This fake “Anxiety Magazine” is hysterical, but also SO on point

Life is worrisome enough as it is, but when you have anxiety, it’s like your brain is constantly trying to latch on to every fear it can. Sometimes, it feels like it’s just making up new things for you to totally freak out about, like your mind is an anxiety machine. . . or, perhaps, an anxiety magazine, always coming up with new #content.

That’s exactly why we’re LOLing over Anxiety Magazine, a project created by Twitter user @crayonelyse that’s not only hilarious, but sheds light on what it’s like to live with the most common mental illness in the world. false

The artist — who wishes to be referred only as “Crayon” — told HelloGiggles that she finds inspiration from work, friends, and current events, “all of which are things that I spend a lot of time worrying about,” she explained. She also added that she’s in a Ph.D. program, which is “an amazing opportunity to worry harder than you ever thought you could.”

The headlines are reminiscent of the sensational attention-grabbers you see on the covers of magazines on newsstands, but in a way all people with anxiety can relate to, from worrying about what other people think (“Literally Everything You Said Yesterday: Let’s Go Through It Again”) to body image issues (“Fifteen adorable swimsuit trends that would make your body look like a bag of sausages!”). false

“I wanted Anxiety to have its own look, but I definitely got some design ideas — fonts, color schemes, etc. — from [real] magazines. . . upbeat, eye-catching, and utterly incongruous with the actual content,” Crayon joked.

Her favorite headlines are “Seriously, why aren’t you drinking more water?” and “Shouldn’t you be moisturizing? Megan moisturizes.” As she told HelloGiggles, “Basically, I’m very concerned about hydration. I just know I’m getting it wrong.”

Crayon told us that she’s excited about the response her covers have been getting. “I’m really glad that these seem to speak to folks. . . I hope that laughing at the absurdity of something painful like anxiety helps make it easier to handle,” she said. false

As for Anxiety Magazine, Crayon has a few more covers up her sleeve. “I suppose I’ll keep it going as long as I have ideas, and considering my source material, it seems unlikely I’ll run out any time soon,” she said. “Things to keep an eye out for: a special issue on grad school, as well as one for worrying about things that happened a long time ago — e.g. all of middle school.”