LibGuides: Graphic Medicine: Mental Health

Mental Health

What is mental health?

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.¹ Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

There are more that 200 mental health and behaviors identified with our brains.

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and MedLine Plus Health Topics

Graphic Novels about Mental Health

Realabilities by Christopher Gomez (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781667851518
Publication Date: 2022-07-28
"The series introduces a variety of mental health disorders in a sensitive, light and informative fashion. Dr. Nav, the school's dependable and insightful psychologist, offers creative and thought-provoking advice to her students. Equipped with her advice and their own ingenuity, the teens accomplish wonderful, and at times, unexpected feats. The series is an ideal way to teach mental health literacy in an informed and yet, appealing fashion." (amazon)
Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness by Clem Martini and Olivier Martini
Call Number: RC514 .M37 2010
ISBN: 9781551119281
Publication Date: 2010
"In 1976, Ben Martini was diagnosed with schizophrenia. A decade later, his brother Olivier was told he had the same disease. For the past thirty years the Martini family has struggled to comprehend and cope with a devastating illness, frustrated by a health care system lacking in resources and empathy, the imperfect science of medication, and the strain of mental illness on familial relationships. Throughout it all, Olivier, an accomplished visual artist, drew. His sketches, comic strips, and portraits document his experience with, and capture the essence of, this all too frequently misunderstood disease." (amazon)
Rx by Rachel Lindsay
Call Number: RC516 .L55 2018
ISBN: 9781455598540
Publication Date: 2018-09-04
"In her early twenties in New York City, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Rachel Lindsay takes a job in advertising in order to secure healthcare coverage for her treatment. But work takes a strange turn when she suddenly finds herself on the other side of the curtain, developing ads for an antidepressant drug. Day after day, she sees her own suffering in the ads she helps to create, trapped in an endless cycle of treatment, insurance and medication. Overwhelmed by the stress of her professional life and the self-scrutiny it inspires, she begins to destabilize and finds herself hospitalized against her will. In the ward, stripped of the little control over her life she felt she had, she struggles in the midst of doctors, nurses, patients and endless rules to find a path out of the hospital and this cycle of treatment. This is the author's story of being treated for a mental illness as a commodity and the often unavoidable choice between sanity and happiness."--Page 4 of cover
Tangles by Sarah Leavitt
Call Number: RC523 .L43 2012
ISBN: 9781616086398
Publication Date: 2012-05-01
"What do you do when your outspoken, passionate, and quick-witted mother starts fading into a forgetful, fearful woman? In this graphic memoir, the author reveals how Alzheimer's disease transformed her mother, and her family, forever. In spare black-and-white drawings accompanied by prose, the author shares her family's journey through a harrowing range of emotions - shock, denial, hope, anger, frustration - all the while learning to cope, and managing to find moments of happiness. This book confronts the complexity of Alzheimer's disease, and gradually opens a knot of moments, memories, and dreams to reveal a bond between a mother and a daughter that will never come apart"--Page 4 of cover
Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle
Call Number: PN6728.S768 P94 2019
ISBN: 9780062970701
Publication Date: 2019-11-19
"Straight from the mind of New York Times bestselling author Nathan W. Pyle, Strange Planet is an adorable and profound universe in pink, blue, green, and purple, based on the phenomenally popular Instagram of the same name! Strange Planet covers a full life cycle of the planet's inhabitants, including milestones such as: The Emergence Day, Being Gains a Sibling, the Being Family Attains a Beast." (worldcat)
Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby by Matthew Inman; The The Oatmeal
Call Number: PN6728.O28 I62 2019
ISBN: 9781524850623
Publication Date: 2019-06-04
"Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby is chockfull of comics about cats, babies, dogs, lasers, selfies, and pigeons!" (amazon)
Couch Fiction by Philippa Perry; Junko Graat; Andrew Samuels (Afterword by)
Call Number: RC480 .P47 2010
ISBN: 9780230252035
Publication Date: 2010-04-29
"What is it like to be a fly on a psychotherapist's wall? This compelling case study in the form of a graphic novel vividly explores therapy sessions as a search for understanding and truth. Told in a witty and thought-provoking manner, each engagingly illustrated scene is accompanied by deft commentary." (IUCAT)
Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham
Call Number: RC454.4 .C86 2011
ISBN: 9781608192786
Publication Date: 2011-02-19
"This book delves inside the mystery of mental disorders - presenting explanations and recollections using the cartoonist's own experiences as both a psychiatric and care nurse and as someone who himself has suffered from depression." (IUCAT)
Epileptic by David B.; Kim Thompson (Translator)
Call Number: PN6747.B15 A7813 2005
ISBN: 0375423184
Publication Date: 2005-01-04
"David B. spent an idyllic early childhood in a small town near Orléans, France, but the family's life changed abruptly when his big brother Jean-Christophe was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes, but every new cure ended in disappointment. Angry at his brother for "abandoning" him and at all the quacks who offered them false hope, the author learned to cope by drawing fantastically elaborate battle scenes, creating images that provide a window into his interior life, as well as reliving his grandfathers' experiences in both World Wars through flashbacks. An honest and horrifying portrait of the disease and of the pain and fear it sowed in the family, this graphic autobiography is also a moving depiction of one family's intricate history."--From publisher description.
Living with Viola by Rosena Fung
ISBN: 9781773215501
Publication Date: 2021-11-30
"Heartbreakingly honest and quietly funny, this graphic novel from a debut creator is a refreshingly real exploration of mental health, cultural differences, and the trials of middle school. Livy is already having trouble fitting in as the new girl at school--and then there's Viola. Viola is Livy's anxiety brought to life, a shadowy twin that only Livy can see or hear. Livy tries to push back against Viola's relentless judgment, but nothing seems to work until she strikes up new friendships at school. Livy hopes that Viola's days are numbered. But when tensions arise both at home and at school, Viola rears her head stronger than ever. Only when Livy learns how to ask for help and face her anxiety does she finally figure out living with Viola." (proquest)
Hardcore Anxiety : A Graphic Guide to Punk Rock and Mental Health by Reid Chancellor
ISBN: 9781621069768
Publication Date: 2019
"Punk rock and mental health have been intertwined since the very beginning. Nervous breakdowns, anxiety, seeking acceptance, attempting to overcome internalized demons, and reacting to harmful and oppressive systems—punk rock embodies and emboldens all our feelings and experiences, positive and negative. Hardcore Anxiety charts and tracks punk movements from the 70s till today, from small towns to stadiums, from the struggles in our heads to the people actively harming us in our communities. Told from the point of view of a young man discovering punk and working through mental illness in Evansville, Indiana, this stunning nonfiction graphic novel gives punks the most important advice of all:'You aren't alone. You're going to make it through alive.'"

