Living With a Mental Illness Project
Growing up as a child, I had briefly heard of mental illnesses and was taught to view those who have them differently than those who do not. Due to the fact this topic is a very deep and difficult one to discuss, my childhood was spent ignoring mental illnesses without ever really knowing what they were. Little did I know I am one of the millions of people who struggles with a mental illness. Since none of my childhood schools taught us about mental illnesses, I had no idea why I had been struggling to be happy my whole childhood. My goal of this photo series is to help educate the world that just because you have a mental illness does not mean you should be viewed differently than those who do not have one.
Scrolling through my images, I hope that you will gain new respect and understanding of the daily struggles of individuals with mental illness. My plan is to show a new depth of what goes on inside the mentally ill’s head that is not shown on the surface level. Some of these photos will be very raw and honestly difficult to look at, so continue viewing these with caution. There will be some very unhealthy photos that might be nauseating for sensitive viewers. However, you should know most of these gruesome photos will have a lot of Photoshop done to them.
The four main mental illnesses I plan to educate my viewers on are depression, abusive relationships, anxiety, and anorexia. Demonstrating the daily life of dealing with one of these illnesses and showing the emotion of feeling worthless and never enough to the world. As a college student, I have noticed these four illnesses to be the most common and difficult ones to deal with throughout your college years. Unfortunately, many college students begin their first real romantic relationships in college, many of which are either mentally or physically abusive. One phrase that has helped with these illnesses is, “You are Loved”. When one is struggling with feeling worthless they need that constant reminder of how important they are to the world. This phrase will be seen multiple times hidden within images in this series.
Throughout my college years, I have written multiple research papers on mental illnesses, and have discovered a new level of passion for this topic. Having grown up with a mental illness, and helping many of my close friends through theirs, this topic will always be close to my heart. Many people do not realize that while working through these struggles, you lose the majority of your friends because they do not want to deal with the hard times that come with being a good friend. Hopefully, after viewing this series I will make a difference in the support system of helping your friend through a difficult time.
