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After each mass shooting of the last few years, a tidal wave of conversation occurs about the understanding mental illness washes over the public, but with the passing of Robin Williams who suffered from severe depression, there’s a different feeling in the air about the topic.

If you have or do live with mental illness or a loved one who has it, you know the stigma well — painfully well — so this new openness is hard to trust, hard to believe in.

We’d like to crack the door open a bit more, though, with this NPR interview with photographer John William Keedy, who has finally decided to share the pictures he uses to explain his reality of living with anxiety disorder.

Where did the title of the series — “It’s Hardly Noticeable” — come from?

The title actually came from something I wrote in one of my journals. At the time I was so convinced I was doing such a great job of concealing my anxiety, when really I wasn’t.

So it’s ironic, a little tongue-in-cheek. The images themselves are so theatrical, and over the top and not by any means subtle. But it’s like, ‘Don’t worry, it’s hardly noticeable.’

Was it hard to explain what anxiety feels like?

The idea of mental illness for those that haven’t experienced it firsthand is that it’s something purely psychological. But for me, a lot of it was physical. Trying to put that into words and describe what it felt like was difficult.

The photograph that’s the most personal and that makes me the most nervous is the one with the doorbell with the thumbtacks on it. When my anxiety was at its worst, I had this really conflicted relationship with other people.

I really wanted to be in contact with my friends and my family, but there was something physically just keeping me back from it. A friend would call, and I’d just stare at the phone. I’d really want to answer it, and I felt I couldn’t. There was something keeping me from doing that.

So the doorbell image really sums up that feeling. You know, the doorbells work, and the lights are on inside. But in order to use them, you have to go though this really physical pain.

Full story at NPR.

Understanding mental illness.

Photo credits: John William Keedy, Graphics credit: Canva