The Symptoms of Anxiety You Won’t See on Television
I am so grateful for the education I have received in the last eight years. It gives me the ability to inform and assuage at the same time.
Trust me, people don’t really know what anxiety is
Television programming has long-employed a list of cheap tricks to script mental illness for those without sea legs.
“You have anxiety?”
With inflection and all, I know what comes next.
“Never would have known it. You’re so funny/cool/outgoing/confident.”
Anxiety is symptomatic deep below the paved skin. Most won’t get beyond the crust to catch a glimpse of the mantle, so they are shocked to discover that I take medication to ensure my neural synapses operate normally.
Television has spent sixty years navigating an ocean of potential viewers. The goal is to exact a connection with the most people at one time. As such, television programming has long-employed a list of cheap tricks to script mental illness for those without sea legs: incessant smoking; making chains from pop tabs/gum wrappers; black makeup around the…
