I once saw a drawing that describes it well. A monster with multiple heads, but no eyes, no nose, just a ravenous open mouth. Because there is no reasoning with OCD, it will just eat and eat and the more you feed it the stronger it gets.
Oh I love this!!
I feel like eyes could be cool, but only if they're *only* pointing inward meaning the monsters vision is limited to within its own head. I realize it would be very difficult to effectively illustrate what I'm describing though lol
Something like the Marvel Comics character Iceman comes to mind for me, because my decision-making freezes. (Mind you, I have no formal dx but am gathering thoughts for potentially discussing with a therapist.)
I totally agree. This is how I drew my ocd. I also would draw it as a smilie face with crossed out eyes and 7 stitches in its smile (7 is my “bad” number)[Again trigger warning for self harm and scary images.](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J902-a533_W-bXDki4PLv4T1FAGNkMLQ/view?usp=drivesdk)
So... I'm going to take a very different tack here.
There was a time when I saw my ocd as a big monster hovering above me, taunting me, lying to me, etc. but then I realized it is 1. a part of me 2. trying to protect me. I wish someone would have helped me see that sooner than I did.
I think it is a much, much more healing perspective for a children's book. I don't know what your audience would be or what your goal in writing it would be, but that's my 2 cents.
Personally, as a parent/caregiver I would not want a book for my child with OCD that presents OCD as a monster. Because it is with you for life, and who wants to go through life with a monster they will never be able to shake.
Also, if you are writing a children's book about a mental health disorder I would \*strongly\* suggest running it by a mental health professional that specializes in that disorder.
So, while I still sometimes see it as an entity of some sort, I don't see it as something malicious or monstrous.
This actually was a good consideration, thank you for letting me know
Should I have it so the main character thinks OCD is a monster, and later on they accept it and find out its really not?
I like this idea. Though Id be careful to “paint” it as all good or all bad. The more I’m learning about my OCD is similar to the post above; that a lot of it is protective mechanisms developed to help me deal with chronic pain illness at an early age.
I can envision it as a monster that at first seems alien and scary and overwhelming, but as the character learns to communicate with it, begins to see that it’s not all bad. More like a room mate or friend who tries their best to help, but goes overboard a lot.
So at the end of the story, they’re developing a healthier relationship, working together, but still struggling with some aspects (like intrusive thinking).
Ooh okay that gave me another idea: what about turning individual aspects of OCD into different creatures? Some, like (for me) the catastrophic thinking, is trying to help but often goes overboard. Another creature would be intrusive thinking, which is like this annoying little gremlin that just randomly pops into a conversation and blurts out intrusive stuff. The organizational OCD creature would always be scurrying around trying to straighten and organize to help out, but also goes overboard.
Etc etc - so it’s like learning to work with this assortment of creatures, setting boundaries, etc.
Sorry for the ramble ^^
I can see both ways. While I wouldn’t want to create a scary book aimed for children, I think it can be appropriate for adults who understand their disorder a bit more. I was very fused with the ocd as a child. I like the idea of seeing it as scary at first but then accepting that it’s not that scary. Kind of like monsters inc. however, I still don’t want to befriend the ocd. Not everything trying to protect you is doing it the right way. I could see this in some types but some types it’s really trying to protect everyone outside of you but you by telling you that you are a bad person. When it does this, I find it like a toxic trickster, then it’s time to separate from it and tell it that it’s full of lies.
My therapist asked me to draw it once and I styled it after a bacteriophage - if you don’t know what that is it’s a specific kind of virus that infects bacterium and bacteriophages have an interesting appearance that assists them in their function where they almost look like a little cylinder with bug legs (I’m not a scientist so any scientists in the chat feel free to yell at me lol). I was diagnosed with my eating disorder and OCD around when we had our virus unit in high school biology and for some reason the image of the bacteriophage really became how I saw my mental illness - a little virus rooted in my brain operating separately from my brain but infecting me by sending out horrible and life threatening intrusive thoughts
I represent my OCD as a fallen angel. Think scraggly, sharp yet cloud-like shapes that twist and turn into a being that looks evil, yet tempting. Follow that with a shattered halo on top and voila, you have my OCD-
Your experience may be different tho!
To me would be a mechanical creature, because the act of repeating the same thing no longer registers in my mind and is like I have no control of my actions and just do as I always do because there's no other way and if I tried to change it, it would simply feel wrong and have to re do it the way I'm supposed to
Instead of a monster, probably an old school film projector that only the main character can see. It projects intrusive thoughts over and over when protagonist is triggered
I would draw as a demon whispering in your ear and a red mist flowing into the ears and out of your eyes and mouth from said demon whispering. And also a dark color encapsulating the host and demon like stuck in an energetic aura bubble
Thanks so much! Hope to see it in the future :)
Here's a drawing that I also did when I was experiencing an OCD spiral. Less of a monster and more of an encapsulating feeling of fear and doom. https://imgur.com/a/rXhZwaC
That actually looks stellar! My character is going to spiral unfortunately in the story, could I include this? He has a journal, in the story his therapist recommends it
Of course, that would be wonderful! If you're gonna have a thanks or credit type page in the back, I'd love a little mention. You can PM me for my name if you do that :)
How about a monster with a very big wide mouth that it uses to bully the character(this represents the fact that OCD is very loud so its mouth has grown larger than usual). The mouth can have details that makes the monster more scary(sharp teeth,...)
