Creative therapy has long been considered a staple in the variable toolkit of therapies that are used to treat mental illnesses. One of the most common types of creative therapy is drawing and a lot of people who dwell in this kind of therapy often use mental health drawings to do it. Mental illness drawings are a good way to initiate a session of creative therapy, which is beneficial for treating mental issues such as schizophrenia and depression. Let’s talk about in the words below:
Creative Therapy
Creative expression is an important aspect of our lives. It is such a good one that it can be used to treat mental issues of any kind as expressing your thoughts via an artistic medium such as mental health drawings is considered to be therapeutic in a lot of ways, for example, it can help build relationships, help individuals who are participating in this kind of therapy learn more about themselves, providing a welcomed distraction from a recent handicap or chronic pain, or for providing general relaxation and empowerment (Uttley et al., 2015).
Creative therapies usually revolve around expression through different types of artistic mediums. Examples include:
Visual arts: This includes drawing (including mental health drawing) but is also complemented by painting, sculpting, and mixed media.
Movement: This can be things such as dance or improv.
Dramatics: Activities such as acting, storytelling, and role-playing are part of this category.
Music: Musical instruments, listening to music, and singing, all of these come under these.
Play materials: Examples of these include sand castles and other builds, water activities, dressing-up props, puppets, toys (e.g. lego), and art and craft supplies (like Play-Doh).
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Mental Illnesses in Drawings as Part of Creative Therapy
Now that you know what essentially is creative therapy, we should talk about how mental illness drawing plays an important role in providing a therapeutic outlet for people suffering from actual mental illnesses. Mental health drawing is an extremely introspective way to explore what’s actually going on in your mind or something that is battering down at you but you don’t fully understand it. Sometimes you don’t find the right words to put in a journal (which if you are able to do can also be extremely beneficial for treating a mental illness such as insomnia).
Drawings of mental illness can also be extremely good for calming an affected individual’s nervous system because you can get into a flow state (which means you get so absorbed into doing something that you forget other things that surround you or you are going through). This flow of state by itself is calming and brings peace to affected individuals, which is why mental health drawings are a powerful way to support one’s mental health.
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What Do Actual Artists Say About Mental Health Drawings?
A lot of times the subject matter of many artists is mental health drawings, and many of the well-known artists had self-mental disorders drawn to express their struggles with them as an expression. There are many artists who were painters by passion and work and suffered from mental illnesses and one of these was Vincent Van Gogh (one of the most painters/drawers) but he did write about his mental health in letters to his brother Theo. But there are also others who have not just suffered from mental illnesses but have also drawn them as mental health drawings.
Frida Kahlo is perhaps the most famous example of a traumatized artist, who was in a terrible bus accident and due to that she was mostly bed-ridden. She has extensively and vividly painted the trauma she felt when experiencing that event in her paintings and drawings.
Bryan Charnley, a British artist who creates self-portraits that vividly portray his experiences with schizophrenia is one of the many popular artists who indeed has been painting mental illness as drawings. Other painters such as Joshua Clarke and Missy Douglas are artists, who have been dwelling on mental health drawings and mental disorders drawings for a long time and are extremely popular for their work in terms of contemporary art.
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Flaws in Mental Health Drawings as Creative Therapy
While creative therapy via mental disorders drawings can be used to treat related issues, further research is needed regardless. This is because the study that refers to the positive effects of creative therapy also puts the spotlight on negative aspects associated with it such as overbearing anxiety, an increase in pain, and unresolved emotions coming due to creative therapy but keep in mind these negative effects erupted because the patients that were tested in this study were essentially also suffering from cancer not just mental issues, which is why more research is needed (Uttley et al., 2015).
In addition to that, art therapy like mental health drawings or creative therapy is rarely seen as a serious contender for a full-fledged treatment when compared to the likes of MAT and psychotherapy. Leaders in the field and the experts in modern therapy do not think it is a viable option even if the research suggests otherwise.
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Conclusion
If it is the treatment that you are looking for, then look no further than Solid Foundation Psychiatry as we are adept at providing general treatment and alternative methods such as telehealth psychiatry for treating mental health issues such as PTSD and ADHD. Give us a call today as we are waiting for you to start your recovery.