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& #39;s like to pretend everything is fine 1000s of times a day
I don& #39;t know if I would understand this on such a visceral level if I hadn& #39;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& #39;s here. What& #39;s coming.

I don& #39;t need to tell you.
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