4 Illustrators Who Are Making Mental Health Easier To Understand
There have always been taboos, stigmas or shame attached to mental disorders, usually reducing them to “just a phase” for one to “get over”. More often than not, they’re so invisible that the people around them can’t get a grasp of what it feels like to suffer through these issues and prefer to brush it under the carpet instead. WHO’s 2015 health estimates reported that over 50 million Indians suffer from depression and over 30 million, from anxiety issues — making it imperative to talk about the elephant in the room.
Art, by its very nature, has a universal language that words do not possess. In an effort to raise awareness and show support for those living with mental disorders, a few Indian artists are talking about mental health through the medium that they excel at.
Mounica Tata
Earlier this year, illustrator Mounica Tata started the #areyouok initiative, where she decided to sketch the various forms of anxiety, loneliness and feelings of worthlessness in eight illustrations. It all came about after she quit her job to freelance and began to exhibit symptoms of depression while working alone from home without any social interaction. Through her art — in which she deliberately juxtaposed her character clad in black and red against a dull, grey background — she was able to clearly mark identifiers for others to “take a good look around, in case they might identify with some of these emotions or know someone who needs help”.
Pranita Kocharekar
After battling social anxiety through professional help, illustrator Pranita Kocharekar decided to comically draw about the “emotions of an anxious person” through her #acknowledgeanxiety project. Through 15 illustrations, she highlighted the social situations that perfectly capture the emotions that she faced — and many others can relate to — such as overthinking, worrying about things that weren’t worth pondering over or just plain indecisiveness. With every post, she reminds us that these aren’t tools for self-diagnosis, even inserting a humorous self-help aid that says “Dr. Internet says breathing techniques are a cure for anxiety at an early stage.”
Prathiksha Bhat
Acknowledging that she was going through a rough patch of depression and anxiety, illustrator Prathiksha Bhat — who had initially stopped posting her work on Instagram earlier this year — began to portray her mental health through her art. Simple but impactful, her work is a window to her emotions and conversations with her therapist. There’s a sincere effort to empathise with the fact that change takes a while, but is fruitful when achieved.
Sonaksha Iyengar
For the 2017 edition of #36DaysOfType, artist Sonaksha Iyangar — through every letter of the English alphabet and number system — outlined mental disorders in her #AtoZOfMentalHealth project, such as A for anxiety, B for Bipolar disorder and so on. With detailed research and a sense of rawness, her art traversed the many facets of mental health, taking on a life of its own once the designated 36 days came to an end with Iyangar constantly keeping the conversation on mental wellbeing alive.
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