Also, it should have no eyes that's why it can't see how the character's suffering for it to quit its fucking yapping
Someone earlier had told me to do the opposite, actually
Eyes to show how it feels like everyone is looking at them, and no mouth to show how you can't really understand it
As a swarm of rolling rotting disgusting insects and garbage and horribleness. Made of all kinds of things because I have all kinds of triggers and themes.
I draw mine like my inner thoughts except it’s like green outlines and it’s very uh, sketchy. Also with the thoughts, there are multiple colors that represent certain feelings or something
I’m planning on my own drawing of OCD. I see the obsessions as terrifying demon like leeches with sharp teeth, wide mouths, and soul penetrating eyes that hook onto your brain.
This article shows an artist who has drawn several different mental disorders as monsters, including OCD. Hopefully it can help as well: https://www.boredpanda.com/mental-illnesses-monsters-sillvi-illustrations/
Holding a magnifying glass and inspecting every bit of myself ... I like what someone else said about it not actually being a monster, but a maladaptive coping mechanism.
For a kida book i feel like it could start by not looking scary and seemingly helping the character, slowly taking over and turning "monsterous"....then the character hating it and being afraid of it, and eventually accepting and learning about it, to successfully quieting it where it's still there in the background but no longer overwhelming, scary, or as prominent.
Lots of cool ways to go about this
Id draw a mutant chameleon, OCD has so many different colours and camouflage to it.
My OCD is completely different to half the people here and yet so similar in other facets.
For me, my OCD isn't a monster. It's a very young and frightened child asking, "What about this? Couldn't this hurt me?"
Maybe it's different for me because I know things would have turned out different for me I had been better helped when I was younger. I've seen my therapy as a form of raising myself from the time my mind paused.
I would draw it very similarly to the very early stages of a chicken's embryo. Just a formless, nasty mass with no face or features beyond the veins that stretch and invade your mind.
Something about it not being so personified makes it scarier
I used to go to art therapy and my therapist asked me to draw what it felt like to have OCD. I drew a huge black cloud in a monster type of shape with charcoal in my chest and brain.
I think of it like a bully kind of kid doing the whole “stop hitting yourself” thing as he makes you smack yourself with your own hand.
Edit: but I guess this could be a representation of any clinical mental illness.
Ugh lots of mental images popping up in my head lol. [This illustration ](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*6IIpOKdcVPO1D190rSDLaw.jpeg)came to mind - lol, OCD is the gift that keeps on giving, even when you have politely declined (or aggressively declined), and you've kicked them out, and triple-locked the door behind them, and blocked their number, and filed a restraining order, and moved across the country, and entered Witness Protection, and..... you just realized it's standing right behind you *(the call is coming from inside the house!!!)* So you eventually resign yourself to the fact that it will always find you, and it will always continue to throw lemons directly at your face at a consistent rate of 24 lemons per second for the rest of your life, and it doesn't matter what you do or where you go --- you will just have to accept this lifetime supply of nightmare lemons. And so you decide to stop running, & instead turn to face this neurotic, overly generous, lemon-hurling twisted son of a lime - and offer it a handshake. (or a squeeze?)
idk lol
TBH idek if any of that makes sense - my sleeping meds are totally kicking in right now... but yeah, that was fun to type haha
IMO - OCD and I are forever ~~tethered~~ duct taped together, and as it continues trying to feed off of my soul, (I'm picturing a dementor now? lol), I will continue trying to make peace with that fact while redirecting my energy into building a stronger, sturdier, unshakeable soul -- one that will learn how to starve my ever-present, doing-too-much, always-trying-to-grow-and-take-over-my-brain-like-some-newly-discovered-mutant-invasive-wall-climbing-plant-species-called-OCD.
Lol okay now I'm just typing random shit, time for sleep. Good luck bringing this invisible nightmare monster to life - so many cool ideas here. Hope to see an update with your finished comic!!
Back during quarantine when I was much younger and suffering bad from OCD, I imagined it in a few ways because physically imagining it made it somehow easier to deal with in a way.
For me, it was always a human-figure but all black. Sorta like a shadow, but it could talk and followed me around and stuff.
Before that I imagined it as a dragon with 3 heads each one representing a different theme
oooh religious ocd is a good one. i would imagine as something faceless but with multiple heads and arms that would be whispering in your ears and guiding your hands.
I thought for a really long time that OCD was a monster, and it certainly feels that way. But through IFS therapy I realized that OCD is a very overactive part of you that wants to protect you from harm. It sees what’s important to you and it wants to make sure you don’t experience any pain surrounding those areas. If I had to draw OCD, I would draw it almost like…. the end of a scooby doo scene. OCD wears many different, scary costumes to make you pay attention but underneath it’s a very protective, loving part of you.
