From Women’s Health: These 4 Mental Health Red Flags Could Be Early Signs Of Depression And Anxiety? Here are the red flags from the article:
You feel like you have a broken record in your head.
You’re stuck in the past or constantly worried about the future
You feel guilty about things you can’t control
You never feel good enough
Does this list look familiar to you?
This is how I feel after spending an excessive amount of time on Adoptee Twitter and Adoptee TikTok. Like I’ve taken a handful of quaaludes listening to Smashing Pumpkins tell me “we’re all rats in a cage.” Like reading The Mayor of Casterbridge.
So, I’m wondering if social media has amplified adoptee angst or whatever you want to call it. The Internet and particularly social media have done many positive empowering things for Class Bastard. WIthout them, I believe we would still be in the 1950s regarding adoptee rights, issues., legal status, and self-awareness. I’ve lately noticed, however, that adoptee angst self-replicates online. One person tells their story and soon 5 more people pop out of the closet with theirs. Everybody has a horror story. Everyone is angry. Everyone is blown out and blown up. Adoption is our beit noir. Social media is our purgatory– our purge-a-tory,–a place to purge ourselves, to, “normalize” our abnormal lives.
I agree with R.D Laing that “mental illness” is simply a normal reaction to dysfunction and dysphoria around us– in our case, adoption mythology and its baggage that permeate our lives before we are old enough to understand it, much less stop it. It’s the adoption system and its systemic rot, not us, that’s crazy. We may live abnormal lives, but we are normal.
Day 14 of 30–
16 to go
