![Colourful four panel comic. The same character, a girl with long pink hair and a green jumper, appears in each panel. In the first panel on the top left, the girl has her hand covering her smart phone, which is placed on a table in the foreground, and she looks frustrated. A thought bubble comes from her and reads 'I'm going to mute this conversation for 8 hours and stop thinking about it'. The second panel shows the same girl looking anxiously at her phone, her eyes wide and beads of sweat dripping down her forehead. Two thought bubbles come from her. The first reads 'I need to stop thinking about it'. The second reads '...I want tot check and see what they've said... But I mustn't!' The third panel shows the girl pacing around a room in a distressed manner, her arms are crossed and her teeth are gritted. The smartphone remains in the foreground on a table. Thought bubbles from her read 'I cant stop thinking about it' and 'I haven't done anything other than think about it'. The fourth panel shows the girl sat in an armchair playing on a video game console. She looks peaceful and focused. She is holding the controller and on the screen is an animal avatar. A thought bubble from her reads 'I need to stop picking this wound. I need to distract myself'.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/19feae12-1f3f-4e5a-aa4a-a254d05d2cbd_NN05+Stressful+Hyperfixation+.png?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Stressful Hyperfixation. © Bex Ollerton for Wellcome Collection.
About the artist
Bex Ollerton
Bex Ollerton is a full-time comic artist from Lancashire. She is known for her introspective comics about mental health, neurodivergence and the general struggles of being a human being in an overwhelming world. As a physically disabled autistic artist with ADHD, she cares greatly about raising awareness through graphic medicine, and her goal is to use comics to discuss things that can be hard to talk about. When she’s not drawing or making comics, she enjoys playing piano and definitely remembering to take care of her far too many house plants. You can find her work online under the handle Schnumn.