At one point we all learn to stop being afraid of the monsters under our bed, but do we ever really learn how to deal with the monsters in our heads?
Diagnosis of mental illness has steadily become more present in today’s world. Social media sites have created safe havens and communities centered around youth and adults that suffer from these misunderstood issues.

For the rest of the population that doesn’t suffer from a mental or emotional disorder, understanding the symptoms and emotions of those who do can be near impossible.

Artist Toby Allen used his talents to characterize nine common mental disorders, not to make light of them, but to try to create something to help people to better understand them.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

-OCD is a well known disorder characterized by intense and controlling obsessions that range from washing your hands repeatedly, to counting the number of times you chew before swallowing. Most obsessions are stemmed from a fear of what could happen if the act is not carried out, such as getting sick because they did not wash their hands enough.

-Allen’s depiction of an OCD Monster characterizes the disorder as a hypnotic and possessive being that revels in its ability to remain omniscient.

Depression

-Depression encompasses several disorders, blanketing a large chunk of the average population. Common symptoms include an intense mood of sadness, changes in sleeping and eating patterns, and loss of enjoyment in things once passionate about.

-The Depression Monster is characterized as a blind monster that constantly runs into people, feeding off of their positivity and sharing his own negative feelings.

Anxiety

-Everyone gets nervous, but those suffering from an anxiety disorder are constantly and easily made excessively nervous for reasons that the average person sees no threat in. Anxiety could be in the form of general anxiety disorders, or could show in the form of phobias.

-The Anxiety Monster is small, and was created to mirror the classic “Devil on my shoulder,” perching on its victim’s shoulder and whispering in it’s ear to create fear.

Avoidant Personality Disorder

-Many people find themselves av

oiding responsibilities and environments that make them uncomfortable, but APD goes beyond these emotions, causing intense irrational fears of rejection and judgment. APD is similar to social anxiety, but is different in that APD is characterized by a heavy desire to avoid situations that could presentrejection.

-The APD Monster has developed skilled camouflage techniques, and can live above ground while remaining unseen. This monster does not have malicious intent, but is so consumed by fear and a warped sense of self, that those it tries to befriend become it’s victims.

Schizophrenia

-Schizophrenia is all about distortion of perception. The most well known symptoms are hallucinations, whether visual or audible, although they are not the o

nly effects of schizophrenia. This disorder also entails a corrupted ability to think and interact with people, marking this as the most disabling of common disorders.

-The Schizophrenia Monster is the most disgusting in appearance of these nine. It is large and rancid, secreting hallucinogenic gases to manipulate it’s victims.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

-DID is more commonly known as multiple personality disorder, which is generally understood as a person whose mind has ‘created’ several distinct and separate personalities as a coping method to constant abuse. These personalities have no boundaries on gender, age and preferences of any sort. Someone with DID can seem their normal self, but a few hours later will claim to be a completely different person.

-The DID Monster is chameleon-like, and impossible to describe as one specific way of being, because no two DID Monsters are in any way alike.

Borderline Personality Disorder

-BPD is characterized by constant emotional instability ranging from uncontrollable anger to intense feelings of sadness, as well as reckless behavior. Those with BPDoften have relationships that are intense and unstable as well, going through periods of infatuation to extreme dislike with no warning.

-The BPD Monster is a paradox, being one of the more delicate, but also more sinister of the nine. They use pheromones to heighten their victim’s emotions, because they feed off of any intense emotion.

Social Anxiety

-Social anxiety is the intense and irrational fear of being judged and scrutinized by others. Those with this disorder understand that their fears are irrational, but are still consumed by the physical effects of this fear. Social anxiety typically interferes with daily life, as those who suffer it are constantly overwhelmed by feelings of fear and anxiety when they are in any public place.

-The Social Anxiety Monster is anaemic, due to spending a majority of their lives underground, in hiding. They have an armadillo like shell that is used to protect themselves from perceived threats.

Paranoia

-Paranoid Personality Disorder, or Paranoia, is characterized by strong patterns of suspiciousness and irrational fears. Those with PPD fear that bad things will happen to them because of outside factors, and therefore have strong feelings of distrust and a loss of control.

-The PPD Monster has long ears that they use as a radar to detect possible threats, but these ears are not actually effective for this purpose as they are made of curled cartilage and heavy fur. This distorts the PPD Monster’s sense of hearing, causing them to mistake what they are hearing as more threatening than they are.

Although these disorders are hard to understand if you have no experience with them, it is important to at least understand that they are real and that many people are affected by them every day. We all have our monsters, and these are nine out of hundreds of monsters that people must battle.