Join my #StreamForMind and raise funds to support mental health!
This Saturday (3 December), I will be streaming for 23 hours to fundraise for Mind, the mental health charity!
The number 23 represents the percent of us who experienced a mental health problem in 2020.
Ever since I was diagnosed with OCD around 2008, I have lived with mental illness in various levels. A lot of my triggers were to do with academic pressures – it is a sad reality that the education system in many places, including Britain, are designed in such a way that they do not encourage positive mental health, and many children, like myself, have our wellbeing impacted by the pressures put on us and the lack of adequate support to cope. With learning disabilities too, I quickly went from the very academically successful kid to barely coping with assignments and exams. I became fatigued very easily and I quickly developed anxiety and depression from my struggles, although neither of these would be diagnosed until I moved to university in 2014. Even after then I struggled to develop coping mechanisms – I was only just learning about how my learning disabilities and mental illness impacted me (because secondary school-level education failed to support me there), how was I also meant to then come up with the solutions! My entire undergrad was marred by the struggles I had.
I had a much happier time with my two postgraduate degrees, although those weren’t without relapse – those relapses were more triggered by social incidents caused by the pandemic rather than academic triggers, and happily I was able to succeed for the first time in around the decade and be proud of my academic workload.
Nonetheless, in all my mental health activism, I talk a lot about the issues with the British education system,
That’s why, for my 23 hour stream, I will be playing Two Point Campus, the university sim released earlier this year. I’ve not yet played the game, although I have gotten used to what I assume will be similar mechanics with its predecessor, Two Point Hospital. As much as I am able to, my goal during this game will be to create a campus that is healthy to positive mental wellbeing – or at least as much as the mechanics allow. If I can’t, I’m sure we’ll have wacky cartoon fun!
If you want to support my fundraiser, all the details are on my Tiltify page. By donating, especially during the stream, you can also use your donations to influence the gameplay! You can of course donate before and after the stream, but doing so during will give you more options, including the ability to stop the game to see my cats!
Even if you are unable to donate, I will be grateful for the engagement and support if you drop in and send a comment!
I will also be joined by some guests! At the moment I will be Josh Watson and Dan Ingram, as well as others, during which we will possibly take a break from Two Point to play some other games!
See you all this weekend!