The story is extremely common. A brilliant writer, musician, or painter claims to have their mind opened by drugs and become increasingly prolific. Or vice-versa and the already creative brain is drawn to the stasis, transformation, and escape drugs have to offer. It is evident that the creative mind and drugs have some sort of relationship. But why is this? How can we learn to avoid drug addiction while promoting creativity and broadening of the mind in recovery? Neuroscientist David Linden from John Hopkins University told Scientific American that there isn’t a link between substance abuse and creativity, but that the chemicals like dopamine act as a “prerequisite” for creativity, by producing pleasure and reward of risk-taking, “novelty-seeking,” and compulsive behaviors. You can teach someone how to be creative, you cannot teach someone how to not be addicted to narcotics. You can show someone how to think outside the box, to question everything, and how to implement what you find, but you will not be able to instruct someone on how to survive an overdose. So how can we use these in our attempts to free addicts of addiction at rehab centers and treatment facilities? The short answer is to promote creativity and other dopamine inducing behaviors after detox and as a part of the recovery process at any inpatient residential or clinical center. Art, music, and books are often described as a form of therapy. And the arts should…