“It’s all in your head”

The assignment was to create an editorial illustration that represents mental illness. I chose to draw a person lost inside a brain-shaped maze. Surrounding the maze are phrases that a person with depression often hears from others. Depression is often very stigmatized in our society; many people think that someone who is depressed is just feeling sorry for themselves or simply being pessimistic.

I chose to highlight the phrase “It’s all in your head,” because it’s both stigmatizing and somewhat true; it is technically in the mind that depression starts, but it’s not something that a person brings onto themselves in the way that the phrase suggests. Just because something is “all in your head,” doesn’t mean that it’s a simple problem you can solve yourself. It’s a long, challenging maze that you can get through with the help of others.