The Dangers of Cancel Culture For Those With Anxiety

Cancel culture doesn't allow for grace and causes fears, obsessions, and anxiety.
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For information purposes only. Does not constitute clinical advice. Consult your local medical authority for advice.

[ocdandanxiety]

Have you ever been afraid of being canceled?

[zigzaglychee]

Tbh I think going online in general heightens anxiety because the way people act online confirms that your fears are true. That other people are in fact watching you and judging you while you're just living your life. That other people will react with anger/rage/disgust/mockery if you say the wrong thing, or make a mistake, or do something embarrassing. Seeing people online do these things to other people adds legitimacy to your fears.

[dueurfr]

My biggest fear has been about cancel culture, I don’t want to be famous but the (dream) place where i want to work when i grow up a little bit requires public exposure, imagine if someone brought up things that I’ve done at 13 & i get cancelled, socially rejected forever, Now Im so scared to even pursue my dreams, OCD is really the worst thing that has ever happened to me.

[ToastedNoodle]

I have 130, 000 subscribers on YouTube and have diagnosed anxiety disorder and OCD. I live in Alabama.

I AM IN CONSTANT FEAR, HONESTLY. This video helped me a lot. Thank you.

[sukoelzorrocurioso]

Cancel culture literally makes me sick.

[uniquecrafter]

Oh my god! Thank you so much making this video finally. This is one of the worst things of many types of social media especially Reddit and Twitter for themes of ocd like real event ocd or POCD.

People on Reddit talk as if they are morally superior or have never made mistakes in their lives and keep wanting severe punishments for even the simplest mistakes severely worsening my OCD. The guilt from reading Reddit or twitter comments is just so heavy whenever they cancel you.

It is like I have to constantly seek reassurance from these random strangers on Reddit for my actions, thoughts and beliefs to conform to their “morally superior” beliefs and if I don’t, I feel like an outcast and a bad person.

I really love your videos! Extremely appreciate it!

[everythingnothing]

Cancel culture always sit wrong with me. As a human, it's normal to make mistakes .If it's just some small mistakes and can be changed with a bit of teachings, they should never get cancelled .

[josie]

Something that has helped me with this fear is: if people cancel you without diving deeper into what's really going on, then you probably don't need those people in your life anyways. Heck, maybe getting cancelled like that is a good thing because that means the people who follow you and care will be willing to listen, research, and understand the full story. Besides, people who get cancelled are forgotten about in over 3 months. Someone gets cancelled and everyone hates them and then everyone forgets about it when the next person is on the chopping block. Think Will Wood, Fallout Boy, Thomas Sanders. They were crucified and then in a few months they still had a very large following. Even the real bad ones have a following like Trisha Patas and James Charles. If anything, cancel culture is all about virtue signaling, why would I want those guys to follow me anyways

[wolvesgirl]

Oh my God yes! This always worried me so much! I was always so worried people would hate me for the things I did as a child and didn't know any better! I was worried people would see the things I did when I was younger and call me an awful person for it! Which made my mistakes haunt me for longer then they probably should have.

[HaoshWantsCookie]

