suppressing emotion for a long period makes you sick by activating your stress response

this is why racism is a public health emergency
stress in the body leads to all sorts of illnesses

it ages you prematurely

when we talk about "microaggression", we should think about what it's like to pretend everything is fine 1000s of times a day

I don't know if I would understand this on such a visceral level if I hadn't spent 4 years in an authoritarian country

Authoritarianism makes you sick
You cannot express your true feelings
You have to control expression, even at home, even with friends, even with family

I felt like an angry looney toon from the constant pressure in my head, the pounding in my skull, the steam I could feel coming out of my ears

I was bad at suppression because of my entirely privileged life and all the unconditional love in it - so suppression was a drama for me. It took a lot of energy

I aged fast

And I still looked a decade + younger than my age cohort in this authoritarian country

You know why I wrote this thread, right? You know what's here. What's coming.

I don't need to tell you.