Amy Mazowita:
My inspiration
A short comic by Montreal artist and comics creator Sandra Dumais. The images in this single-panel comic depict a series of the artist’s pandemic-related anxieties. This comic is part of Dumais’ “Staying In” series, in which she documented the early months of the pandemic in a daily comic diary shared to Instagram. This series is one of the inspirations for my doctoral project, as it highlights the ways in which comics and social media may be used as alternative mental health resources. Credit: Sandra Dumais (@sandradumaisbooks), “Covid Night Terrors”, posted to Instagram, May 22, 2020.
How are individuals using social media-based mental health comics as resources for self- and collective care?
As someone who lives with anxiety, the de-stigmatization of mental illness has always been extremely important to me. I have witnessed the mental health struggles of loved ones and have navigated the complicated intricacies of the mental health system—a medicalized institution that is often inaccessible and, at times, ironically detrimental to the person seeking help. These experiences made me recognize the need for alternative and non-medicalized mental health supports—resources which are created by and for those who need them the most. Legitimizing community-based mental health care is an important initiative towards deconstructing normative perspectives of mental illness.