Life as a professional stage performer is a grueling one. A professional stage performer may be a dancer, an actor, a magician, a musician, a singer or any other kind of performance artist. The performing arts are known for being highly competitive and difficult to make a living at, which is part of the reason that performing artists are known for their struggles with addiction. The performance arts are a professional field that carry a higher rate of addiction problems than most other fields. In theory, this is because of the natural sensitivity and experimental nature of artists, the professional pressures that performing artists face and the emotional strain that the industry and the artistic process put on a performer.
All artists are experimental and sensitive due to their creative, artistic nature. These characteristics are necessary to the artistic process. However, they also create mental complications for many performing artists. Their experimental nature may lure them into using an addictive substance or perpetrating an addictive behavior, and their sensitive nature may cause them to alter their identity around it and become psychologically dependent on it. This can be a dangerous combination that leads to a gripping and long-lasting addiction.
Professional stage performing is a highly underrated profession. The competition is brutal and the expectations are unending. Many professional stage performers find their industry extremely stressful because it does not offer reliable work and the wages can be completely unregulated. This stress often amounts to experimenting with addictive behaviors and substances as a way of escaping, and an addiction begins.
The demands of stage performance are incredibly intense. Performers put their bodies, talents, vocal chords, emotions and more through the ringer to deliver a worthwhile performance to an audience. These are skills that most other professionals cannot understand. Performers are very emotionally and soulfully connected to their work, and the rise and fall of emotional victories and defeats can leave a performer yearning for escape into addiction. If you or someone in your life is a performing artist who struggles with addiction, do not hesitate to seek help as quickly as possible.
Professional performance artists live a lifestyle that few people can comprehend. For a living, performance artists get on a stage in front of an audience and dance, act, sing or do a number of other performative talents for the audience’s entertainment, amusement and enlightenment. Preparation for these performances includes grueling rehearsals and many hours spent at practice and memorization. The work is hard, the wages are often sporadic and inconsistent and the performance schedule often involves travel. This is why the number of performing artists who are thriving is considerably low. Performance artists lead very challenging lives, with hardships that include mental disorders, stage fright and rootlessness.
Performance artists face a number of challenges that other working professionals have never been exposed to. The performing arts require the sensitivity it takes to envision and execute a quality performance, yet they also require the thick skin it takes to endure unkind audiences, grueling rehearsal schedules and a traveling lifestyle. Many performance artists cannot handle the pressures of life on stage and succumb to addiction while trying and failing to cope in a healthy way. Mental health professionals are aware that life as a performing artists is particularly hard on a person’s mental health. Because of this, there are addiction treatment programs designed specifically for performance artists.