History Main / CopeByCreating

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E14FameAndMisfortune Fame and Misfortune]]", when Rarity's boutique is being boycotted because of negative reviews about the friendship journal, she copes by "stress-sewing" and churning out large amounts of dresses. She's later seen wearing a completely ridiculous and tacky outfit. When Rainbow Dash asks her what it is, Rarity snaps, "My emotions, darling! ''STRESS COUTURE!''"

* The Music/BoomTownRats song "I Don't Like Mondays" owes its existence to this trope. Frontman Bob Geldof recounts in his memoirs that he was being interviewed on a US local television station when [[WeInterruptThisProgram they were interrupted by a news bulletin]] about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Elementary_School_shooting_(San_Diego) a school shooting in San Diego]], and Geldof ended up sitting in a corner of the studio listening to the incident unfold in real-time. The lyrics were written in an attempt to put his shock and horror into words, and the result ended up being the most successful single the band ever released, which he admits to having quite mixed feelings about.

* Invoked for BlackComedy in [[https://local.theonion.com/abusive-father-cant-wait-to-see-the-art-hes-inspiring-h-1819573241 this article]] from Website/TheOnion: "[[AbusiveParents Abusive Father]] Can't Wait to See the Art [[MiseryBuildsCharacter He's Inspiring His Kids to Create]]".

-->'''Curator:''' He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before.

* An out of universe example: Hironobu Sakaguchi's mother passed away shortly before development began on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. Given how strongly the themes of loss and grief are in the game's story, it's clear that he threw himself into this project as a way to cope with his loss.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Hard Time", O'Brien is sent to prison and, in order to cope with forced isolation, taught by his cellmate how to make "eseekas", geometric patterns formed by tracing his finger in the sand covering the cell floor.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E10VincentAndTheDoctor Vincent and the Doctor]]": {{Discussed|Trope}} by an museum curator regarding the art of Creator/VincentVanGogh. Going by van Gogh's [[ManlyTears reaction]], he hit the nail on the head.
-->'''Curator:''' He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before.
* ''Series/{{Shoestring}}'': Eddie doodles caricatures of the people he's talking to in order to manage stress. When he's dragged into an abandoned train car in the pilot, he draws in the dust on the window.
* Brian Topp in ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' discovers he can ''only'' paint when he's angst-ridden; after finally finding happiness when he starts dating Twist, his inspiration dries up. Luckily, Marsha spots his predicament and [[CruelToBeKind deliberately taunts him]] about his artistic block, making him just upset enough to start painting again.
* A RunningGag throughout ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' is Gibbs' constantly making boats or other carpentry projects in his home's basement to deal with the stresses of his work/several divorces/whatever hell came knocking on his door this week. [[RiddleForTheAges It's never made clear what he does to the boats once he completes them]], since the basement doesn't seem to have a way to get them out and he's never shown destroying them once he's done making them. However, one of Gibbs' finished boats being part of a crime scene is a plot point in "Outlaws and In-Laws", prompting [[PerkyGoth Abby]] to joke that the team's mystery of the week is to find out how it got out of Gibbs' basement.
[[/folder]]

* The Plain Doll from ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' seems to have been crafted by Gehrman as a way of coping with his star pupil (and secret obsession) Lady Maria's suicide. While he has meticulously recreated Maria's physical appearance, however, he couldn't bring the Doll to life, and so appears to have struck a DealWithTheDevil to animate her (although the end result was markedly different from the original, personality-wise).

->'''Lisa:''' If you're feeling depressed, do what I do and write something. A novel, a play...
->'''Bart:''' Or I could write something that's ''not'' gay.

* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}:'' After Elsa escapes Arendelle, she creates a beautiful ice palace both to test her ElementalPowers and to release her pent-up emotions. She is singing "Let It Go" as it forms around her.

* ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'': The god of evolution reacts to problems by making beetles as he says it relaxes him (the god being based on both UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin and the "God has an inordinate fondness for beetles" quote). Stibbons, who is ready to give up everything to live with the only scientific-minded god on the Disc runs like hell when it turns out the god's evolutionary masterpiece is a cockroach.

* In the 2019 adaptation of ''Manga/{{Dororo}}'' [[CoolBigSis Mio]] sings so that she doesn't feel sadness [[spoiler: even when she's selling her body.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E14FameAndMisfortune," when Rarity's boutique is being boycotted because of negative reviews about the friendship journal, she copes by "stress-sewing" and churning out large amounts of dresses. She's later seen wearing a completely ridiculous outfit. When Rainbow Dash asks her what it is, Rarity snaps, "My emotions, darling! ''Stress couture!''"

* A RunningGag throughout ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' is Gibbs' constant working on making boats in his home's basement to deal with the stresses of his work/several divorces/whatever hell came knocking on his door this week. [[RiddleForTheAges It's never made clear what he does to the boats once he completes them]], since the basement doesn't seems to have a way to get them out and he's never shown destroying them once he's done making them.

CaptivityHarmonica is a situation- and mechanism-specific subtrope. Compare CopeByPretending, where the character instead copes by pretending their stress is not as big as it is, and HeartbreakAndIceCream, a.k.a. "Cope By Eating". Contrast PercussiveTherapy, a.k.a "Cope by Smashing". A SadClown is a character who copes by cracking jokes. See also TrueArtIsAngsty. The inverse of this is TooUpsetToCreate, which can cause things like WritersBlock when a character's emotions leave them ''unable'' to create.