The importance of validation: Black Swan and artistic burnout (A thread)

I believe I wasn’t the only one who broke down in tears when #BlackSwan was released. It immediately became my ultimate anthem. It wasn’t only about the beauty and depth of the song, the main(1/18)
@BTS_twt

reason was of course the topic. The fear of losing the feeling for what’s so important to them - music, performing and all that artistic creativity. Fear I know so well that I almost wish I didn’t. Fear of burning out. Because when you burn out, what’s left? (2/18)
@BTS_twt

But I don’t want to talk about what exactly artistic burnout is, nor do I want to analyse the lyrics. In fact the lyrics should be enough on its own. Everything is there. What I want to speak about is how important that song is and how you can perhaps utilise it. (3/18)

For me, the song is a testimony. Testimony to the experience of burnout. From the snippets of words from BTS, I’m have no doubts that they know burnout too well to and if anything, the song sounds like a testimony to me. And as such is incredibly important. As victims (4/18)

of injustice or those who suffer with less common or publicly discussed conditions often feel unsure of their experiences, those of us who experience burnout may feel very lost and alone. There are tons of articles on burnout, I’ve read so many myself. But they all seem to (5/18)

just repeat the same advices and information. It has its place but they tend to be so detached and devoid of any human emotion. Burnout is linked with so many feelings of anxiety and depending on the level, even depression. And you need to feel human connection, warmth. (6/18)

You need to feel understood. Articles, even at their best effort, tend to fail there. Even if you feel there’s some understanding, it’s usually not enough personal. That’s where input form an artist, especially someone big as @BTS_twt,comes in.
Black Swan is not an article (7/18)

on burnout, in fact, the term doesn’t even appear there. There’s no advice or solution either, it doesn’t even serve as a help to identify the the issue. It simply tells the story, expressing the actual feelings. Especially since instead of using the actual situation (8/18)

itself, it uses the fear of it. Fear, which to my experience, you usually discover after already experiencing it at least once. And that’s the power here- @BTS_twt,a major force in global scene,offers you the comfort of being there, acknowledging the existence of this pain (9/18)

the seriousness of the terror and emptiness that comes with it. They share the struggle and validate your experience. That IS incredibly important. They don’t mention it simply in an interview, they sing it, scream it out fully. They scream with you. (10/18)

Now, how to work with it?
That mostly depends on where you are. If you’re an artist who never experienced burnout, you may not know the fear well enough. Then, a good practice is listen to the song properly and use it as a motivation to search for strategies to protect (11/18)

your mental health and avoid the experience. Even if it tends to happen to everyone to some extent, it’s still difference if you spend a few months on hiatus and somewhat depressed or when you end up in hospital after years of anxiety not knowing what even hit you. (12/18)

If you are experiencing it at the moment, maybe it could be your comfort zone, your place to share the burden. The one point I think important is to seek hope, if you can. Don’t compare yourself to the artist,esp since it’s someone so successful as @BTS_twt are.Don’t (13/18)

put any demands on yourself, no expectations of that kind. Your time is for you to heal and spend it with whatever makes you slowly learn to relax and figure out why you once loved what you now can’t. But you can perhaps, see hope in the fact that even big acts (14/18)

like @BTS_twt know this and have been there. Different circumstances, different people, it’s not about the success, I repeat. It’s about the fact that even if you feel at the end where nothing is left, not all is lost. There’s still hope. And that is how you can use (15/18)

the song. As the hope. And perhaps later it’ll be your inspiration and you’ll slowly use the experience itself as a topic to - just for yourself - explore and clean your mind and heal your heart. And if you’re already on the way to heal, maybe focus even more on this hope (16/18)

and use it as empowerment. But even so, I repeat, never compare yourself in the terms of success or your perception of art and your art to @BTS_twt or anyone else. It could hurt you a lot. They’re them, you’re you. Take it as sign that even experiencing sth like this does (17/18)

not mean you can’t get where you want. But whatever the result is, success isn’t really the point and it doesn’t define you nor your artistry. Just take your time and look for the joy instead. Fly! And if you need to talk, my DMs are open. The end.