I find the mental illness and relatability thing very interesting. I think the gradual normalisation of being open about emotional experiences and feelings in general is ace. And I think creating images and words about mental illness can also expose some of the giant flaws with the rigidity of the psychiatric model when it comes to the DSM (preoccupations with fitting into one label/one box/one specific set of symptoms are challenged when you see or read stuff you relate to by someone with a different Dx, for example. This is positive). Sharing drawings and being related to has helped me see my own issues as a much more complex Web of Stuff than whatever clinical list of bullet points I may resemble most closely. Two or three years ago I think the dialogue in the bottom image would have pissed me off. “How dare anyone who didn’t have severe illness relate to my experience?” Etc. I self-perpetuated negative beliefs about myself and my behaviours because I’d been treated as “young woman with X, Y, Z Disorders” for so long. And I really thought everything I felt/went through must have been because of some psychiatric acronyms. Then I thought some more and realised what people were probably relating to at large was my human experience; My insecurities and fears and happiness and silliness and all the threads of my personality that run independent of my illness or labels i’d had lobbed at me. We are multi-threaded, and they can feed into one another, but blimey do we all have shit going on. This is a right ramble from what is probably a giant can o’ worms, but I just find it interesting ya know? I like how the platforms we have for expression now can open up these little corners of mutual understanding/solidarity that might otherwise have not been there.