"I almost died like three times because I had a phobia of cats and I would run out into the road when I saw my neighbor’s cat and I got hit by cars. I used to get hit by cars regularly. Three times it happened and then my mum was like, You need to go to therapy lady, to heal from this. I did systematic desensitization. You create a hierarchy of fear, so it starts with, like, I’ve got to look at a picture of a cat without crying, and then the next week I’ve gotta look at a video of a cat without crying, and then the next week it’s the video of the cat with the sound on without crying, all the way to holding a cat. I did this year of therapy and then at the end I was holding a cat and I was sobbing, I was so scared. But, then I realized that I was snotty and then I was sneezing and my throat was closing up and I was like, Oh, I’m deathly allergic to cats." — SHABANA AZEEZ for Cultured Magazine (x)























