WEBVTT

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When I started dealing with anxiety when I

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was in college,
that's when I truly experienced the stigma

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associated with those disorders, you know,
I was trying to communicate to my parents

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that I was dealing with some
type of mental health disorder.

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And I was--that was met
with a lot of pushback.

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You know, they're basically saying, like,

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"Don't say that," you know,
"There's nothing wrong with you."

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You know, "You need to take care
of yourself better," and things

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of that nature. Not coming down on my
parents because they wanted to help me,

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but it's just because, you know,
they didn't understand it themselves.

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Conversation around mental health was
not a part of their upbringing either.

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So, like, they didn't
want to believe that.

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And, you know, that's when I
really experienced the stigma. They

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didn't want me to get a therapist because,

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you know, they felt like I wasn't going
to be able to get a job later on in life.

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And they were really responding
from a position of fear.

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You know, they were worried about me.

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They wanted me to be better,

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you know, so they were just using
what they knew to--to try to help me.