if you ever feel like spiders are fearless, unstoppable death machines that are bent upon your destruction please remember that my tarantula has been sitting, inconsolable, with her knees tucked around her face for the past 20 minutes solely because she stepped on her own foot
I’m a 17 year old white guy living in middle class America. I’ve never exactly been a supporter of feminism because that kind of thing has never really affected me personally. I don’t notice it and I don’t care about it. But in nine minutes this video has made what is truly a serious problem extremely apparent. Those “why I need feminism” posts or those slut-shaming or rape culture campaigns never convince me of anything. But this video actually did I think.
tl;dr This video kicks ass, just watch it.
Stop what you’re doing and watch this
I watched this with my mom. This is really great. I love this.
Demand more positive representation of mental illness
Destroy the stigma that surrounds mental illness
Don’t let more kids struggle all their life not knowing what is wrong with them
Don’t let mental illnesses go unrecognized and untreated
Destroy this environment that favors neurotypical able people
In ninth grade, I started having an extremely bad anxiety attack (The only one I have ever been taken to the hospital for out of then ten years I’ve known I’ve had it). I legitimately thought I was going crazy and none of my calming techniques were helping. I started shaking and twitching and was on the verge of tears and my teacher noticed me muttering to myself and forced me to move to the front of the class, making it worse. At the end of the hour long period, I went to the office and called my mom and she took me to the hospital.
Nothing triggering had happened to me all day, so I had no idea what could have possibly caused the attack. When we got to the doctor’s office, my doctor asked me what I had had to eat/drink that day. I hadn’t eaten anything, but I had pulled an all-nighter and had drank two Monster energy drinks to keep me awake during the school day.
That is how I found out that too much caffeine on an empty stomach can cause people with anxiety disorder to have an attack. Not from my health class that barely touched on depression before moving along. Not from one of the four counselors I had seen. Not even from my regular physician.
I didn’t even know that what was wrong with me was an actual medical condition. My regular doctor had always just told me to pray and it would make it better. My grandmother and mother deemed it just me throwing a fit. Nobody told me that anxiety is a real medical problem that needs attention.
We need to get as much information out there as possible so that nobody EVER has to go through what I did that day. Though attacks like that are bad, attacks that have actual triggers are even worse. And there is next to no easily accessible information on any mental illness.
