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In 2018, award-winning cartoonist, writer, and illustrator Gemma Correll, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Elle, and Forbes, experienced a panic attack that lasted for weeks. Years later, that experience became the foundation for "Anxietyland", a graphic memoir that transforms the internal world of anxiety and depression into an amusement park filled with surreal attractions and uncomfortable realities.

Using her trademark illustrations and dry, self-aware humor, Correll explores severe anxiety, depression, agoraphobia, panic attacks, and dissociation, including the ways they can affect both the mind and body. The result can be funny, unsettling, and deeply candid, offering an unconventional look at what it means to navigate mental health without pretending there is a simple solution.

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#1

‘Anxietyland’: 30 Clever Illustrations By This Artist That Turn Mental Health Struggles Into An Amusement Park

Anxietyland Report

Ploo
Community Member
1 hour ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

adhd is bish...it can make you feel like youre accomplishing things with your busy-ness...but somehow it feels like you are using a tablespoon to scoop water from a boat with a big leak

The book is Correll’s first full-length graphic memoir and was published by Gallery Books in the U.S. on April 28, 2026. Across its 448 pages, she looks back at a lifelong struggle with anxiety and depression, including agoraphobia, panic attacks, dissociation, and examines how these issues gradually began to shape her adult life.

The story opens with an especially intense panic attack that led her to check herself into a hospital, before moving through memories of her childhood and young adulthood, periods of claustrophobia and her attempts to push beyond the limitations that fear had placed on her. Rather than presenting a straightforward path to feeling better, Correll uses the fictional amusement park of “Anxietyland” to show how unpredictable the process can be, filling it with attractions such as the Worry-Go-Round, Control Freak Show, Depression Obstacle, and Parade of Therapists.

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    #3

    Artist Turns Her Lifelong Struggles With Anxiety Into An Imaginary Theme Park In 18 Relatable Illustrations

    Anxietyland Report

    Ploo
    Community Member
    59 minutes ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    this summer was the first i enjoyed in so many years (debilitating anxiety) and im actually saddened by the quickly diminishing daylight hours this year...im going to try to take up some winter activities to keep up the progress (x country, snowshoes, might even try ice fishing ) *i scream into the void*

    Correll has explained that she wanted to create the kind of book she would have found useful when she was younger, particularly because she struggled to find mental-health books that captured the physical side of anxiety as well as the psychological one. She also wanted to show that anxiety exists on a spectrum, rather than presenting only its most familiar or easily recognizable forms. By combining candid storytelling with her distinctive, playful illustrations, she gives readers a visual language for feelings that can be difficult to put into words.

    “I try to make the ups and downs of dealing with mental health relatable and easy to understand, while also bringing some humor and levity to it all,” the artist shared in an interview with Bored Panda.

    At its heart, "Anxietyland" isn't about reaching a point where anxiety simply disappears. Instead, Correll explores what it means to recognize these feelings, understand how they affect you, find ways of managing them, and gradually become more comfortable with uncertainty. The amusement park becomes less a place to escape from and more a metaphor for learning how to navigate life when difficult feelings remain part of the landscape.

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    #4

    Artist Turns Her Lifelong Struggles With Anxiety Into An Imaginary Theme Park In 18 Relatable Illustrations

    Anxietyland Report

    Ploo
    Community Member
    55 minutes ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    just my 2 cents (as much sense as i have tbh) but growing up with an emotionally overbearing parent can contribute to this

    #6

    ‘Anxietyland’: 30 Clever Illustrations By This Artist That Turn Mental Health Struggles Into An Amusement Park

    Anxietyland Report

    Ploo
    Community Member
    57 minutes ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    yes yes yes ...i just keep repeating the mantra, the only thing i can control is my response...

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    #9

    Artist Turns Her Lifelong Struggles With Anxiety Into An Imaginary Theme Park In 18 Relatable Illustrations

    Anxietyland Report

    UnclePanda
    Community Member
    Premium
    1 hour ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My yoga place was above a gyro shop, so all of my yoga thoughts were like, "A gyro would really hit the spot!"

    #10

    Artist Turns Her Lifelong Struggles With Anxiety Into An Imaginary Theme Park In 18 Relatable Illustrations

    Anxietyland Report

    Ploo
    Community Member
    51 minutes ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    went into a store by myself for the first time in years the other day...the work up to it was insane...when it was over the feeling of having successfully faced a fear was insanely good, like runners high good the issue is that it takes So Much emotional labor to get there, go in, and not turn around and run out screaming Each and Every time. Fatigue is Real.

    #11

    Artist Turns Her Lifelong Struggles With Anxiety Into An Imaginary Theme Park In 18 Relatable Illustrations

    Anxietyland Report

    Ploo
    Community Member
    49 minutes ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    and you know youre wasting your brain cells on that garbage but somehow you get on the worry-go-round again and again

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    #12

    Artist Turns Her Lifelong Struggles With Anxiety Into An Imaginary Theme Park In 18 Relatable Illustrations

    Anxietyland Report

    43Duckies
    Community Member
    1 hour ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "practicing an important conversation you need to have with someone a billion times in your head but never actually managing to broach the conversation!"

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    #21

    Artist Turns Her Lifelong Struggles With Anxiety Into An Imaginary Theme Park In 18 Relatable Illustrations

    Anxietyland Report

    ʁɨɂɥɒ
    Community Member
    9 minutes ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yes am, my spin wheel had stopped on giving up sugar and joy