 Hi, my friends call me Lyme and I want to help you perform even better in your videos. So let's talk about storytelling. It is what it sounds like. It's about telling stories. So do that. Thank you so much for watching. Bye. But seriously, I just wanted to make a video about this because many people, including me sometimes, stick too much to statements, claims or facts in situations where telling stories would have been so much more effective. Now you might be asking me Lyme, you fruitfuck! Why would I tell fictional stories when I can stick with facts? Well, stories are not only about entertainment through fiction, it's also a tool to influence other people and it's very effective. For example, I can make the statement that I will start talking about mental health on my channel, but that might not mean as much to you as I wanted to mean and I can try giving you statistics to show you how common mental illness is to try to show you how important this is to talk about, but it still might not completely translate. I mean it's just too easy for people in statistics to become just numbers and I want you to feel something. So then I cannot mostly appeal to your logic using numbers. So what if I instead tell you a true story about me? Before I do, though, a word of warning. If you're struggling with panic attacks or any other anxiety related disorder then you might want to think twice before watching the rest of this video. I'm not kidding, so here I go. This was a time of my life where I had just become independent. I had my first job, my first own place and I was so proud of myself and so it's amazing how much can be taken away from you in just seconds. Have you ever experienced a panic attack? So imagine you're safe at home and suddenly for no apparent reason you're filled with the feeling of terror as if your body actually thinks that you're dying. You start shaking, your heart behaves as if you're having a heart attack. It feels like you're suffocating no matter how much you're breathing and you're filled with the urge to escape. But the danger that you perceive is within you and you cannot escape from yourself wherever you run it follows and then it just keeps escalating like that to the one of the worst feelings a human being can experience. I had my first panic attack at the movies and after that I was so terrified of ever feeling like that again for years and that fear actually triggered it again and again in a vicious cycle of torture. So my only two options here was to make this disappear or make me disappear. So this was now about life or death. I had to learn how the human mind works, how to get over anxiety, depression, and phobias and to prevent them from becoming a thing in the first place and then I had to apply that knowledge which was the hardest thing that I ever had to do because it involved facing my fears and in my case one of the steps towards that was to make a video montage of things that would trigger my panic and every time I watched that I got pale like a ghost. I fell to the floor because my knees got so weak but I kept getting up and each time it got easier and easier sure it took me a level of courage that I had never reached before but I got over it. I learned so many things on this journey just easy to follow steps that anyone could apply not only when handling anxiety but also just when you're feeling down easy to follow steps to become happier and I'm baffled as to why I hadn't been taught this in school. This should be considered one of the basic knowledge that every human should have. I mean stress-related diseases like anxiety and depression are two of the most common mental diseases in the world. Why isn't this being taught? And when I asked myself that I figured that hey I can actually contribute to this so I will. Now me saying that I will start talking about mental health on my channel hopefully means a lot more to you so don't just give claims or statements or facts instead show them to us through an experience make us feel something. Just in case I wanted to say that no you will not get a panic attack just for being afraid of getting one yes it got like that for me but that was only after I was traumatized by my first panic attack and I got my first panic attack for several reasons I had been working a little bit too hard I was already in the risk group because I've been the subject of homophobia for so many years and I didn't know how to handle anxiety so those were the reasons for me. So this was the end of part one of this episode next part we'll get into the challenge and some solutions and we'll talk about what stories you need to tell and why you need to tell them so thank you so much for watching bye.