Some mental illnesses are so severe that people suffering with them have a totally different perception of the world that what we might call «normal. » What would we do, if we saw everything differently, heard voices other people didn’t hear, or figures distorted into monsters?
It’s hard to imagine when you’ve never experienced it. Kate, an 18-year-old with schizophrenia, tried to address just this problem though, opening a window into her condition to give the rest of us an idea of what it’s like.
Kate draws her hallucinations to help herself understand them and to share them with others. That way the people around her can gain some insight into her experience.
«In my hallucinations I often hear voices, sound effects, random noises, and I also see insects, faces and eyes,» she writes on Instagram.
Take a look at some of her amazing work:
«This is a self-portrait. I looked in the mirror and my eyes did this thing. I painted it.»
«I have a lot of intense emotions, and hear voices telling me to light things on fire.»
«This is Birdie, she sings to me.»
From mild depression to extreme conditions such as Kate’s, mental illness can be a mystery to those lucky enough to be free of it. Even specialists struggle sometimes to understand what their patients are going through. When those afflicted with an illness manage to depict their experience — in artwork like Kate’s or literature — they offer us an invitation to learn more about this often hidden suffering.
The more the world knows about what they’re dealing with, the closer we’ll get to a cure. Or at the very least, to greater empathy! Good for Kate, for bravely revealing her inner world.
