Prisoner to My Own Mind

Created in Adobe Illustrator using the pen and brush tools.

You can also buy a print of this artwork at my Etsy site here: www.etsy.com/listing/199786651…

All proceeds from this artwork will be donated to the National Autism Association. You can find more details on this at my website at abigailsouthworth.com/?p=222

This artwork was inspired by a very special friend who's struggled with asperger syndrome.

Rather than try to explain myself, I'll let her explain her experience in her own words:

"I live every day, sometimes feeling like I am a prisoner in my own mind. But I have a lot of comfort given to me by knowing that many of these flaws in my personality aren’t because I’m a terrible person. It’s because I am a person with a disorder that I have to work to overcome. It’s something that means I can stop beating myself up about not being able to change some of these things… but maybe I can learn how to work around them. [...]

It means you are special.

You have more to overcome than the average person, you have talents for things that other people don’t.

You might not be able to look them in the eye, but that doesn’t mean you can’t love someone just as deeply as they can love you, if not deeper and with a loyalty so fierce it overlooks flaws."

Many thanks to Jo for being the inspiration and champion of this artwork throughout the whole process.

EDIT: Thank you for all your support! I'll try and get back to everyone, though it may take a few days. Also, I've added a print right here on deviantArt for those of you who aren't fans of Society6.

NEW EDIT: Thank you so much to and for the recommendations, and for featuring this artwork as a Daily Deviation. I can't express how much this means to me. I'm just glad the word is getting out about the experience of those Aspergers (and Autism Spectrum in general.) Thank you