Jim Carrey Was One Of The Most Creative Human Beings On Earth. It Nearly Killed Him.

How the beloved actor dealt with creative burnout and you can too.

“Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions; your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker.” —Sam Keen

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We spend so much of our lives defined by the work. We’re only as good as our last painting, our last poem, our last ad. So consumed are we by our hunger for creative success, we scarcely notice when our priorities begin to shift. It’s so subtle. It’s so nuanced. One minute nothing else matters but the work. Until one day, it becomes less about the paint and the melodies and the words and more about success. The allure is seductive. The more of it we eat, the hungrier for it we become, until that moment when the whole damn thing just shuts down. Creative burnout is a very real danger. Not just to the Jim Carrey’s of the world as you’re about to find out, but to all of us who aspire to the creative life. If we’re not vigilant, if we fail to keep our priorities straight, it can leave us wandering in that vast wasteland from which many never return.

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Jim Carrey was a comedic genius and as versatile an actor as there has ever been. For years, his talent for making people laugh was unassailable. What few of us knew was that Jim was carrying inside of him a very dark demon; the complex and overwhelming spectre of creative burnout.

By any measure, Jim Carrey's career teetered on the edge of impossibly meteroric, beginning with stand-up comedy in Toronto then jumping to the small screen with roles in television shows like "In Living Color." His breakout moment came in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective".

From that point on, Carrey could do no wrong, with iconic roles in "The Mask," "Dumb and Dumber," and "Batman Forever." His unmatched comedic timing and ability to transform into eccentric characters made him a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. But it came at a price.

As his star ascended, the demands of his career began to weigh heavily. The pressure to be funny, to be innovative, to continuously outdo his previous performances left Carrey emotionally spent. The expectations, coupled with his internal drive for perfection, set the stage for creative burnout an a massive scale.

Jim was a big believer in method acting. He would immerse himself so fully in his characters, the lines between fiction and reality were often blurred so much that it was hard to know where the line was between real and make believe. While the performances were remarkable, the toll took his mental health frighteningly close to the edge.

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