Butterfly Nebula
A Memoir on Anxiety
Butterfly Nebula: A Memoir on Anxiety is a sixteen page account of my experience and research with anxiety disorders. I use the Butterfly Nebula as a visual metaphor for anxiety.
"The Butterfly Nebula is a beautiful, expansive and colorful form that [seemingly] delicately graces outerspace with its presence. However, it is the complete opposite on the inside of the exploding star, with surface temperatures of up to 250, 000 C, and not to mention a dense cloud of never-ending dust." p. 2
"I entertained the idea of how, like the Butterfly Nebula, no one would ever really know what is going on, 'on the inside,' so to speak, because from the outside, everything is bright, colorful, and glowing. But in reality, there is chaos occuring on the inside - spinning, never-ending thoughts, panic, distress, anger, restlessness, disorientation, amongst a laundry list of other feelings...Visually, I like the way the Butterfly Nebula can be shown to people...this idea that from the outside, a person may look, for the most part, entirely normal, happy, and unburdened by their life, when in actuality, if you knew what inner battle was occuring inside, you would probably be a bit taken back." p. 6
