The embodiment of trauma, psychological pain, self-harm, and borderline personality disorder – She is everything that is wrong with me, everything that destroyed my life as I had grown to know it. She is all of my suffering built up in one single characterization, all of me that needs to be healed and nurtured. She is the aftermath of complex childhood trauma that was never treated.

SYMBOLIC VALUES

🍓 Things the character symbolizes when present in an illustration. The Pain symbolizes my childhood trauma and borderline personality disorder; everything that is hurting within me.

ROLE IN STORY

🍓 The role the character plays in illustrations. Every time the Pain is present in illustrations, her role is to portray the effects of severe, prolonged, and neglected childhood trauma.She is there to remind you what happens when a kid is abused very badly, and no one is there to take care of them.

ASSIGNED SYMBOL

🍓 A symbol assigned to a character based on their values and other attributes. The Pain’s assigned symbol is INSTAGRAM POP-UP, because her original design with the self-harm scars proved to be an issue for my Instagram posting at the very beginning of the project.

ASSIGNED FOOD

🍓 A food item assigned to a character based on their character traits and symbolic values. The Pain’s food item is POMEGRANATE, because it is bright red, and the seeds of the fruit remind me of the layers of my own skin I have seen.

STATUS

🍓 An indication of whether the character is based on one single human being, a group of several people, or abstract concepts. The Pain’s status is ABSTRACT, because she is based on the concept of my trauma and BPD, not a real human being.