Are Not Your Art
5 Essential Mental Health Truths for Creative Professionals
SUMMARY
The creative industry has a mental health crisis. Two-thirds of creative professionals report work-related health issues, and artists are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression than the general population. If you're a creative struggling to believe in your own value, this message is for you.
World Mental Health Day serves as an annual reminder of struggles that don't end when the day passes. The statistics are staggering: 57% of musicians have experienced suicidal thoughts, 64% of film and television workers have considered leaving the industry, and creative professionals are 18 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.
These aren't just numbers—they represent our friends, colleagues, and community members who are struggling to reconcile the beauty of what they create with the pain of how they feel.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
⚡️ Your creative output does not determine your human value—you existed before you created anything, and your worth doesn't change based on what you produce.
⚡️ Asking for help is not giving up, it's refusing to give up—reaching out when you're struggling is the bravest thing you can do and multiplies your strength.
⚡️ You matter right now, exactly as you are—your presence creates ripples you'll never fully comprehend, independent of your creative achievements.
NOTABLE QUOTES
💬 "Your art, your creativity flows from you, but it is not you. You existed before you created anything and your value doesn't increase or decrease based on what you produce."
💬 "The people who love you don't love you because of what you make. They love you because of who you are."
💬 "This feeling is not permanent. This too shall pass. The lie that you don't matter, that no one cares, that the world will be better without you—it's not true. It's never been true."
EPISODE RESOURCES
Crisis Support: Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 (24/7, free, confidential)
Connect with Dustin:
Website: dustinpead.com
Social Media: @dustinpead
Free Resources: dustinpead.com/free
TRANSCRIPT
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Today's a very special episode of Creativity Made Easy, one that I felt could not wait another week. So if you're a creative professional struggling to believe in your own value, this message is for you. Let's get into it.
Welcome to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals who want to scale their business with systems and processes that actually work. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative agency consultant. And my mission is simple, to help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams so that they can create with efficiency as they scale together. And today's episode is going to be about knowing yourselves for sure. Whether you're a solo creative running an agency, leading an in-house team, you're in the right place.
Each week we dive into systems and frameworks and mindsets that transform creative chaos into sustainable clarity. Like I said, today's episode is going to be different. I had planned to share one of my talks from the SALT 2025 conference this week, but when I sat down to prepare, I realized that something more important needed to be said. Now, last Friday, six days before the release of this episode was World Mental Health Day. And while that day has passed, the struggle has not.
The statistics around mental health in creative industries are staggering. And I know many of you listening right now are carrying the weights that feel impossible to bear. So I'm going to push the salt content to the next couple of weeks because some of these truths cannot wait.
Now I want to give a couple of disclaimers right up front. Number one, I'm not a mental health professional. I'm just someone who has gone through it, is walking through it and want to encourage other people like me along the way. Number two, I did write out this episode transcript pretty much word-for-word because I wanted to be very intentional about what I say and how I'm going to approach this topic today. So with that in mind, let's dive right in.
Let's start with some numbers that are not meant to overwhelm you, but just to let you know that you're not alone in what you're experiencing. Two-thirds of creative professionals, roughly 67%, report work-related health issues. Artists and writers are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression than the general population. Creative professionals are 18 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. 57% of musicians have experienced suicidal thoughts. 35% of screen workers rate their mental health as poor or very poor. 64% of film and television workers have considered leaving the industry due to mental health struggles.
Now again, these aren't just statistics. These are our friends, our colleagues, our community. These numbers represent real people, maybe even you, who are struggling to reconcile the beauty of what they create with the pain of how they feel. The creative industry has a mental health crisis. This world has a mental health crisis. Hence why we need things like World Mental Health Day, because we can't keep pretending that everything is fine.
Now some of my story, I know this struggle personally. I've been there. I've been in the dark places where you wonder if you're enough, if your work matters, if anyone would even notice if you disappeared. And I wrote a book about my story, about walking through depression and anxiety and spiraling thoughts through that, learned to separate my identity from my output as best I could and discovered the process that my value isn't determined by what I produce. And the journey nearly cost me everything, but it also taught me the truths that I'm about to share with you. Truths that literally saved my life. And if you're struggling today, I need you to hear them.
So here are five truths you need to hear today. No frameworks, no systems, no productivity hacks, just truth.
All right. Truth number one, you are not the sum of your art. Your creative output does not determine your human value. Listen to me carefully. The work that you create, no matter how brilliant or how flawed, is not who you are. You are not your last project. You're not your portfolio. You're not the approval or rejection that you received from that client.
We live in an industry that constantly confuses our work with our worth. And when a project succeeds, we feel valuable. But when it fails, we feel worthless. But that's a lie that will destroy you if you let it. Your art, your creativity flows from you, but it is not you. You existed before you created anything and your value doesn't increase or decrease based on what you produce. On your best creative day and your worst, your fundamental worth as a human being remains unchanged.
The client who rejected your work didn't reject you, right? The project that failed doesn't mean that you failed. The creative block that you might be experiencing doesn't mean that you're broken. You're a person with infinite worth who happens to create things, not a creative machine that happens to feel things.
All right, truth number two, you are more valuable than you think. You're more valuable than you think. Your presence, not your productivity is what matters the most. You see the lie we believed is that our value comes from what we produce. So we hustle harder, we work longer, we sacrifice more. Thinking that if we just create enough, achieve enough, succeed enough, then maybe we'll finally feel valuable enough. But here's what I've learned. The people who love you don't love you because of what you make. They love you because of who you are.
Your spouse doesn't love your portfolio, they love you. Your kids don't need a creative triumph, they need your presence. Your friends don't value you for your accomplishments, they value you for your friendship. And beyond all that, your value is intrinsic. You matter because you exist. Not because of what you do, but because of who you are. If you never created another thing, if you walked away from this creative life tomorrow, you would still be valuable. You would still matter. You would still be worthy of love and respect and dignity.
