Artist Shows How Mental Illnesses Look Like As Monsters

U.K. based artist Toby Allen created a whole collection of illustrations that depicts how mental illnesses like depression, schizophrenia and body dysmorphic disorder will look like if they were monsters. According to the artist, the monster was designed to be small enough to sit on the victim’s shoulder and whisper things in their ear.

Allen told The Huffington Post:

“The project originated from imagining my own anxieties as monsters and finding it to be a cathartic and healing process to draw them. It made them feel weaker and I was able to look at my own anxiety in a comical way. I wanted to expand upon this idea and draw other representations of mental illnesses that could help people in the same way it helped me.”

1. Anxiety

2. Dissociative Identity Disorder  

3. Paranoia

4. Depression

5.Selective Mutism

6. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

7. Anorexia Nervosa

8. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

9. Bipolar

10. Schizophrenia 

11. Misophonia

12. Social Anxiety 

13. Body Dysmorphic Disoder 

14. Sleep Disorder 

15. Avoidant Personality Disorder 

16. Borderline Personality Disorder 

Toby says he hopes the drawings will not only help to reduce the stigma around mental illness, but also help bring an element of humor and understanding to the conditions.

He stated on his blog: ‘The artwork is not at all intended to make light of these conditions but instead is intended to give these intangible mental illnesses some substance and make them appear more beatable as physical entities.’

Love the artwork? You can visit his site here:

http://www.zestydoesthings.com/