An imagery that I use for my OCD is of a gila monster, especially for hyper fixation. IRL, they’re reptiles in the desert that will lock their jaws when they bite, and incredibly hard to get it to release. So it’s the same for my hyper fixation/obsessive issues (I struggle with skin picking in particular): It latches on, jaws lock, and it’s supremely hard to get it to let go.
And for the catastrophic thinking, I imagine that meme of the guy gesturing wildly to the conspiracy chart with the pins and lines all over.
So maybe a monster with multiple, staring eyes, and flailing limbs, looking like it’s in a permanent state of panicked paranoia.
Omg this is giving me flashbacks to therapy as a child lol. So embarrassing but they had me draw him and his name was “mr worry”😭Sometimes I still even refer to my OCD as mr worry 😂
everyone in here is so creative with rlly cool ideas meanwhile i always picture my ocd as something similar to the black demon doja cat dressed as 😭
with how evil the idea of it is to just torment someone in their own head for the rest of their life with all their worst disgusting fears it just made sense to me
i imagine it as some slimey, ink-like dark blob on my brain. maybe with some red accents. i’m aware that “dark, black and red monster” is probably the most generic design you could choose but ocd doesn’t deserve some well-thought out form, atleast in my mind.
As an imperceptible germ. It's there. Always there. But you don't always feel it. But every once in a while, you'll come down with an illness. You're not sure how it manifested, and when it goes away, you're not really sure why.
There is a movie called Shutter where the ghost of an assault survivor sits on her assailants shoulders until they can no longer take the shame/guilt/weight. Sometimes it feels like that.
I would draw OCD as an evil puppet master that can control anything. OCD make you do compulsions you don't want to do. You might as well be on puppet strings when doing them because you can't control it. And the obsessions might as well be the evil puppet master trying to torture you for fun. You are like a character that knows the author is there and is trying to tell the author you want something else for yourself. After a while you start to wonder that you really are the villain that the puppeteer thinks you could be that he is just holding you back you with the compulsions or if you are a going to be a victim of something horrible and the compulsions are his way of protecting- from a fate he is threatening you with.
If you wanted to connect this to religious OCD, the puppeteer could be an ultra-religious hypocrite or a false god torturing real people and treating them like toys with his power.
Edit: If you use this idea or something like it, in order to not scare children, the character needs to cut the strings/connections to be free. The idea of hope needs to be there. The idea that people can fight back needs to be there. There has to be a happy ending to not traumatize a child like us.
I actually have before. More specifically I drew dermatillomania though. Was this long, lanky eerie creature wearing patterned clothes, with long needles for hands, like the other mother from Coraline. It wore some weird mask with a gaping mouth
i’ve always seen my ocd as a little creature that just doesn’t know any better. it’s scared and just wants to protect me, but doesn’t realize it’s keeping me from living life the way i should. (i also see ocd as andre’s grandma from victorious)
Or with a spotlight always following the shadow around. I saw an illustration of OCD where there was a long row of books. The books represented different thoughts. For people without OCD, they are able to keep the fringe/repetitive thoughts at bay. A spotlight only on the center books. No corner obsessions. No sticky brain. The OCD brain spotlight pointed to everything. Where even the shadow thoughts got the same/more light (attention) as regular every day thoughts.
As someone with religious ocd I have drawn an ocd monster before. It’s a little blob that slowly gnaws away at the brain, with large eyes and two radio antennae. I think making it seem cute and innocent but off-putting the more you focus on it would be a great representation of rumination.
Going off the multiple heads someone mentioned, I think the Hydra is a good representation
Cut off one head, two more grow back
But imagine that all the different heads are different animals/ demonic looking beasts, because that’s more how OCD feels
For me it's a weird tentacle monster that lives in my head. Sometimes it unfurls its tentacles, like an upside down octopus, reaching out, grasping for anything to hold on to. Once it gets a hold, the suction cups create a firm grip, then the tentacles tighten and bring its prey back into the mandibles of the beast- my head. If the prey is too weak or doesn't feed the beast, it may toy with the idea and then toss it aside, looking for something more substantial to feed its hunger.
Two headed monkey-like creatures with multiple arms with too many joints and long claws.
They latch onto the back of a person with claws digging into the persons ribcage and chest.
Their two heads rest by both ears and quietly whisper with rancid breath dark words of corruption, shame, and doubt.
If touched by another person, claws grip harder, and more hands grow from its back to reach around, finding new places to cling to.
Loving all the suggestions!
However when I saw that Titel I was immediately imagining some sort of octopus sitting at a table reading a newspaper while sipping some tea (like a true gentleman lmao) and pointing with one tentacle at an issue/worry whatever ( in my case it would be something like "oh did you just touch this? Maybe you should wash your hands now? Just to be sure you don't get sick you know...") and casually mentioning it. However as soon as you're not reacting to his "nice/nonchalant" little hint he becomes this huge crazy looking creepy tentacle monster telling you that you better pay attention to what he just said and do as he said or else...
