This week we’re talking about the ways we and our listeners have romanticized mental illness in the past, why we trick ourselves into forgetting how bad it actually got, and how to find meaning outside of our pain. Subtopics include:

• Feeling guilty as an adult who previously idealized their mental illness when others seem to struggle without a choice
• Is romanticizing mental illness a sign of immaturity or naïveté?
• Whether romanticizing mental illness at a young age is related to diagnoses later in life
• The role of media and celebrities in bringing awareness (and romanticization) to certain mental illnesses
• Fear of becoming less interesting when we pursue healthy coping methods
• Seeing someone else model a toxic behavior and attempting to copy them
• Only romanticizing our lives when we’re struggling
• Symptom switching
• Feeling nostalgic for the past and accidentally repeating history
• Ways we remind ourselves that we are more than our mental illness

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• Christina's personal Instagram: @xtinajumper
• Lauren's personal Instagram: @laurenafh (but mostly @picosauve)

Credits:

• Theme song is Insane OK by The Whines via Free Music Archive