Thank you so much for making this video. Cancel Culture is literally what caused me to develop POCD and ZOCD in the first place. Cancel Culture doesnt even understand the actual deffinition of p*dophilia or z**philia, and a lot of people that i looked up to were unfortunately falsely accused of those two things. Those accusations werent even provided with real proof, it was mostly just assumptions that came from something out of context. And everyone would believe it, because they have a really weird pattern of "connecting the dots", the dots that arent even there. Cancel Culture has eventually triggered this fear in me, that if i dont agree with their beliefs or actions it meant im a bad person myself. I started analyzing my whole past if there was something i did wrong, if i ever had attraction to animals or children. And next the intrussive thoughts, fake memories and groinal responses came along. It teriffied me, because it was "the proof" that i actually was a bad person. I was scared that everyone would harass me if they found out. I thought i deserved to die. I started deleting all of my old social media accounts, privating my current accounts, changing online names, deleting anything that could be missinterpreted. I started obsessively checking social media, looking up my names, constantly checking the news, as if at any time i expected someone to call me out on something, anything. I started going crazy. All the compulsions i've done were making me feel relief, but only for a while. Because it all went back to how "bad of a person" i was. I would feel like an actual criminal. After all i was "cleaning up the evidence" of a "crime". I feared for the safety of my friends, family, pets, even my own life. I finally spoke to my very best friend about my worries of being a z**phile. I told her about my fake memory, something i thought was real. I pressured her to tell me if she thought i was what i was fearing to be. She came to conclusion that i wasnt a bad person because i said i dont want to hurt animals. So then i would feel even worse because its like im excusing myself for the alleged attraction. I believed that i MUST HAVE BEEN HIDING SOMETHING, that im just manipulating her "again". So i finally ended this friendship, and after i found out about the existence of POCD and ZOCD i finally understood, it was all in my head. It makes me want to cry, but not because im sad. I am ANGRY. Mad at what the internet has done to me, mad that by trying so hard to avoid hurting others i literally did that - i hurt my friend by pushing her away. No compulsion ever made me feel better for longer than just a while. After I found out about the real issue with me, i can finally look for help, without feeling the same shame or fear that i felt before.
I appreciate you for being there and speaking up for us, it really means a lot. Cancel Culture is the only thing that must be cancelled. At all costs.


21/04/24
Though on twitter I've found a community ("anti-anti") who seemed to be more reasonable than a regular twitter user - I figured that environments like twitter puts a lot of mental pressure on you, and eventually warps you into the same toxic dynamic you were trying to avoid. So my advise would be to avoid twitter entirely, and to find comfort in family or irl friends instead. Keep a healthy distance between yourself and online strangers, and stay safe.

[danielocsai]

Once I talked / confessed to a stranger about my OCD topic and I had a spike later that he will blackmail me with the phonecall that he "obviously" recorded... I feel lucky to live in an age where I can see these videos of yours.

[tryingtodobetter]

I feel like I'm cancelling myself constantly for mistake I've made when I was 12 and 15 with the actual believe that I deserve to d*e

[anneo]

I went down this rabbit hole and then I DID get cancelled for a lie someone made up and I simply haven't been the same since.

[GabrieleFerraro]

Dude the time I spent doing compulsions to make sure I was doing everything right, it wrecked my life. It is like a different form of religious scrupulosity

[pineconetv]

I've been wanting to get into online creation and this has been a fear of mine. One thing ive been telling myself to cope with this is that people will often times only try to cancel someone if they already think they deserve it. I figure that if i life my life on the the internet positively and without trying to stir trouble people wouldn't have a reason to try to look for things to be mad at.

[gertrude_]

This video is sorely needed. I've suffered from OCD and this was a very big thing for me. I got past it but this is so helpful for those who don't know what they are going through. Thank you Nathan.

[wednesdayschild]

Almost everything in modern society worsens my ocd. I see some silly health article every day. This cam lead to spiralling anxiety. I have been cancelled by childhood friends. I am not a member of any political party.

[nerdlywacko]

I had done stuff (and said stuff) and social media and, in turn, made me overly anxious about being canceled. I looked up for answers or whatever to help reassure me. Well, thanks to your video I can say that I am reassured and gonna learn from my mistakes and live life the way I want to. Thank you so much!

[Dski]

Thank you for posting this. In order to comment I had to agree to terms of service. Maybe I just gave away my first born, by agreeing to the terms of service. Maybe, maybe not. My moral and religious ocd says you need to read every word before agreeing. So I guess I just did an exposure because I didn’t and just checked agree. Pretty scary. Guess I’m a bad person. Now I put it out there. Wow big exposure.

[sporkles]

I love your videos on OCD Nathan! Your videos have made such a huge impact on my life, and I am living so much better! I'm so sorry to hear that people online have been giving you grief because they don't understand OCD, but you have been a great help to thousands like me, thank you!