I once wrote a comic where one of the characters was my own anxiety.
The artwork was a skeleton, and the joke was he NEVER shut up. He would always fill the whole speech bubble, and then the whole panel. He would rant and rant until he crowded out everyone and everything else - and the other characters would have to literally talk OVER him.
The rub was - in order to write him, I had to ask myself what made me anxious. There was never enough to fill a whole panel. Ultimately, our anxiety is so small in scope its maybe enough for just a sentence...
By externalizing him, I gave him a format. By interviewing him, I gave him a voice. By making a joke out of him, I neutered him. And by serializing him, I made this process into a practice.
After practicing it - Axiety can no longer sneek up on me; he can no longer take over the conversation or steer my actions.
Anxiety becomes just a voice.
Just a voice, one that wants to keep the rest of me safe. And when he won't shut up - I draw up a new cartoon, and marvel at how loud the fucker can be when he ultimately has so little to say.
Every word that comes out of his mouth is like a turd that falls into your drink.
STOP REPORTING on every demented utterance of this narcissistic sundowning ass-clown. He'd fucking condemn the existence of oxygen if it fit his agenda.
Fucking kill us all because school teachers are secretly centaurs in disguise and the Ark of the Covenant contains a coupon for a free Lexus, and if you're special enough to believe in White Jesus then heaven is a gated community, and they have the best HOA ever.
Like, maybe it's just better if Homo Sapiens doesn't survive?
I once wrote a comic where one of the characters was my own anxiety.
The artwork was a skeleton, and the joke was he NEVER shut up. He would always fill the whole speech bubble, and then the whole panel. He would rant and rant until he crowded out everyone and everything else - and the other characters would have to literally talk OVER him.
The rub was - in order to write him, I had to ask myself what made me anxious. There was never enough to fill a whole panel. Ultimately, our anxiety is so small in scope its maybe enough for just a sentence...
By externalizing him, I gave him a format. By interviewing him, I gave him a voice. By making a joke out of him, I neutered him. And by serializing him, I made this process into a practice.
After practicing it - Axiety can no longer sneek up on me; he can no longer take over the conversation or steer my actions.
Anxiety becomes just a voice.
Just a voice, one that wants to keep the rest of me safe. And when he won't shut up - I draw up a new cartoon, and marvel at how loud the fucker can be when he ultimately has so little to say.