Me: Oh God, I haven't! I have to do more. So much more. RIGHT NOW.
My anxiety: You're welcome.
A small, gentle reminder: That I tweet & joke about what it feels like to have #anxiety.
I want to be honest & transparent about what it is like to live with mental illness.
This is not me asking for advice or comments. It's just one of the ways I cope.
Also, please consider that when someone tweets mental illness that they aren't asking for you to offer solutions or advice or commentary.
Often, we just want to be able to speak our own words about our experiences & maybe be heard.
I know it is often difficult to hear someone speak about their experiences of mental illness & to just listen. You might want to say something because you want to help.
But, love bugs, saying something isn't always help. Just listening can be the biggest help of all.
The people who have helped me the most as I've struggled with mental illness have not been those who gave me advice before I even stopped speaking.
It was the folks that listened, really listened, to what I said before they spoke or acted.
Even on Twitter, we can listen and wait before we respond to make sure that we are actually hearing what someone is saying.
We can take a moment. We don't have to rush.
And now, I have realized that what started as a joke about my anxious brain has now become a thread that became a little more serious.
Sigh.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
One day I'll write about alcohol in the academy, the expectations that academics drink, and the professor who once told me that academics drink because "they know too much."
I didn't drink much before grad school, but I learned to drink there.
I have stopped drinking a few times since graduate school, and at the end of this month, I won't have had a drink for a year.
But I have been pressured by academics to just have one glass of wine or one beer even after I explain that I don't want one or don't drink.
And the academics who pressured me to drink are the same ones that expect to explain why I am not drinking like I have to have a very good reason not to, even though my choices are none of their business.