Comic Collaboration

My friend Elizabeth Jancewicz is part of a band Pocket Vinyl and they tour all around the country. Her husband plays while she paints and then they auction off the painting. Its a very fun show to watch. She started drawing comics about their adventures on the road and putting them on Instagram as @thetouringtest which then started involving comics about her own insecurities and anxieties. It is a very cool, vulnerable look at what is going on in her head and I’m so impressed with her.

The other day I was watching someone’s story on Instagram about how they were able to manage their overwhelming anxiety through exercising every day. I’ve seen so many people talk about how healthy eating has made them feel better. Those are great ways to feel better and it makes me so happy to hear people talking about their mental health and what is working for them. I have not seen very often, though, people proudly talking about how they are feeling better thanks to a medication. In fact, I often hear how other people shame them for taking medications. Its sometimes subtle shaming, sometimes overt, depending on how much tact that person has. Even when we say things like “You might even need medication to feel better and thats ok” doesn’t sit well with me. There’s sometimes an implication that you need to be REALLY struggling to take medication. You need to REALLY need it. And at what point do you decide that? When you are so deep in the hole you need to admit defeat and take medications? I’m not saying I want everyone to take medications and that they are the end all be all. I’m just saying when we talk about medications like they are the last resort and you must really need them to take them, the messaging can come across as there is shame in taking them. And of course if you are taking them you need them to feel like you can function in the world! But thats the same for people that are working out every day or eating healthy. Except when they say “omg I need to work out every day or I just can’t deal” its almost a brag, versus “omg if I don’t take my medication, I just can’t deal” is not usually said the same way. I just think it’s a dynamic that might stop some people from taking medication, or make people want to stop taking it sooner than they should because there is some accomplishment in not taking them anymore.

So, that is what made me think of the concept of this comic. The idea of someone very comfortably and confidently saying “This is how I’m feeling better” and not allowing themselves to be shamed when someone questions them made me so happy. It was so great to be able to collaborate with Elizabeth. She totally got what I was saying and the body language of these characters is perfection.

There is no shame in any path to feeling better. If anyone has made you feel that way, I’m sorry. And if you have made someone feel that way in the past, please take a second to be challenged in those beliefs.