DISCUSSION: Spilling the anxie-tea; the media’s misinterpretations

Media plays a vital role in all of our lives, from social media to newspapers, to movies and soaps, the media is pretty much everywhere we look. So why is it that we tolerate fake news and ignorant social prescriptions of how we should think and be? Especially in relation to mental illness, a large proportion of the UK population fail to acknowledge mental health to be as important as physical; so this is why I’m going to spill the anxie-tea. Let you know exactly how it is, and just how physical the reactions can be. 

I hope most of you have watched Glee, and if you haven’t- it’s a must. For those who have; cast your mind back to the early series, where Emma who suffers from OCD has a student vomit on her shoes. Yeah, it’s not the nicest of things, but the remainder of the episode shows how she rushes to the decontamination showers at the hospital, and that’s acted out to be humorous. 

The reality is, a very similar thing has happened to me before, and even though the rest of the class at school were laughing, I was burning up inside. A girl had decided to lick, yes I mean lick, the top of my hair bun whilst I was engrossed in the design task. I went red, began to sweat profusely and ran home crying and straight into the shower. The ideas began to spiral, what if I’ve caught something, what if I’m going to be shamed for this. So although it might be humorous to watch, for the person it is far from that. And truth be told, compulsive washing has led me to develop the most awful eczema as a result; the more I stress the worse it gets. Is mental illness physical? Yes. 

As you can guess, school didn’t suit me at all. Not that I didn’t suit it, it didn’t suit me. The High School Musical movies I watched so obsessively did not represent how I wanted secondary school to go. The main focus of the movie is being popular, and although it highlights some of the ‘nerdy’ teens, it fails to embrace them. Its social hierarchy became unbearable and a string of failed friendships and point-blank bullying led me to near breaking point. I remember being so obsessed over the small things, I ended up missing the bigger picture; I was smarter than I thought. It was because of these false senses of how reality should have been that I was so disappointed and couldn’t cope as a result. Lack of exposure to the realities of mental health issues resulted in a false reality around that too. I couldn’t recognise it in myself or others, which led to some of those around me seriously hurting themselves. 

As the anxiety manifested and took over, the physical symptoms got worse. And I became better at hiding them. Profuse sweating, dry mouth, clammy palms and a glowing red face were the least of my worries. Unable to breathe, palpitations and severe depressive thoughts were much higher on the priority list. It was here that my mum said to me;

“If we can see all of this on the outside, it must be 100x that in your head”

And this stuck with me until now and will for the rest of my life. 

So is mental illness physical? Hell yeah. But it’s a shame I am having to justify that to people in 2020. Growing outside of the false sense of reality the media has created for you is the first step. Educate yourself. 

And if the only way for you to do that is through Netflix, then my top picks but-still-not-entirely-accurate are:

Sex Education 

Atypical

The fundamentals of caring

Lady Bird

Perks of being a wallflower

Keep growing. Keep learning. Keep asking questions. I am SO here for that. 

Harri