Even more cartoons… this time about anxiety.

Thanks Maria for sending me this link to a buzzfeed page, with loads of great cartoons about anxiety.  I’ll not copy them here, as the buzzfeed page has already done the hard work.

One of them led me to a blog:

sad girl scribbles

by a girl called Gaby at virtualgirlfriend.tumblr.com, which contains a plethora of drawings touching different issues including anxiety and depression.

One of many that I particularly liked was this one, which deals nicely with the tension between wanting to abolish difficult feelings and needing emotions to be human:sadgirlscribbles-plantsPlants may not have feelings… but I think I’ve made a few plants look pretty sad.  They definitely look happier when they’ve had a little love and affection – or at the very least least sun, clean water and good food; all of which I can relate to.

More pictures, less words…

Following from my last post, a few friends have recommended some other videos and pictures and comics.

The first, sent to me by various friends, deserves a whole post to itself.  It’s the wonderful Hyperbole and a Half.  A selection of brilliant comics on a variety of topics including depression.  Both funny, sad, true and uplifting, they are a work of genius.  Some of them are short and sweet, others, like ‘Depression part Two’ are seriously long (by internet attention standards), but deserve a proper read.  The author, who describes him/herself as “heroic, caring, alert and flammable”, brings a dark humour to serious experiences:

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Another friend, Ben, recommended this animation on depression, which uses Churchill’s ‘Black dog’ to illustrate the experience of depression, and how, perhaps using imagery, a person can learn to live with their experiences.  The animation is by the illustrator and author, Matthew Johnstone (in conjunction with the WHO) although I’m not clear if he’s talking of his own experiences.  Worth a watch..

Susanne sent me this cartoon, which speaks for itself.

hiddenanswers

 

And then Julia reminded us that depression is  actually often actually misdiagnosed IED (Inappropriate Environment Disorder), a new diagnosis that I’m hoping to get to replace almost all other diagnoses in the DSM-VI.

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Empathy and how to help a friend who’s down…. in pictures and words.

A few things popped up on my various feeds this week, all on the same kind of topic.
The first was this cartoon (thanks Catherine)…

depressionsupport

Which comes from a blog called www.robot-hugs.com.  Below the line on the facebook page where the cartoon had been posted, was the old story about empathy:

So there’s this guy walking down the street and he falls into a great big hole. A doctor walks by and the guy yells up to the doctor ‘hey, I fell in this hole, can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it into the hole, and walks on. 

A priest then walks by and the guy yells up to the priest ‘father, can you help me? I fell into this hole and I can’t get out’. The priest says a prayer, throws down a Bible and walks on. 

And then a friend of the guy walks by and the guy yells up ‘hey, buddy, I’m stuck in this hole and -‘ and before he can finish the friend jumps down into the hole. 

‘What the hell are you doing?’ the guy says, ‘Now we’re both down here!’ 

‘Yup’, says the friend, ‘But I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.’

This story is exactly what happened to a client of mine this week.  Someone he cared about jumped into his hole and helped him find the way out.  These are the people we need in our lives.

And then I came across much the same thing from the brilliant RSA shorts series.  This from a lecture about sympathy vs empathy.

Oh, and I nearly forgot the first one, again from Robot Hugs!  Full of useful advice.

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Anyone care to recommend any other cartoons they really like about psychological health?