What made you decide to do this series?
Anna: Because s.e. made me! But seriously, people are afraid of mental health conditions. They see things on TV and decide that that is what “crazy” is. This can lead to stigmatizing people they know who are out about having a mental health condition, but it can also lead to people being afraid to get treatment or just seek help because they don’t want to be like that. It took me nearly a decade of trying to handle my untreated mental health condition before I sorted out that it wasn’t like that. The stigma as portrayed on TV and as perceived by everyone around me, including myself, led to years of additional misery that I didn’t need. I think these things matter.
s.e.: Because Anna made me! Um no, really. I think that mental illness is a recurrent and important theme in pop culture, and it’s often handled poorly, and people often have trouble identifying that, or know that something is wrong, but can’t articulate what, or why, or how. So the idea of exploring these topics with people who are interested in discussing depictions of marginalized identities in pop culture is very exciting, and I’d really like to make a difference in how you think about mental illness not just in pop culture, but in your own life.
oooh! this series is going to be a treat!
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