Hello my name is Victoria. I created High Anxieties on Facebook in 2012. At the time I’d only found a few pages about mental health on Facebook. I felt a need to create my own page focusing on anxiety and panic disorders. I wondered if there was anyone like me who felt very alone in what I was going through. 

When I started posting on my page for the first time I had a hard time finding things to share. Social media wasn’t as prominent then as it is today and mental health was not a topic that people talked about openly. To fill my page I had to start making my own memes. Quotes were a popular thing on Facebook at the time but I found them not suitable. Yes it’s great to be reminded to “think positive” and that “this too shall pass” but not when you’re talking about a mental illness. I needed something more real and that meant that I needed to be open and honest about what I had experienced and how it all made me feel. This was extremely difficult for me.

I had started having chronic panic disorder in 1993 and at the time I knew nothing about these attacks and I knew no one who would understand what I was experiencing. I felt completely alone and terrified. At first I thought I was having a heart attack but my doctor said I was too young. My doctor was no help whatsoever. I saw two more doctors before I was told that I was having panic attacks. Only then did I start to get relief from the hell that I was going through.

When I made the High Anxieties page I had hoped to find someone who understood what I had experienced. I hoped that maybe I would help someone understand what was happening to them and to help them feel understood and not so alone.

Never did I imagine that I’d find over five hundred thousand people from all over the world who understood all of it. My page grew larger than myself and it quickly became a full time job. I was quickly over my head. People were messaging me and posting questions and asking for me to help them. 

Soon High Anxieties was on other social media platforms like Pinterest and tumblr. I created a website and my memes and informational graphics became viral. It felt great to be helping so many people who were struggling. Also, the family members and friends who wanted to know how to support their loved ones. 

Mental Health Awareness became a huge deal on social media. May is National Mental Health Awareness Month and in October is Mental Illness Awareness Week. I took full advantage of these events and created many memes to be easily shared across all social media platforms. I even became a Mental Health Hero!

High Anxieties became my pride and joy as well as a very stressful job. I took pride knowing that I was making a difference but my own mental health started to decline. After a few years I had to step away. That is something I’m not proud of but it was something I needed to do.

Mental illnesses are hard. Hard to experience, hard to support, hard to help and hard to recover from. While I take pride in helping mental health become a more open and important conversation to have, there is so much more to do.

Here on my website you’ll find a catalog of our most shared graphics and memes. Please feel free to share and help spread support and awareness.

Thank you for stopping by.

Victoria