My mom, who has never accepted the fact that I’m introverted and depressed— who never let me go to therapy growing up because it would be on my ‘record’— told me this morning that she has been doing so much RESEARCH and has discovered that the reason I deal with mental illness is because I grew up with allergies and eczema, which translated to scarring on my brain??

I’m 21, I still live at home. So she’s always upset at me because I work slowly and she says I have no drive. Her explanation also included things like, “You used to want to leave here so bad! At some point in your life something *switched* and it’s cause you were overwhelmed with your allergies!”

At first I was just amused, but then she kept going and I started getting really pissed. Like, NO, mother. Maybe I have mental illnesses because of my horrible school experiences since 2nd grade and your failure to take me seriously or provide me with HELP during the darkest moments of my life?

Well, I told her something like that. Her response? “The scarring made those experiences seem worse than they were.”

Then she proceeded to send me articles to read. Now, I’m not saying that allergies and stress have ZERO connection at all, but for her to say that I’m *broken* solely because I grew up sneezing and avoiding peanut butter and that I can be *fixed* by supplements and yoga was just insane. 

I’m just— what even??