If Mental Illnesses Were Monsters, Here's What They'd Look Like

If Mental Illnesses Were Monsters, Here's What They'd Look Like

For those suffering with mental illness, it can often be tricky to pinpoint exactly how you feel. Meanwhile for those living without mental illness, it is also difficult to comprehend what a person might be going through.

That's why artist Toby Allen decided to depict various mental illnesses as monsters.

Speaking to HuffPost UK Lifestyle, he explained: "The project aims to raise awareness for lesser known illnesses and reduce the stigma surrounding more well known ones, as well as help people to see their condition in a different, less obscure way."

Inspired by his own anxiety, Allen says he found the creative process therapeutic.

"I started with Anxiety and moved onto other disorders when people began to request that I draw their condition," he said.

"I do a lot of research into a disorder I create a monster for and then begin to conceptualise. The illustrations are created almost digitally, but mimicking traditional mediums such as watercolour."

"I hoped to draw attention to mental illnesses that often get ignored or aren't taken seriously," he told HuffPost in an email.

"I want to make people aware of how damaging these illnesses are and how much of a burden they can be to those who suffer from them. The project also highlights conditions that some people may have never even heard of, so the work aims to raise awareness for these. I hope that people can relate to the work and that it helps them to see their illness in a different light, make it appear more manageable."

Anorexia Nervosa

If Mental Illness Were Monsters

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