Life is Still Worth Living, Mine Included is one of five paintings in the Thought Patterns collection, a series of mirrored butterfly works in watercolor exploring the mental process of healing: examining the thoughts that compose a depression spiral, and reframing them with compassion.

Please Note: There are words in the borders of these paintings that are meant to evoke through a first person narrative the experience of struggling with depression, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. The thought patterns in these pieces are pulled from journal entries of genuine depressive episodes. There are words of hope as well, but please be aware of the darker mood and content.

────────────────

“It’s all too much.

I am inconsequential. I shouldn’t be here.

Why can’t I let go.

How is it that even at my lowest, I still have the audacity to want things, to want more for myself.

Why am I like this? I hate myself.

I’m tired of existing. I want to shed my skin and burrow down into the earth.

I cannot survive this.”

“I am only human.

I won’t feel this way forever.

My brain is sick, I can’t listen to what it’s telling me right now. Life is still worth living, mine included. I will let myself exist without shame.

I will feel better.

I am capable.

My existence has purpose and meaning. I matter.”

────────────────

DETAILS

8 × 10 inches

Natural handmade watercolor on cotton paper

Signed and dated on the back