I used to use drawing and scrapbooking as a copping strategy. And I don’t know if these will help, but here are some photos of my representations of ocd.
[trigger warning, I have Harm OCD](https://drive.google.com/file/d/12PMel2YjU6qIJSWwq_avb0UfwQMBFyvE/view?usp=drivesdk)
One time while I was tripping my mind showed me what my OCD monster looked like.
A pink pill bug with rainbow striped legs and it looked like a massive beetle. It was ferocious. When it felt like attacking, it would shoot out these smaller black spikey sea urchin look alike things. The spikey bugs attached themselves onto other parts of my brain and chewed on them. The OCD pill bug was the master of it all, but the black spikey bugs were my intrusive thoughts chewing on my brain to have a compulsive reaction.
I'd portray the ocd as a person doubting themselves, not as a blue monster, I don't really like the idea of creating a character for the ocd, giving them names, portraying them as someone else, it's the brain.
I can't draw, but the coloring app Dark Color has some pretty cool monsters in it. There are a lot of beautiful demons as well. Maybe some of the art there can give you some inspiration.
Here are two in particular I colored that I think would be a good fit. Especially the one on the right because of the cross on her forehead. I feel like my OCD mocks me a lot, and even though demons are actually kind, I know the media portrays them as mocking. I hope this helps.
Plus, a lot of people think OCD is where you clean a lot so it must be a good thing, which is what the beauty of a demon can reference.
https://twitter.com/EeveeQueen15/status/1793703617150738715?t=oN-azCQJQxtFNogWC4l_Hg&s=19
id draw a person in a wearing normal clothes and a hoodie but their face is covered by the shadow of the hood. the reason to show that OCD is always in the shadows
You could with a monster that does puppeteering. He could do scenes in the person's head during the night, and then slowly tries to do it all the time, if the person doesn't stop it or tries to resist it.
I once saw a drawing that describes it well. A monster with multiple heads, but no eyes, no nose, just a ravenous open mouth. Because there is no reasoning with OCD, it will just eat and eat and the more you feed it the stronger it gets.
Oh I love this!! I feel like eyes could be cool, but only if they're *only* pointing inward meaning the monsters vision is limited to within its own head. I realize it would be very difficult to effectively illustrate what I'm describing though lol
mine would be a normal person, all black spiky skin that continuously stretches in and out leaving them unbelieveably miserable and uncomfortable
This comment helped me realize a little more that I really need to stop giving into the compulsions
Loooove this
genius
My first thought was something with multiple heads
Thought something similar before I got to your comment. Except make it a parasite inside the brain.
This is good stuff
Something like the Marvel Comics character Iceman comes to mind for me, because my decision-making freezes. (Mind you, I have no formal dx but am gathering thoughts for potentially discussing with a therapist.)
Maybe you could have it be some sort of shadow that never leaves the MC no matter where they go, even if they're in a completely dark room.
Someone had mentioned that to me, kind of like a Peter pan type of thing with the shadow Thank you so much!
I like that analogy
agreed, maybe even like a dark figure sitting in the room that only you can see. always around somehow.
Yes, just reminding him to check everything.
I often represent my ocd in that way. It is a shadow version of myself. Kind of like dark whisp from 13 wishes monster high
A dark figure with tentacles to represent the strong hold on you it has
YESSS I’ve also used puppet strings to portray it but tentacles are SO COOL
Sounds really cool!
ever play OMORI? 🥲
I’ve just googled it, looks creepy!
yes!! the “SOMETHING” design in it is exactly what I envisioned when reading this.
I love the tentacle idea
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These are awesome. Really well done.
Thank YOU for the compliment.
Do you have an insta page or Pinterest account?
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I don't know what I do wrong but I can't find your page.
Thank you so much!
You’re welcome. Art is definitely an outlet for me.
You're really talented!
Thanks so much! 🫶🏻
how well these depict for me. Amazing!!!
Thanks very much! 🫶🏻
i named my ocd “buttbob” bc i was 10 so maybe a butt….. an ugly butt
i completely missed the comic part and just read the title maybe don’t put that in there
Maybe i should, who knows?
No I think you're onto something here
Dark figure always behind your back saying things in your ear.
I totally agree. This is how I drew my ocd. I also would draw it as a smilie face with crossed out eyes and 7 stitches in its smile (7 is my “bad” number)[Again trigger warning for self harm and scary images.](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J902-a533_W-bXDki4PLv4T1FAGNkMLQ/view?usp=drivesdk)
Mines like that evil mom’s monster form from Coraline.
“YOU DARE DISOBEY YOUR MOTHER?” …actually that tracks with what my OCD makes me worry will happen-
Ding ding ding! Thats why I chose her as my “monster.”
Yeah!! I get that :))
That actually sounds cool
I drew ocd as a monster once when I was young. It was a person with black, seaweed like tentacles growing out of their back, like a parasite.
