I am currently a student at a college up in Rochester New York. My college has had a mask mandate and various other COVID-19 restrictions. The mask mandate is extremely important as it has created a large amount of issues for me. Today, I broke, but before I go through that, I want to discuss why Masks are a giant issue for me.

I have autism, as a part of my autism, I have extreme amounts of trouble understanding people’s emotions and feelings without being able to see the facial muscles around the mouth. For the last year, my mental state has been degrading significantly due to this. I feel unable to communicate or even understand people around me. Communicating via ZOOM is even worse for me.

Other problems is headaches and stomach aches, as well as lethargy and more from wearing them. Wearing a mask is a distraction from my learning. Breathing in the waste from my stomachs that I attempt to exhale is also extremely problematic for me. I feel like there is no way in god’s green earth covering up an exhaust pipe for your body and diverting it to the input pipe is healthy and won’t have long-term repercussions on one’s health.

Other major issues with masks come in the form of mental anguish. Masks make me depressed and forced to feel small. Seeing everyone else wearing them feeds into them feeling less like people, but like strangers.

Anyways, today, something in me just snapped. I was attending towards class and I just snapped. I, have had mental snapping problems before and have learned how to deal with them, most usually when I was younger and had less self-control. The last time something like this had happened was two years ago, when my grandfather died. I went to one of the schools offices that usually helps with my autism to find someone to talk to, but as I began talking I became angrier and angrier. And well, I snapped: I just stopped giving a damn, destroyed my mask and ripped off the pro-mask propaganda off the wall. Honestly, it felt damn good.

The people there called the campus police and we had a talk. No prosecution or anything, we talked. I talked my heart out: talking about how I was just tired of no one talking about the negatives, no one respecting that “hey, these masks what are they psychologically doing to our kids”, no one considering that it might be causing more bad than good. Personally, after reading through the studies and with a good understanding of statistics under my belt, I have come to the conclusion that the masks either do not work or have a small positive effect, preventing maybe 1 case in 1k.

The mental problems that are produced by masks are not just limited to me. I remember that the German Study of kids showed that a lot of them had nightmares of people with masks. Phobias developed in childhood lead into problems in adulthood. I still have a slight fear of alligators.

The real effects that individuals with power and influence as well as scientists have forced into society is extremely profound. I believe that at multiple times during the Covid-19 pandemic, they have violated the precautionary principle and Nuremberg code. Which can be summarized as “don’t advise someone on something medical without significant evidence of what it can do” and “even if it is for the greater good, it still requires individual consent with coercion” respectively.

The current situation has had me considering dropping out of college, at least until COVID is over. I kind of want to find work on a farm, where no one bothers me and I can clear my mind working from sun up to sun down. I don’t know, it is probably an idealized version of farm life in my head. I just kind of want to escape from everything and do something that doesn’t require me to think so damn much about everything. I just want something simple for a bit.

I am also considering going on a no-mask strike which would be similar to a hunger strike for me, as I would not be able to get food. Really, I don’t want to do any of this, but it is getting really hard for me to be happy just waiting for someone else to save me. And because I am out of state and don’t have a car, it isn’t like I could just drive to a part of New York or neighboring states that are saying fuck you. Also, I am too young to purchase alcohol and just drink away my woes.

I don’t know, what would you guys do if you were me? I just sending my message out to the universe. Feel free to share this around or at least push the sentiments around. I think not enough is being considered for the mental effects that masks are having on people.