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Reveal Project

Aug 9, 2023 | YES Projects

Photo of a cardboard face mask decorated with multi-colour sections of paint separated by randomly painted black lines.

‘Reveal’ Project

York Ending Stigma Champions with lived experience of mental ill-health decided to decorate cardboard face masks to represent how they feel, and how they think, they present themselves, on the inside and out. Champions decorated their masks however they wanted to and some have provided a short explanation to go with their mask.

Below are a selection of some of the masks:

Champion Emma – “The inside of my mask shows what I always used to keep hidden, and what I often do still keep hidden. I hide because of self-stigma and stigma from other people. I’d like to be able to share more freely and for society to be accepting of all of me. I don’t want to feel that I have to hide; hiding makes me feel worse about myself. I’ve slowly started to show my inner world to certain people, in certain circumstances, but not everyone accepts what I reveal and that is difficult. Revealing more of the real me has had mixed impacts on my mental health and my life, some of which has been incredibly positive.”

Please wait a few moments to see Emma’s mask ‘reveal’:

Gif showing a decorated full face mask changing from the outside decorated with positive words and the inside with negative words.

Champion Hazel – Please wait a few moments to see Hazel’s mask ‘reveal’:

Gif of decorated full face mask transforming from positive words and qualities written on the outside, to extracts of journals written whilst Hazel was experiencing psychosis.

Champion Holly – “I can be appear calm, collected, and confident, and you’d never know how truly scared I feel. My anxieties are inconsistent, I can be fine one minute and the next my heart is racing and I feel sick. But still, you’d never know. I hide a lot of things, from a lot of people because I feel ashamed. I shouldn’t, but I do. Mental health stigma keeps us hidden, and it keeps us silent, and for me it keeps me unwell. I am learning to accept all parts of myself and maybe one day others will do, and we can take off our masks together and just be.” 

Carboard facemask decorated with stuck on words cut from magazines, including the words love, joy, happy, safe, perfect, warmth.

Champion Miles – Please wait a few moments to see Miles’ mask ‘reveal’:

A gif of a full face mask decorated on the outside with a person with a beard wearing glasses and with a furrowed forehead and the words don't enter here, revealing the inside of the mask with negative words and feelings.

Champion Tara – “The colours representing the many emotions and feelings that I experience on a daily if not hourly basis. It also represents what others see of me…bubbly, friendly, open, social. However, inside, this is not the case. The inside of the mask is empty- there is nothing. This is often the true me, the hidden me. Yet no one knows this is what I feel.”

Photo of a cardboard face mask decorated with multi-colour sections of paint separated by randomly painted black lines.

Champion Lauren

Inside of mask painted black and has words out of magazines stuck on; invisble, pain, helpful, anxious, treated differently, hurt, forgotten, fragile.

Cardboard mask painted purple and with words cut out of magazines and stuck on the front, including; under attack, lazy, wrong, damaged, battle, fear, laid back, intense, stress.

Champion Vicky

Front of cardboard mask painted white and decorated with cut out words from magazines which say; positive, confident, strong, brave, alive, living, laughing, smiling.

Inside of cardboard face mask painted black and decorated with cut out words from magazines including; anxiety, depression, stress, OCD, shame, trapped, suicidal, grief, tired, broken.

A Champion’s Poem – Masks for Life

Who is behind the mask, I thought I knew 

Which mask are you wearing I haven’t a clue 

For a long while I thought I could tell but then it changed 

After a break and time away the new one seemed strange 

 

Do we all wear masks I wonder why  

Sometimes they slip even though we try 

To keep them on and the effort becomes too hard  

Is the mask we hold made of iron or of card? 

 

I think we wear masks as we cannot show our true side  

Sometime things happen and it can make us want to hide.  

All I know it over time things changed 

Is it a new mask or an old one rearranged? 

 

I wear my mask to protect me from hurt  

Also my heart on the sleeve of my shirt 

Should we wear mask is a question to ask 

If we all didn’t it and were pure, it could be a blast  

 

By the Harlequin