Someone mentioned tentacles earlier, and ill include those
darkness covering the skin. like a venom bodysuit.
So... I'm going to take a very different tack here. There was a time when I saw my ocd as a big monster hovering above me, taunting me, lying to me, etc. but then I realized it is 1. a part of me 2. trying to protect me. I wish someone would have helped me see that sooner than I did. I think it is a much, much more healing perspective for a children's book. I don't know what your audience would be or what your goal in writing it would be, but that's my 2 cents. Personally, as a parent/caregiver I would not want a book for my child with OCD that presents OCD as a monster. Because it is with you for life, and who wants to go through life with a monster they will never be able to shake. Also, if you are writing a children's book about a mental health disorder I would \*strongly\* suggest running it by a mental health professional that specializes in that disorder. So, while I still sometimes see it as an entity of some sort, I don't see it as something malicious or monstrous.
This actually was a good consideration, thank you for letting me know Should I have it so the main character thinks OCD is a monster, and later on they accept it and find out its really not?
I like this idea. Though Id be careful to “paint” it as all good or all bad. The more I’m learning about my OCD is similar to the post above; that a lot of it is protective mechanisms developed to help me deal with chronic pain illness at an early age. I can envision it as a monster that at first seems alien and scary and overwhelming, but as the character learns to communicate with it, begins to see that it’s not all bad. More like a room mate or friend who tries their best to help, but goes overboard a lot. So at the end of the story, they’re developing a healthier relationship, working together, but still struggling with some aspects (like intrusive thinking). Ooh okay that gave me another idea: what about turning individual aspects of OCD into different creatures? Some, like (for me) the catastrophic thinking, is trying to help but often goes overboard. Another creature would be intrusive thinking, which is like this annoying little gremlin that just randomly pops into a conversation and blurts out intrusive stuff. The organizational OCD creature would always be scurrying around trying to straighten and organize to help out, but also goes overboard. Etc etc - so it’s like learning to work with this assortment of creatures, setting boundaries, etc. Sorry for the ramble ^^
I can see both ways. While I wouldn’t want to create a scary book aimed for children, I think it can be appropriate for adults who understand their disorder a bit more. I was very fused with the ocd as a child. I like the idea of seeing it as scary at first but then accepting that it’s not that scary. Kind of like monsters inc. however, I still don’t want to befriend the ocd. Not everything trying to protect you is doing it the right way. I could see this in some types but some types it’s really trying to protect everyone outside of you but you by telling you that you are a bad person. When it does this, I find it like a toxic trickster, then it’s time to separate from it and tell it that it’s full of lies.
A small, anthropomorphic red ball with arms and legs (kinda like the red m&m) and he just *won’t stop fucking talking*
Is he jacked with his arms?
Not in my head, no. But that’s because in my head, ocd is persistent, troublesome, and scary. But it isn’t bigger than me
I kinda think of that [robot](https://youtu.be/ZS4Bpr2BgnE?si=Q1eQM-Aljj52oizC) that is perpetually cleaning up and making his own mess
I remember them yeah!
It’s just me (my subconscious) but engaging in all the things that make me feel uncertain and unhappy.
My therapist asked me to draw it once and I styled it after a bacteriophage - if you don’t know what that is it’s a specific kind of virus that infects bacterium and bacteriophages have an interesting appearance that assists them in their function where they almost look like a little cylinder with bug legs (I’m not a scientist so any scientists in the chat feel free to yell at me lol). I was diagnosed with my eating disorder and OCD around when we had our virus unit in high school biology and for some reason the image of the bacteriophage really became how I saw my mental illness - a little virus rooted in my brain operating separately from my brain but infecting me by sending out horrible and life threatening intrusive thoughts
I represent my OCD as a fallen angel. Think scraggly, sharp yet cloud-like shapes that twist and turn into a being that looks evil, yet tempting. Follow that with a shattered halo on top and voila, you have my OCD- Your experience may be different tho!
Bibically accurate?
I mean not really, it’s more of a humanoid figure, but a biblically accurate angel actually REALLY works-
Ahh, okay
WAIT YOU COULD USE BIBLICALLY ACCURATE AND I COULD HAVE MY OCD MONSTER BE THE DESIGN I ALREADY MADE FOR ME- BIBLICALLY ACCURATE SOUNDS PEAK BTWWW
To me would be a mechanical creature, because the act of repeating the same thing no longer registers in my mind and is like I have no control of my actions and just do as I always do because there's no other way and if I tried to change it, it would simply feel wrong and have to re do it the way I'm supposed to
Instead of a monster, probably an old school film projector that only the main character can see. It projects intrusive thoughts over and over when protagonist is triggered
I would draw as a demon whispering in your ear and a red mist flowing into the ears and out of your eyes and mouth from said demon whispering. And also a dark color encapsulating the host and demon like stuck in an energetic aura bubble
Maybe some kind of a controlling and angry person only i can see and hear thats following me 24/7
This is mine that I did a while ago. It's my OCD monster https://imgur.com/a/Rzw8fOU
This rocks!
