Anxiety can be debilitating at times. While we here at the Center for Effective Living encourage you to seek help for managing mental illnesses such as anxiety, we occasionally come across a human doing something interesting like turning anxiety into art. We wanted to share the story and photos of Monica Lazăr.
As Monica Lazăr shared with the Huffington Post: Social anxiety isn’t just feeling timid in front of a crowd. It makes almost every social interaction ― from work dinners to small talk in an elevator to holiday parties ― a debilitating experience filled with discomfort and fear.
Monica Lazăr, a Bucharest-based portrait photographer, understands these particular challenges all too well. She started experiencing symptoms of social anxiety ― also called social phobia ― at a young age. This meant dealing with crippling self-doubt and stress as early as middle school, she said.
An estimated 17 million children in the U.S. have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder like social anxiety, according to data.
“I remember avoiding others since childhood,” Lazăr, 31, told HuffPost. “As a kid, I chose to play alone rather than spend time with other children. I was always very self-conscious, permanently asking myself what others think about me.”
Lazăr channeled her experience into photography as an adult. Her art became an outlet and an escape from the symptoms she dealt with daily. Then, it unexpectedly turned into a tool that helped her manage her condition.
“Self-portraiture is a form of exposing myself to what I fear the most, interacting with people. … Many people started to interact with me, to ask questions about my work, or simply to communicate their kind and beautiful thoughts,” she said. “This was a constant exercise of overcoming my fear.”
Click here to view additional self-portraits.