8·
3 months agoIn (decending) order of importance:
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where do I park to sleep?
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where is the coffee shop?
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where is a gym that is not the dungeons of Planet Fitness?
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where is the Laundromat?
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where is a better coffee shop?
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where is a better Laundromat?
I once wrote a comic where one of the characters was my own anxiety.
The artwork was a skeleton, and the joke was he NEVER shut up. He would always fill the whole speech bubble, and then the whole panel. He would rant and rant until he crowded out everyone and everything else - and the other characters would have to literally talk OVER him.
The rub was - in order to write him, I had to ask myself what made me anxious. There was never enough to fill a whole panel. Ultimately, our anxiety is so small in scope its maybe enough for just a sentence…
By externalizing him, I gave him a format. By interviewing him, I gave him a voice. By making a joke out of him, I neutered him. And by serializing him, I made this process into a practice.
After practicing it - Axiety can no longer sneek up on me; he can no longer take over the conversation or steer my actions.
Anxiety becomes just a voice.
Just a voice, one that wants to keep the rest of me safe. And when he won’t shut up - I draw up a new cartoon, and marvel at how loud the fucker can be when he ultimately has so little to say.