In the Mind's Eye: Mental Health & Expression

PORTRAITS OF MENTAL DISORDERS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THOSE IMPACTED BY THEM

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Dualities by Liz Obert looks at the dual lives of people living with mental illness - putting on a brave face and facing the world while simultaneously having to cope with a mental disorder

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What Does Depression Physically Feel Like from Meredith Melnick & Alissa Scheller - Though we often associate depression and mental disorders with their effects on our mind, often they come with distinctive physical symptoms as well.

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Selfies of Rebecca Brown every day for 6.5 years that highlight her life with trichotillomania - an impulse disorder which causes urges to pull out one's hair

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From Ellen Forney's graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me. Nearly 6 million American adults have bipolar disorder. which is characterized by severe mood changes from manic depression to mania. | Read more.

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Picture from Adventures in Depression by Hyperbole and a Half on going through various stages of depression such as self loathing, sadness, isolation, and numbness as depicted above. 

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Jake #7, 2007  by Leonie Hampton -  A photo from Hampton's book In the Shadow of Things which focuses on her mother's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder | Learn more.

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Portrait of Anxiety: Humming

It’s a humming so loud that

The room goes black and blurry around the edges

Like a fishbowl

The water closing in

And beneath the surface

The light bends and weaves the world into strange patterns

That remind me of Christmas trees

Glinting from behind frosted window panes

Until I can hear nothing

And nothing is left

But humming

This poem touches on the distracting and all-encompassing feeling of anxiety and specifically anxiety that manifests physically.

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Self Portrait (Schizophrenic) by Kyle Reynolds, 2006 - Reynolds is open about having schizophrenia and much of his art relates to the topic of mental disorder. | Learn more.

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Submit your art!

The goal of this blog is to provide a space for everyone to express themselves (not just professional artists) and to help build awareness of mental disorders. So we hope you will share your portrait of mental disorder and the impact it has had on your life by going to the Submit Art link at the top of the blog.

Submissions can be any form of art: paintings, drawings, poetry, spoken word, photos, sculpture, etc. 

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Bipolar Disorder I by chi-of-ink represents the two basic states of type 1 bipolar disorder: mania and depression. 

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Depression Parkour by Ryan Pequin

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Psychosis by Amber Christian Osterhout - A piece from her Gaining Insight exhibit - examining the relationship between schizophrenia and stigma | Learn more.

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Depression by Rage Almighty - 2011 Dallas Poetry Slam | Learn more.

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It's Hardly Noticeable III by photographer, John William Keedy - Part of Keedy's thought provoking series on living with anxiety. | Learn more.