Icoso

It’s World Mental Health Day, which means it’s time for an oddly deep and personal message from your favourite 20-year-old Australian gamedev YouTuber and professional Mariokarter 💚

Mental health has been a conniving companion for me throughout my life. I’ve dealt with a fair amount of anxiety and depression, and for a long time I chalked it up to the growing pains of becoming an adult. But the more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realised that mental health shows up in all sorts of ways - some obvious, some not, and it can affect people very differently. Not all battles are visible, and neither are the victories, so I’ve been striving to celebrate the small wins in my life! It can be scary to feel too many things at once, but something I’m wary of is when I don’t feel much at all. A lot of my healing has mainly just come from… life, to be honest. Going through it, learning from my mistakes, and slowly figuring out what kind of person I am.

One thing I’ve been reflecting on lately is the gravity of making YouTube content, even as a smaller creator. I’m incredibly grateful for the response to the first Goober video - it was crazy sauce seeing so many people connect with it! It’s also been really cool to think about how YouTube could be something more sustainable going forward. That said, some comments I’ve been receiving are a bit… intense! I know most people mean well, and I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by expectations, especially when these videos take months to make. So, part of my journey is detaching myself from the pressure of internet strangers and instead work on projects that I feel genuinely passionate about!

In addition to YouTube, my time is also eaten up by my job and full-time study at uni (oh how I love attaching grades to my self-worth!). I’m learning to pace myself, to focus on meaningful projects, and to trust that the right people will stick around ^-^ I'd also like to highlight the strength it takes to ask for help when struggling with mental wellbeing. I think it takes a lot of maturity and self-confidence to learn how to speak vulnerably about these topics, which is something I also hope to get better at. I'm happy to see a shift towards normalising speaking up about our struggles and how to create support systems, because it's not always easy to notice what truly helps us.

On a brighter note, I’ve been finding things that *do* make me happy (cats) and distancing myself from those that *don’t* (the state of the world tbh… o_O). I’ve also been noticing just how incredible my friends and family are, and making space to appreciate them (because I’m very lucky to have them in my life!)

So, if you’ve made it through my incoherent ramblings, thank you! Mental health *always* matters, so I hope today brings you something to smile about. Life is simply too weird for misery, so stay kind, stay curious, and stay silly :) 💚

3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 642



@RafaelSysak

Nothing to say but here to support!! Stay silly! (I will adopt that for my life for now on)

3 weeks ago | 16  

@ShyGuysHere

Something that makes me happy are gooblets :)

3 weeks ago | 16  

@Lou-2828

love that its getting better for u!! and deffinitly pace yourself, we'll be here waiting!

3 weeks ago | 3  

@front_enzo

Please tell me that the gooblet from the image wasn't harmed for this post 🙃

3 weeks ago | 3

@tammynordhoff9199

Take care, man! It's nice to see you focusing on mental health! Keep up the good work!

3 weeks ago | 4  

@kanethedev

It's not always easy to speak up about your own problems to a community and you definitely made the right choice. Wish you and all fellow Goobers out there the best in life!

3 weeks ago | 8  

@zohar5198

Content made by passion will always be 1000 times better then content made by pressure. take as much time as you need🙏

3 weeks ago | 3  

@HRV-Andromeda

Thanks for the kind words for us, not only a creator but an inspiration!

3 weeks ago | 2  

@peanut3438

Thank you for sharing this post!

3 weeks ago | 2  

@Colm-u8p

I clicked read more and it flash banged me.

3 weeks ago | 0

@TheShelfman

Much love Icoso! :)

3 weeks ago | 3  

@Negreb25

It was also best friend day 10th of October

3 weeks ago | 2  

@filklo542

Hey! I loved the first video. I always wanted to make evolution simulator but everything wasnt working. Could you pls make a tutorial to make smg similliar? I would rlly love to see it. Im okay with ur choice tho

3 weeks ago | 0

@LightyCode

Mental health day and my day starts off bad >n< But gooblets always make everything better :3 And I'm at home now, so nothing can hurt me today >:3 (Either way, It's good to see that someone is talking about things like this, especially such silly people like you, because this stuff always helps make a dent)

3 weeks ago | 5  

@farzanayasmin1797

Its odd to see a game dev post about "mental healtg" but anyways take care our favorite gane dev

3 weeks ago | 2

@Bleatnik490

I have not smiled this much for years...

3 weeks ago | 0

@DiamondDev45

Amazingly said. It's really important to speak up and spread awareness of mental health and its impacts on the world and the individual. Your videos always bring such entertainment to me and are always worth the wait. I genuinely can't wait to see what comes next from you and hope your life goes beyond smoothly. Like Gooblets, we can make it through life 🙂

3 weeks ago (edited) | 8  

@Aperson-w6m

Didn’t expect this from funny gooblet guy

3 weeks ago | 1

@Lolloer-o8r

Icoso rember me

3 weeks ago | 2

@thaithinhjk

I'm not crying you are😭

3 weeks ago | 3