Graphic Novels about Neuroscience

Hole in the Heart by Henny Beaumont
Call Number: RC571 .B43 2016
ISBN: 9780271077406
Publication Date: 2016-10-14
"A memoir, in graphic novel format, of the author's emotions and the challenges and decisions she faces in raising a child with Down syndrome"-- Provided by publisher
Barely Functional Adult by Meichi Ng
Call Number: PN6733.N58 B37 2020
ISBN: 9780062945594
Publication Date: 2020-11-24
"... a hilarious and poignant [autobiographical] collection of beautifully illustrated short stories that perfectly captures the best and worst of adult life and the joy, terror, fun, and pain that comes with learning to navigate its complexities and conundrums"--Back cover

Resources for Mental Health

IU Southeast CAPS

(Counseling and Psychological Services)

Our services are available to all students (part or full time) at no fee.

Our counselors are all professionally trained and have specific skills related to work with college students. The Director of Counseling and Psychological Services holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology and is licensed by the state of Indiana as a Health Services Provider. The Counselor/Care Manager is a licensed clinical social worker who provides both mental health counseling and referrals for resource assistance, e.g., food, housing, health care, etc. Our staff also includes master level and doctoral level graduate students from local universities.
Make an appointment

Students may schedule virtual visits with a counselor by calling 812-941-2244 or emailing sepersco@ius.edu.

For students in a mental health crisis, please contact IU Southeast Police Department at 812-941-2400 or the Regional Crisis and Information Line (24 Hours) at 800-221-0446.