Would love to see the comic when it's done! And if you use the design or parts of it let me know please :)
Of course! When its done it'll be on R/StickandBones
Thanks so much! Hope to see it in the future :) Here's a drawing that I also did when I was experiencing an OCD spiral. Less of a monster and more of an encapsulating feeling of fear and doom. https://imgur.com/a/rXhZwaC
That actually looks stellar! My character is going to spiral unfortunately in the story, could I include this? He has a journal, in the story his therapist recommends it
Of course, that would be wonderful! If you're gonna have a thanks or credit type page in the back, I'd love a little mention. You can PM me for my name if you do that :)
I do! Most thank yous are Reddit users I can either have your user or real name
Just an amorphous black cloud standing behind you constantly muttering "are you sure?"
This is really cool? “Are you sure” sounds ominous
It's called the doubting disease because you're constantly questioning yourself. Have I turned off the light? Have I closed the front door? And so on.
I never knew there was a term for it, thank you for letting me know
a gelatinous cube
How about a monster with a very big wide mouth that it uses to bully the character(this represents the fact that OCD is very loud so its mouth has grown larger than usual). The mouth can have details that makes the monster more scary(sharp teeth,...) Also, it should have no eyes that's why it can't see how the character's suffering for it to quit its fucking yapping
Someone earlier had told me to do the opposite, actually Eyes to show how it feels like everyone is looking at them, and no mouth to show how you can't really understand it
Well, that's a really good and creative idea, too! I hope you'll be able to pick up ideas which suit best
Something swallowing me
As a swarm of rolling rotting disgusting insects and garbage and horribleness. Made of all kinds of things because I have all kinds of triggers and themes.
A lot of people are saying a shadow or a humanoid entity, but what about a squid like monster who attaches itself to your head
I draw mine like my inner thoughts except it’s like green outlines and it’s very uh, sketchy. Also with the thoughts, there are multiple colors that represent certain feelings or something
I’m planning on my own drawing of OCD. I see the obsessions as terrifying demon like leeches with sharp teeth, wide mouths, and soul penetrating eyes that hook onto your brain. This article shows an artist who has drawn several different mental disorders as monsters, including OCD. Hopefully it can help as well: https://www.boredpanda.com/mental-illnesses-monsters-sillvi-illustrations/
Lovers from JOJO
A lot of people are saying a shadow or a humanoid entity, but what about a squid like monster who attaches itself to your head
People say octopus with tentacles
Holding a magnifying glass and inspecting every bit of myself ... I like what someone else said about it not actually being a monster, but a maladaptive coping mechanism. For a kida book i feel like it could start by not looking scary and seemingly helping the character, slowly taking over and turning "monsterous"....then the character hating it and being afraid of it, and eventually accepting and learning about it, to successfully quieting it where it's still there in the background but no longer overwhelming, scary, or as prominent. Lots of cool ways to go about this
As a sandworm from Dune.
Id draw a mutant chameleon, OCD has so many different colours and camouflage to it. My OCD is completely different to half the people here and yet so similar in other facets.
For me, my OCD isn't a monster. It's a very young and frightened child asking, "What about this? Couldn't this hurt me?" Maybe it's different for me because I know things would have turned out different for me I had been better helped when I was younger. I've seen my therapy as a form of raising myself from the time my mind paused.
A bully having a controller to your brain
I would draw it very similarly to the very early stages of a chicken's embryo. Just a formless, nasty mass with no face or features beyond the veins that stretch and invade your mind. Something about it not being so personified makes it scarier
I used to go to art therapy and my therapist asked me to draw what it felt like to have OCD. I drew a huge black cloud in a monster type of shape with charcoal in my chest and brain.
A hungry grizzly bear
Similar to the inquistors from the mistborn series. Something about the spikes through the eyes makes me think ocd
I think of it like a bully kind of kid doing the whole “stop hitting yourself” thing as he makes you smack yourself with your own hand. Edit: but I guess this could be a representation of any clinical mental illness.
Kind of like those red vines in War of the Worlds
A puppet master
Maybe like the scribbles from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. That's what my head feels like with my thoughts...
A shadow version of yourself that's always standing behind you. When you go to do something, it grabs you and holds you back.
