Shawn Cross Depicts Mental Illness in Haunting Inktober Drawings

We love annual Halloween drawing challenges, where artists all over the world turn their skills to the dark side during October.

Just like every year, the participating artists are given prompts for every day of the month to follow, but illustrator Shawn Coss has decided to use the month of October to depict the frightening realities of a range of mental health conditions. Each of the conditions seen in the series may be aided by counselling, and other forms of psychiatric help. Some of the conditions are fairly well known, while many are less understood.

The results are these eerie and quite frightening illustrations, capturing experiences of fear, torment or isolation many people with these conditions can face.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder

Insomnia

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Paranoid Schizophrenia

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder

OCD

DPD