The first time Marco Coiffard, 29, had an anxiety attack, he did not understand what was happening to him. When the symptoms repeated, he sought information. Assailed by a dull, constant and paralyzing fear, his throat and stomach perpetually knotted, his mind colonized by negative thoughts, the young audiovisual editor has the reflex to search online to put his suffering into words. ” I had no idea what anxiety washe recalls. I spent long hours trying to find explanations on the Internet, scouring the forums to see if people were going through the same thing as me. I needed someone to tell me that I wasn’t losing my mind and that I wasn’t alone. »
Marco then decides to create a Facebook group to gather the testimonies of people suffering from the same thing as him. A few months later, he launched @hello anxiety on Instagram to “ educate and raise awareness of mental health issues ». He then writes his first posts and tells in simple words the upset daily life of an anxious person.
Followed by 287,000 people, he adopts the visual codes and the tone specific to Instagram and publishes gifs, quotes, photos of animals and slices of life. Example : “Anxiety at night, that’s what it looks like. Thoughts come to the surface because you find yourself alone with yourself and it’s never pleasant. It causes sleep disturbances and a lot of fatigue on a daily basis. »
“Anxiety damages the brain and must be treated”
Anxiety, which refers to feeling a momentary fear or worry before an important event, is normal. But sometimes, this fear can become disabling. Especially if it turns into a generalized anxiety disorder, which Marco suffers from. “The cursor is the impact and the duration, explains Olivier Bonnot, child and adolescent psychiatrist and head of department at Nantes University Hospital. There is nothing abnormal regarding being anxious five minutes before an event. On the other hand, if it prevents you from living or interacting with others, it becomes problematic because anxiety damages the brain and must be treated. »
In recent years, this evil is no longer taboo, at least on social networks. The hashtag #anxiety has over 200,000 mentions on Instagram. Emblematic public figures such as the youtuber Léna Situations or the actress and singer Selena Gomez – who defines herself as a “mental health activist” – do not hesitate to testify to their anxiety attacks and the disabling dimension of these in their everyday lives. “I thought anxiety was a trivial thing, but sometimes it eats me up for days on end so I think seeing professionals can only be beneficial,” tweeted Léna Situations in 2020.
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