Right? It's not motivational fluff. That's foundational truth. That's what God has created in us. And when you start living from that place, when you truly believe that you're valuable, regardless of your output, it changes everything.
Truth number three, you are capable of hard things. I say this to my kids all the time. Surviving is a strength and asking for help is courage, right? If you're listening to this or watching this right now and you're battling depression, anxiety, burnout or worse, you need to know something. You are already doing hard things. You got out of bed today, you're still showing up. You're still here. It's not a weakness. That's remarkable strength.
The creative journey is hard and the mental health struggle is real. Doing both simultaneously takes a kind of resilience that most people will never understand. And here's the truth. And I love this is from one of my favorite movies of all time, a short film. Asking for help doesn't diminish that strength. It multiplies it. The quote in the movie is that asking for help is not giving up. It's refusing to give up.
The bravest thing you can do when you're struggling is to tell someone, reach out, to admit that you cannot do this alone because you are capable of hard things. You've already proven that by surviving this far and you're capable of the hard thing of reaching out for help too. That's not giving up, right? It's refusing to give up.
Truth number four, you matter. You matter. Your existence has impact that extends far beyond your work. You see, in our dark moments, our minds lie to us. They tell us that no one would notice if we're gone. The world would be fine without us and that we're a burden, not a blessing. And those thoughts are not truth.
You matter to people in ways that you can't even see. That encouraging word that you spoke last week, someone's still thinking about it. That project that you collaborated on, you made it better with your presence. That friend who texts you randomly, you're more important to them than you realize. Your life creates ripples that you'll never fully comprehend. A student that you mentor, the junior creative you encourage, the person who sees you at work and thinks maybe I can do this too. You matter. Not matter someday if you achieve enough. No, no, not could matter if you could get your life together. No, you matter right now, today, in this moment, exactly as you are.
And lastly, truth number five, you are loved. You are loved. Love for you exists independent of your performance. We used to attend a church outside of downtown Chicago in our first year of marriage. I was back in 2006 and they ended every church service with the same statement. You are loved. Remember as you leave and go out this week, you are loved.
Now this one's hard for creatives to believe because we're used to conditional approval, right? Clients love our work when it meets their expectations. Audiences love our output when it resonates with them. And our industry loves us when we're producing, but that's not love. That's transaction. Real love exists whether you create or not. Whether you succeed or fail, whether you're having your best year or your worst, someone loves you. God loves you. Maybe your family loves you. Maybe it's your friends. Maybe it's people in your creative community. Maybe. I believe this deeply.
Like I said, it's the God who created you with the creative capacity in the first place. You are loved not for what you do, but for who you are, not for what you accomplish, but because you exist, by you existing is proof that you are loved. And that love does not disappear when you're struggling. It doesn't fade when you're not performing. It's in the darkness. It's waiting for you to reach towards that light. You are loved. Believe that, receive it. Let it be the foundation that you build from.
So what now? We end every episode with some action steps and I want to give those to you today as well. If you're struggling with your mental health right now, here's what I'm asking you to do.
Number one, reach out to someone you trust today. Not next week. Not when you feel better today. Go ahead, text a friend, call a family member, email a mentor, email me. Tell someone what you're experiencing. You don't have to do this alone.
Number two, share this episode with a creative friend who needs it. That's not for self promotion of anything that I'm doing. It's just that you may know someone who's struggling and maybe they've mentioned it. Maybe you just sense it. Send them the episode with a simple message that just says thinking of you. Right. This episode meant something to me and I wanted to share it with you.
Number three, take one self care action in the next 24 hours. Not a productivity action, a care action. Right. Take a walk, exercise, pray, journal, rest, do something that nurtures you as a human being, not as a creative professional. Right. You're not a machine. So stop treating yourself like one.
Number four, use the resources at the end of this episode and in the show notes. Right. If you're in crisis and you're having thoughts of self harm or suicide, please use the mental health resources that I'm about to share. These are free, confidential and available 24 seven. There's no shame in reaching out. It's the bravest thing that you can do.
And number five, sit with these truths. Come back to this episode. Write these five truths down. Remember them and read them when the lies get too loud. You are not the sum of your art. You're more valuable than you think. You are capable of hard things. You matter. You are loved. These aren't motivational platitudes. They're foundational truths that can anchor you when everything feels uncertain.
So for mental health crisis, the suicide and crisis lifeline, you can call or text 988. It's available 24 seven, completely free and confidential. There are trained counselors available for everyone experiencing any emotional distress. The rest of the resources I will put in the show notes for you. But again, text 988 if you're having any kind of suicidal thoughts or crisis in that regard.
So in conclusion, listen, if you're in a dark place right now, please hear me. This feeling is not permanent. This too shall pass. The lie that you don't matter, that no one cares, that the world will be better without you. It's not true. It's never been true because you're not the sum of your art. You're more valuable than you think. You're capable of hard things. You matter and you are loved. Those five truths stand whether you believe them right now or not. And I hope and I pray that they reach you in whatever darkness you might be facing and remind you that there's still light ahead.
So reach out. Ask for help. Take the next small step. You don't have to figure everything out today. Just take the next breath. Make the next call. Send the next text. Your story is not over and the creative world needs you in it. Not for what you create, but for who you are.
So if you found value in this episode, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Connect with me at DustinPead.com or on social media at DustinPead because you are not alone in this.
Next week, we're going to return to the content I originally planned for this episode. My talk from one of my talks from Salt 2025 on transforming your one on one meetings from status updates into strategic conversations that actually move your creative work forward. But today we needed this. So thanks for listening until next time. Keep creating. But more importantly, keep believing in your own value.