Caring for a person in mental health crisis (2019)

The painting to the right demonstrates my own experience of a mental health crisis 2 years ago. When given this topic for World Mental Health Day on 10th October, I felt these images to be apt to illustrate my experience. The psychiatrist had recommended therapeutic painting, to convey the complex conflict of emotions from highs to lows that can be experienced in crisis. For me, my acute psychotic state involved periods of agitation with emotions ranging from euphoria to anger and—soon after the episode was over—a deep depression. This all happened over a relatively short period of time, perhaps a few weeks, but with a recovery that lasted 2 years, as the pieces were slowly put back together from the shattered puzzle that was my life at the time.

The different female depictions in the illustration represent different parts of my mind, and the fluorescent inks from darker purples to brighter yellows convey the sparks of different emotions that I went through at that time. I chose to illustrate this as many people in the UK will go through a crisis at some point in their lives and will require the attention from paramedic callouts. Anyone from any background or profession is at risk, and paramedics are vulnerable in particular (Mildenhall, 2012).