The Youth of Today

By French Williams

This piece I drew whilst suffering badly with agoraphobia. It’s one of my more stubborn symptoms.        

My agoraphobia is defined by the very thought of seeing someone and wanting the world to swallow me up. I can become very frightened, and people could call me rude at some of the responses I give when having to speak to someone, say for instance, in a supermarket.  It’s not rudeness, I promise.  Just fear. Fear that you see me, fear that you might talk to me, and maybe sometimes the inability to know what to reply. It just all comes out wrong.  

So, this picture was something that kept going around and around in my mind.  You know when you’re outside a chippy or the COOP on the local High Street and all you can see is a bunch of teenagers, with their grey and black North Face tracksuit uniforms just waiting for something to happen. I can feel the tension, they look menacing whilst only thinking of themselves and the tiny world they live in.      

Whilst me, just here, scared to walk around them to get into the shop.

The worst thing is... I used to be one.