Author/Comedian Tiffany Jenkins on Anxiety, Addiction, Felonies, Success, and Not Wanting to Exist

Because she racks up millions and millions of views for her viral
comedy videos on social media, because she’s written two books
including the new best-seller A Clean Mess: A Memoir of Sobriety
After a Lifetime of Being Numb, because she’s famous and
successful, Tiffany Jenkins and her family were invited to travel
to California and visit Lego Land. They paid her to have a
wonderful vacation. On the ground at Lego Land, the first thing
Tiffany did was have a complete anxiety-related panic attack.
That’s because Tiffany has an anxiety disorder. And mental health
is tricky, doesn’t care about your success, and it sneaks up on
you.


Tiffany is taking time off from producing and promoting her work
to focus on her mental health, but she takes some time to talk
with us. We discuss how her addiction emerged, how it led to
stealing guns from her copy boyfriend and selling them for drugs,
which landed her in jail, and how she built a community of stable
support in her recovery. We also get into her childhood of
fearing someone would die, her obsessive fear of her disease, and
her recent pondering whether everyone would be better off without
her around.


(As mentioned on the show)


Wits Reunion Show at the Fitzgerald Theater


John Moe’s writing classes at the Loft Literary Center


Math Emergency Farewell Show at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall


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The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255,
1-800-273-TALK


Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.


International suicide hotline numbers available
here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines