Have you ever imagined what mental illnesses would look like if it took the form of real life monsters? J.K. Rowling created Dementors to represent a dark time in her life; dealing with the death of her mother, who died of Multiple Sclerosis when Rowling was 20. Another person who visualizes what mental illness looks like is artist Toby Allen. Allen creates chilling pictures of the illness that no one can see, but comforts people on a daily basis.

Anxiety

“Anxiety is small enough to sit on its victim’s shoulder and whisper things in to their unconscious, eliciting fearful thoughts and irrational worries. The anxiety monster is often seen as weak in comparison to others, but it is one of the most common and is very hard to get rid of.They often carry small objects linked to their victim’s anxieties such as clocks which represent a common but irrational fear of things that might never happen. No one has ever seen the face of the anxiety monster for it always wears a skull as a mask.”

Social Anxiety

“The Social Anxiety monster spends most of its life underground or in secluded sheltered areas. Because of this their skin appears pale and anemic, apart from hard plates that serve as an unnecessary means of defense. They are from the same biological family as the anxiety and paranoia monsters but due to their extreme way of life they have evolved to look quite different.”

“The monster spends most of its time in hibernation but will project their auras into human hosts in the hope of living out the ordinary lives they can never have. In the process, the monster passes on its own anxieties to its victims so both monster and the human host similar irrational social fears and worries.”

Avoidant Personality Disorder

in size and prefers to be above ground. They spend most of their time

hiding in trees, using their leaf-like wings to camouflage and hide from

anyone or anything that is around them.”

“They have an unsightly appearance to ward off contact with other monsters, but are in fact gentle and kind creatures, having a delicate beauty about them that even the creature is mostly unaware of. They interact with their victims innocently, only wishing to be friendly, but they unintentionally pass off their own anxieties and fears to the victim, with contagious spores excreted from their tails.”

Borderline Personality Disorder

Schizophrenia

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Paranoia

Depression

“The Depression monster floats around endlessly, always covering his eyes to hide itself from the outside world. Because of this, it always bumps into people or other monsters causing more distress to itself each time. Its only relief is to wrap its fluid tail around a victim and share its depression with them. The victim is unaware of the monster but will register a heaviness and will develop a state of deep depression. Meanwhile the monster absorbs any positive emotions from its host until it has had its fill and moves onto another host.”

Allen gives many people an inside look of not only what mental illness is but also what they would look like if the took the form of real life monsters.

Check out more of the artist's work here.