Not Beautiful

“While working and painting to spread awareness towards mental illnesses and the struggle of people suffering from them, I have come across some brave people fighting every day, just to stay alive, and then I also come across those who are romanticizing mental illnesses.

Suffering from depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and even self-harm and inflicting self-injury (cutting one’s arms / legs with blade) has emerged to be ‘beautiful’, unique, special and cool. It’s become a culture where:

Seeking attention has become a personality trait for some people, even when it comes to them in the form of sympathy.
The heroic stories of emerging from depression to reach ones goals have normalized mental illness as a ‘mandatory’ stop in the journey to success.
Having a mental disease is presumed to make people special, separating them from the crowd.

This mindset is extremely disillusioning for people actually struggling and recovering from the excruciating pain of mental illnesses. We are trivializing mental illnesses – You aren’t depressed just because you had a fight with your partner. You aren’t bipolar because a situation is making you both happy and sad at the same time. You don’t have an anxiety disorder just because you’re scared of talking in public. Real mental health conditions are extensively serious, beyond many people’s imagination. It is important to stop labelling our mental states as mental illnesses only to gain attention.

Being deliberately broken is so not beautiful!”

Devshri Chandrakar Member since May 17, 2020

Devshri Chandrakar a.k.a. Shiri is a creative artist who works in a wide variety of media, including paintings, installations, resin art, most of which exhibit her thematic interest in bright colours, fluidity, organic patterns and mystical concepts. Her art is mostly a visual translation of stories, poems, or mythological concepts from various cultures, and she likes to dabble with numerous mediums to create and enhance the artwork she creates. She is recording her journey through life and mental illness via her art and sharing it to spread awareness. She is on Instagram as @artbyshiri. She lives in Pune, Maharashtra, India.