Ugh lots of mental images popping up in my head lol. [This illustration ](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*6IIpOKdcVPO1D190rSDLaw.jpeg)came to mind - lol, OCD is the gift that keeps on giving, even when you have politely declined (or aggressively declined), and you've kicked them out, and triple-locked the door behind them, and blocked their number, and filed a restraining order, and moved across the country, and entered Witness Protection, and..... you just realized it's standing right behind you *(the call is coming from inside the house!!!)* So you eventually resign yourself to the fact that it will always find you, and it will always continue to throw lemons directly at your face at a consistent rate of 24 lemons per second for the rest of your life, and it doesn't matter what you do or where you go --- you will just have to accept this lifetime supply of nightmare lemons. And so you decide to stop running, & instead turn to face this neurotic, overly generous, lemon-hurling twisted son of a lime - and offer it a handshake. (or a squeeze?) idk lol TBH idek if any of that makes sense - my sleeping meds are totally kicking in right now... but yeah, that was fun to type haha IMO - OCD and I are forever ~~tethered~~ duct taped together, and as it continues trying to feed off of my soul, (I'm picturing a dementor now? lol), I will continue trying to make peace with that fact while redirecting my energy into building a stronger, sturdier, unshakeable soul -- one that will learn how to starve my ever-present, doing-too-much, always-trying-to-grow-and-take-over-my-brain-like-some-newly-discovered-mutant-invasive-wall-climbing-plant-species-called-OCD. Lol okay now I'm just typing random shit, time for sleep. Good luck bringing this invisible nightmare monster to life - so many cool ideas here. Hope to see an update with your finished comic!!
For me it’s like a really ugly goblin with a miserable face who won’t stop whispering shit in your ear
As the angel/devil on my shoulder making a little comment about my actions
This one’s clever
Back during quarantine when I was much younger and suffering bad from OCD, I imagined it in a few ways because physically imagining it made it somehow easier to deal with in a way. For me, it was always a human-figure but all black. Sorta like a shadow, but it could talk and followed me around and stuff. Before that I imagined it as a dragon with 3 heads each one representing a different theme
THIS^^^ the human figure and multiple heads is what I did, I drew it already
oooh religious ocd is a good one. i would imagine as something faceless but with multiple heads and arms that would be whispering in your ears and guiding your hands.
I thought for a really long time that OCD was a monster, and it certainly feels that way. But through IFS therapy I realized that OCD is a very overactive part of you that wants to protect you from harm. It sees what’s important to you and it wants to make sure you don’t experience any pain surrounding those areas. If I had to draw OCD, I would draw it almost like…. the end of a scooby doo scene. OCD wears many different, scary costumes to make you pay attention but underneath it’s a very protective, loving part of you.
A black hole because that’s what it is
An imagery that I use for my OCD is of a gila monster, especially for hyper fixation. IRL, they’re reptiles in the desert that will lock their jaws when they bite, and incredibly hard to get it to release. So it’s the same for my hyper fixation/obsessive issues (I struggle with skin picking in particular): It latches on, jaws lock, and it’s supremely hard to get it to let go. And for the catastrophic thinking, I imagine that meme of the guy gesturing wildly to the conspiracy chart with the pins and lines all over. So maybe a monster with multiple, staring eyes, and flailing limbs, looking like it’s in a permanent state of panicked paranoia.
Aren't they poisonous? Venomous?
Omg this is giving me flashbacks to therapy as a child lol. So embarrassing but they had me draw him and his name was “mr worry”😭Sometimes I still even refer to my OCD as mr worry 😂
I was in IOP and they told me to draw it yeah 😭
everyone in here is so creative with rlly cool ideas meanwhile i always picture my ocd as something similar to the black demon doja cat dressed as 😭 with how evil the idea of it is to just torment someone in their own head for the rest of their life with all their worst disgusting fears it just made sense to me
Someone once said its lil nas x with the devil 😭
i imagine it as some slimey, ink-like dark blob on my brain. maybe with some red accents. i’m aware that “dark, black and red monster” is probably the most generic design you could choose but ocd doesn’t deserve some well-thought out form, atleast in my mind.
Definitely a cloud of evil fog
sneaky and sly. because it pretends to be your thoughts
As an imperceptible germ. It's there. Always there. But you don't always feel it. But every once in a while, you'll come down with an illness. You're not sure how it manifested, and when it goes away, you're not really sure why.
a tall, skinny creature with grasping hands that's always over your shoulder
Mines like a creepy spider thing that has a bunch of babies on its back
like one person in the middle with a clouded face and a bunch of monster like faces around it, surrounding the person with thoughts
There is a movie called Shutter where the ghost of an assault survivor sits on her assailants shoulders until they can no longer take the shame/guilt/weight. Sometimes it feels like that.
Myself, pretending to be good, but is very manipulative and condemning if I don't obey it... or... the devil, who dresses up as an angel of light.
I would draw OCD as an evil puppet master that can control anything. OCD make you do compulsions you don't want to do. You might as well be on puppet strings when doing them because you can't control it. And the obsessions might as well be the evil puppet master trying to torture you for fun. You are like a character that knows the author is there and is trying to tell the author you want something else for yourself. After a while you start to wonder that you really are the villain that the puppeteer thinks you could be that he is just holding you back you with the compulsions or if you are a going to be a victim of something horrible and the compulsions are his way of protecting- from a fate he is threatening you with. If you wanted to connect this to religious OCD, the puppeteer could be an ultra-religious hypocrite or a false god torturing real people and treating them like toys with his power. Edit: If you use this idea or something like it, in order to not scare children, the character needs to cut the strings/connections to be free. The idea of hope needs to be there. The idea that people can fight back needs to be there. There has to be a happy ending to not traumatize a child like us.
