The difficulty of picturing mental illness

[NikNik]

What image comes to mind if I say mental illness?

The chances are that everyone will picture something very different.

Some have reported they picture landscapes, emotions reflected in nature, while others report images that represent isolation and invisibility.

Whilst reading online news I’ve seen mental illness represented in many different ways: illustrations of the brain, the same person with multiple faces, the list goes on.

There are many different representations and interpretations of mental illness. It reflects the wide variety of views we have on mental illness.

How would you like mental illness to be depicted?

We would love to hear your description or see an uploaded image (see edit or insert image above text box when you choose Reply below)

*Please note: images must be aligned to Community Guidelines. They must not be:

- an identifiable image of yourself or anyone you know

- images the depict suicide or self harm

- graphic images of any nature

[MoonGal]

I see myself as a pale reflection moving through a barbed landscape. 


and trapped behind an opaque glass since childhood (looking through a glass darkly).

[Former-Member]

a faceless person who is lost... somehow (im still not entirely sure who i am or what makes up me, or what i want to be me?) and i just feel lost or trapped in a a massive world where even familiar things start to look new and unfamiliar. - but its been a big week.

[BlueBay]

Hi @NikNik

I see my mental illness as:

     A tangled web.  So many webs all criss crossing each other.  And each time I untangle a bit of the web I get caught up in another web.  It feels like I can never get out of this web.  A tangled mess.  Confusion, voices, visions.

When I see the words 'mental illness' I see pain, hurt, victim, depression, sadness, frustration, anger, isolation, abandonment.  I see so much pain, yet a little bit of strength (not much).  I see lots of tears and I see myself as a little girl crying huddled up in a corner with nowhere to go, but hiding away from everyone, being scared, being isolated. And more tears.

[Pepperoni]

Pictures tell a story of mental illness

http://www.smh.com.au/national/pictures-tell-a-story-of-mental-illness-20160310-gnfuzm.html

[BamBam]

For me it's truckloads of information (say, like a box of sand or dirt) to sift through, only to find that the 'good' bits of sand have gone by the time you get to them. This is how I think of it 'externally', when I'm in the midst of it it's just endless thoughts. It seems as though my one is quite different to the others.

[Former-Member]

at first i picture MI as 'suffering' then i had a vision of community who support one another through hard times. I think suffering strengthens the world when we learn from bit.

[Former-Member]

THE ALLEGORY OF THE LONG SPOONS The allegory of the long spoons is a parable that shows the difference between heaven and hell by means of people forced to eat with extra long spoons. In hell (suffering) the people are unable to lift food to their mouths using such unwieldy cutlery and are needy, wanting, starving, weak, trapped & unable to function.. In heaven they observed the spoons could reach another person across the table, they learned to feed each, other & receive from one another & trust & were sustained. The story can encourage people to be kind to each other, to look beyond our own needs, to use what we have & trust things will work out. There are various interpretations of the fable including its use in sermons and in advice to lonely people.

[SCORPION]

alone

Scorpion

[BamBam]

@SCORPION - you are not alone.