The Impostor Snail Cross Stitch Pattern for Mental Health Day.
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A week of cross stitch mental health monsters to celebrate World Mental Health Day on October 10th!
It's Mental Health Monsters Week! A whole week of free cross stitch designs to raise awareness of mental health around the world! I have never been shy about the fact that I have a chronic mental health problem with both depression and anxiety. Cross stitch was one of the things that really helped me during recovery from a really bad depressive episode. I have a complicated relationship with my brain. There are lots of monsters living up there that I have to wrangle and manage and have really awkward conversations with. Sometimes they even try to kill me.
Visualising some of my mental health issues as cute monsters that I can have a dialog with (and tell to shut up and fuck off) is a helpful tactic for me. These aren't aspects of my personality. They are separate from me and sometimes come to visit and make my life difficult. Learning to recognise them was hard and I have learned to deal with them when they pop up now and again.
Mental health awareness is an important cause and close to my heart. So many people suffer in silence because for some reason, what goes on in the brain that is attached to the rest of our body, is something to be more ashamed of than other diseases and disorders.
One in four people will have some sort of mental health issue at least once in their lives. Talk about your monsters. Get help. There are people out there who feel like you feel and can help you get better. You are not alone.
Today the free monster cross stitch pattern is The Impostor. I am sure that the concept of Fake It Til You Make It is familiar to most people. And I am a big believer in FITYMI. Not sure what you are doing? Well, just pretend that you do and that will actually give you the confidence to learn as much as you can as fast as you can. I'll let you in on a little secret here: NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING. We are all just faking it til we make it most of the time.
But sometimes it just doesn't work. In this free cross stitch pattern you have me (as my alter ego and spirit animal The Snail) on the left all happy and confident. And I can be genuinely happy and confident. And on the right is The Impostor. And that sad snail is wearing a literal mask of happy confidence while beneath the poor thing is absolutely miserable and anxious and terrified.
It's a funny one this one because the monster is actually me. And for people with anxiety and depression and other mental health issues this is a huge and horrible thing to comes to terms with: that there is something wrong, the way you feel isn't normal, and it feels like there is nothing you can do about it. People keep telling you to cheer up or grow up or (ugh this is the worst) "be a man". So you learn to hide it and put a face on and everyone thinks you are fine until one day you are at the bottom of a pit so deep and dark that you can't remember what light is.
Well... that escalated quickly...
Look, by now some of you are probably going "wtf is she talking about? what a downer!". But this is a reality for one quarter of us humans at some time in our lives. It is dark and serious and people die just like they do from cancer if it isn't caught soon enough. Mental health is a serious and difficult issue but it is getting easier for us to talk about it. So talk about it. To your friends, to your boss, to your kids. And listen. REALLY listen to the people around you. You'll soon know if they are actually fine or just putting mask on because they don't want to bother anyone with something they can't even explain to themselves.
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October Patreon Exclusive!
To celebrate last week's spooky free cross stitch is this Patreon exclusive cross stitch design of an anatomical heart on a Ouija board planchette. This design is an exclusive download for Patreon subscribers and it only costs $2 per month for three awesome cross stitch designs per month. These are big multi-page cross stitch patterns that come as PDF downloads.
Anatomical Heart Cross Stitch Pattern
September Patreon Cross Stitch Designs to Download
If you are a Patreon subscriber (only $2 per month for three unique and exclusive cross stitch patterns per month) all the September designs are available to download at Patreon.
Vegetable Sampler Cross Stitch Pattern
To celebrate the fall and a bountiful harvest, Patreon Patrons can download this sampler chock full of veggies! If you would like to have this cross stitch pattern, it's only $2 per month for three exclusive designs per month plus other digital goodies. Scroll down to find the subscription link. |
| Available Now |
Coffee Cross Stitch Design
To celebrate coffee week, Happy Friend Patreons can download this pop art inspired coffee sampler right now! If you would like to have this cross stitch pattern, it's only $2 per month for three exclusive designs per month plus other digital goodies. Scroll down to find the subscription link. |
| Available Now |
Galaxy Globe Cross Stitch Design!
At the beginning of September we spent some time in outer-space! And Patreon subscribers were able to download this great exclusive cross stitch design.
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| available now |
August Patreon Bonus Cross Stitch Designs Still Available. Click here to see all of the August Cross Stitch Designs.
Missed the last free cross stitch design? It was the red furry Rage Monster.
Make sure you check back tomorrow for the next free monster cross stitch pattern: The Happy Hooray Monster!
Other ways to support this free cross stitch site
Donate direct via paypal. Maybe there is a pattern on here that you really liked and downloaded and you thought it would have been something you would have bought in a shop. This a completely safe and secure link that is handled through paypal.Or buy something at my Redbubble site. Cross stitch style without all of the stitching. Like this galaxy cat throw cushion. You can get this design on lots of other great items too.