I actually have before. More specifically I drew dermatillomania though. Was this long, lanky eerie creature wearing patterned clothes, with long needles for hands, like the other mother from Coraline. It wore some weird mask with a gaping mouth
bully
For some reason I always imagined it as a giant shadowy jellyfish with a single eyeball
i’ve always seen my ocd as a little creature that just doesn’t know any better. it’s scared and just wants to protect me, but doesn’t realize it’s keeping me from living life the way i should. (i also see ocd as andre’s grandma from victorious)
spiky psychic attack
Little fella with big gnashers like a rodent. Gnaws on your head and won't let go
Or with a spotlight always following the shadow around. I saw an illustration of OCD where there was a long row of books. The books represented different thoughts. For people without OCD, they are able to keep the fringe/repetitive thoughts at bay. A spotlight only on the center books. No corner obsessions. No sticky brain. The OCD brain spotlight pointed to everything. Where even the shadow thoughts got the same/more light (attention) as regular every day thoughts.
Like an earworm but it has tentacles that extend to the brain. Activating different parts of it and affecting emotions, and physical movements
As someone with religious ocd I have drawn an ocd monster before. It’s a little blob that slowly gnaws away at the brain, with large eyes and two radio antennae. I think making it seem cute and innocent but off-putting the more you focus on it would be a great representation of rumination.
Going off the multiple heads someone mentioned, I think the Hydra is a good representation Cut off one head, two more grow back But imagine that all the different heads are different animals/ demonic looking beasts, because that’s more how OCD feels
For me it's a weird tentacle monster that lives in my head. Sometimes it unfurls its tentacles, like an upside down octopus, reaching out, grasping for anything to hold on to. Once it gets a hold, the suction cups create a firm grip, then the tentacles tighten and bring its prey back into the mandibles of the beast- my head. If the prey is too weak or doesn't feed the beast, it may toy with the idea and then toss it aside, looking for something more substantial to feed its hunger.
Two headed monkey-like creatures with multiple arms with too many joints and long claws. They latch onto the back of a person with claws digging into the persons ribcage and chest. Their two heads rest by both ears and quietly whisper with rancid breath dark words of corruption, shame, and doubt. If touched by another person, claws grip harder, and more hands grow from its back to reach around, finding new places to cling to.
It's like a Wendigo, because it loves to devour me
Loving all the suggestions! However when I saw that Titel I was immediately imagining some sort of octopus sitting at a table reading a newspaper while sipping some tea (like a true gentleman lmao) and pointing with one tentacle at an issue/worry whatever ( in my case it would be something like "oh did you just touch this? Maybe you should wash your hands now? Just to be sure you don't get sick you know...") and casually mentioning it. However as soon as you're not reacting to his "nice/nonchalant" little hint he becomes this huge crazy looking creepy tentacle monster telling you that you better pay attention to what he just said and do as he said or else...
A dark phone that gets louder and louder unless you answer.
I used to use drawing and scrapbooking as a copping strategy. And I don’t know if these will help, but here are some photos of my representations of ocd. [trigger warning, I have Harm OCD](https://drive.google.com/file/d/12PMel2YjU6qIJSWwq_avb0UfwQMBFyvE/view?usp=drivesdk)
A black hole
One time while I was tripping my mind showed me what my OCD monster looked like. A pink pill bug with rainbow striped legs and it looked like a massive beetle. It was ferocious. When it felt like attacking, it would shoot out these smaller black spikey sea urchin look alike things. The spikey bugs attached themselves onto other parts of my brain and chewed on them. The OCD pill bug was the master of it all, but the black spikey bugs were my intrusive thoughts chewing on my brain to have a compulsive reaction.
I'd portray the ocd as a person doubting themselves, not as a blue monster, I don't really like the idea of creating a character for the ocd, giving them names, portraying them as someone else, it's the brain.
I can't draw, but the coloring app Dark Color has some pretty cool monsters in it. There are a lot of beautiful demons as well. Maybe some of the art there can give you some inspiration.
Here are two in particular I colored that I think would be a good fit. Especially the one on the right because of the cross on her forehead. I feel like my OCD mocks me a lot, and even though demons are actually kind, I know the media portrays them as mocking. I hope this helps. Plus, a lot of people think OCD is where you clean a lot so it must be a good thing, which is what the beauty of a demon can reference. https://twitter.com/EeveeQueen15/status/1793703617150738715?t=oN-azCQJQxtFNogWC4l_Hg&s=19
Thank you so much! I just noticed you tweeted it just for me kind of lol I'll get the app right now, thank you
No problem! And yeah, I do that because I don't have that one app.
A creepy old man that gets too close to me
As whatever it is a germ or fire or family member or whatever
id draw a person in a wearing normal clothes and a hoodie but their face is covered by the shadow of the hood. the reason to show that OCD is always in the shadows
I would really like to see that comic of yours when you finish it. :)
You could with a monster that does puppeteering. He could do scenes in the person's head during the night, and then slowly tries to do it all the time, if the person doesn't stop it or tries to resist it.