'˜It helps people experiencing these feelings to know they are not alone'

A local photographer, Debbie Deboo, from Balliderry just outside Lisburn and one of her models, Felicity McKee from Armagh, both struggle with mental health issues and decided to use their creative talents to generate photographs to depict how living with mental health concerns can feel every day.

Debbie is a renowned photographer in Northern Ireland and Felicity is one of her regular models, especially when it comes to the more creative photo shoots.

They have been collaborating for three years and have an excellent creative partnership, producing some remarkable imagery. Both Debbie and Felicity suffer from chronic ill-health and Debbie is registered disabled with one of her conditions, ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) which causes catastrophic systemic exhaustion and pain.

Debbie can only do photography, therefore, when her health allows, and her profound ill-health has an enormous and debilitating effect on her mental wellbeing as well.

Felicity spends a substantial amount of time in hospital due to her eating disorder and mental health issues.

This means that they really have to make the most of every opportunity when they are both available and well enough to work together.

Inevitably, because of their major health concerns, Debbie and Felicity have to seek the support of medical services on an all too regular basis.

“At the start of one creative shoot we were discussing our common frustrations with getting access to effective medical support and the lack of care in Northern Ireland for mental health issues,” explained Debbie.

Debbie and Felicity’s shoots develop organically, with little overall idea at the start as to where things are going to go, electing instead to simply talk, discuss ideas and challenge one another for inspiration.

“For this shoot I asked Felicity to consider recent incidents when she had felt belittled or overlooked by the health services, as this inevitably draws out a lot of difficult emotions,” continued Debbie.

“This led to us creatively exploring how these deeply felt feelings and experiences would manifest visually and the photoshoot proved to be a very rewarding experience for us both, but also exhausting and very demanding.

“It was dramatic, intense and at times shocking as we discussed and then expressed how we had felt lost, stressed and in despair at trying to find someone, anyone in the professional care service who was prepared to take our needs seriously.

“We sought to articulate through imagery the difficulty of communicating one’s inner rage at the suffering endured and the added burden of not receiving the help we so desperately wanted and needed.

“We both believe that the pictures that came out of that shoot speak for themselves, and one lady who has seen these images contacted me to thank me for offering something that spoke so eloquently to her about her own experiences.”

Debbie and Felicity want the photographs to help people feel able to discuss mental health issues openly and with confidence, and to feel empowered to lobby and advocate for better help within the health services for those who require mental health support.

“Whilst there has, of late, been more discussion around this at the highest levels of government and health care, there is still much, much more that has to be done - better funding, more expertise and above all more understanding of what patient’s really need,” Debbie added.

Felicity found the photoshoot very therapeutic and hopes that it will help others who are experiencing mental health issues to realise they are not alone,

“I have battled mental illness for most of my life, initially being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” explained Felicity. “This has developed further and seen me deal with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder (BPD) and Anorexia Nervosa.

“I enjoy finding a creative outlet to show the world what it is like to experience mental illness, especially as it can be hard to express in words.

“For me, a picture really does say a thousand words and it allows someone not only to understand but for a brief moment feel the gravitas of emotions involved.

“It also helps those experiencing these feelings to know they are not alone, and can allow others to better understand what mental illness is like and so be in a better position to be empathetic and supportive to others.”