How to Mind Mental Illness with Esmé Weijun Wang

Unladylike

Unladylike Media

Feminism, Gender, Media Analysis, Body Politics, Patriarchy, Intersectionality, Society & Culture, Cultural Commentary, Beauty Standards, Internet Culture, Womens Rights

4.8 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

What happens when you aren't "the appropriate type of crazy?" Best-selling author Esmé Weijun Wang talks to Caroline and Cristen about living with schizoaffective disorder, how it shapes her ambition, and the subjectiveness of being 'high functioning'.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I really wanted to be able to be seen as high functioning and I wanted to be able to be seen
0:09.4	as normal.
0:10.9	And you know, if people found out about my diagnoses, I wanted them to see me as like,
0:16.9	yeah, the person who had this serious diagnosis, but who also graduated from Stanford with a
0:23.8	3.99 GPA.
0:26.5	So it scared me that I had these symptoms that I couldn't control.
0:30.8	Lady, let's go!
0:36.8	Lady, let's go!
0:46.2	Hey y'all and welcome to UnLadylike.
0:48.2	The show that finds out what happens when women break the rules.
0:51.6	I'm Kristen.
0:52.6	I'm Caroline and that was today's guest, Esme Wajin Wang, author of The New York Times
0:57.2	bestselling essay collection, The Collected Skits of Freny Is.
1:00.7	Caroline, I've been wanting to talk to Esme for a while now.
1:04.5	I first stumbled across her a couple years back when I was going through a scary mental
1:10.6	health period of my own.
1:13.1	As I've mentioned before, on UnLadylike, I have generalized anxiety disorder.
1:18.7	And at that time, on paper, everything looked good, but I was spiraling on the inside.
1:25.8	It was honestly so unsettling that I didn't know how to talk about it, and I didn't want
1:31.4	to talk about it.
1:32.4	Why not?
1:33.4	Well, I think I was scared that talking about it would make it feel even more real, and
	...

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