If you had to imagine your mental illness or disorder as a house, what would it look like?
Federico Babina has just released a new project called Archiatric, which depicts 16 different conditions as works of architecture in various states of repair. The designs are chillingly abstract, but for anyone living with the agony of mental illness, they’re all too accurate. An animated video posted to the Barcelona-based digital artist’s YouTube page further intensifies the effect of the images.
Babina is known for architecture-inspired work, using a unique geometric style that takes clear notes from cubism. His designs are often surreal, yet underlined with cheeky humour. (Source)
One of the important things to note about this video is that all of the pictures are ultimately the same shape – they just have different struggles. This is exactly as it is in life – everyone can carry different struggles but at the end of the day we are all human. Mental Illness can sometimes seem very scary and make it feel awkward to talk about because we don’t like to think about things that we don’t understand.
In Northern Ireland 250,000 adults and 45,000 children and young people have a mental health need at any one time – that’s 1 in 6 of the population.
The overall prevalence of mental health problems in Northern Ireland is estimated to be 20% higher than in England or Scotland
The overall suicide rate in Northern Ireland is 9.7 per 100,000 and in recent years there has been an increasing trend, particularly in men under the age of 35 years.
To read more statistics about mental health in Northern Ireland please click here.
Mental Illness is a very important subject – and it is something that is worth talking about with others. Please share this little video and this blog post with people you know – once you do that it is as easy as saying “did you see that video“. Before you know it you will be having a chat about your mental health. . . . its as easy as that.
If you are struggling at the moment please don’t suffer in silence. Speak to someone, call your doctor or call Samaritans confidentially on 028 2565 0000. Please share this blog post and share the conversation about mental health in Ballymena.