As someone who has DID (dissociative identity disorder), my first reaction was to be offended, because I thought at first that the artist was calling anyone who has a mental illness "monsters". However, after reading some of the descriptions (starting with the one for DID, of course), I realized that they were intending for the "monsters" to be the illnesses themselves, that are attacking the "victims", i.e., the people who have those illnesses. I do think that the artist had good intentions. However, while the artist did make an attempt to educate the audience about some of the symptoms of each disorder, they are missing the point if they think their art is truly reducing stigma. Yes, their art makes the point that people with mental illnesses are not monsters themselves, but rather victims of traumatic events, or in some cases genetics. But that is only half of the stigma that we face. The other half is the stigma that we are JUST victims, and that is all we are capable of being. People tend to think of those of us with mental illness as people who can't function in "normal" society, and constantly struggle their entire lives just to try to live a halfway decent life. While some of us struggle more than others, with the proper treatment, many of us can learn to live happy, healthy, productive lives. In the case of DID, contrary to what many think, it's not even necessary to "merge" all of our identities back together into one, whole person. In fact, after trying to do that for nine years and failing every time, we met a therapist who taught us that we can learn to accept our multiplicity and cooperate with and love each other, and we began to make much more progress much quicker. The point I'm trying to make is, just because we have a mental illness, that doesn't mean we are weak. We have to be strong to have survived everything we have been through, and to pursue healing. It's not easy to heal from DID or any other mental illness, but it can be done with perseverance. It seems that this artist, while well-intentioned, misses that point. They fall into the trap of portraying people with mental illness as the perpetual victim, which actually reinforces the stigma against us.
Anyway, that's my two cents' worth.
Leyna of the Doug Vincent system
INFJ
