Tasha Lawson wasn’t supposed to have a TikTok account when she posted a video about her experience with cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS). So, when her clip went viral, amassing more than 1 million views and 2,500 comments, she knew it was time to come clean to her parents. One day, when the 16-year-old high school student got home, Tasha sat her dad and mom, Tanya, down. "I was like, 'Hey, I did something. You're probably not going to be proud of how I achieved it, but I achieved something. I lied. I did have TikTok, and I posted a video about my cyclic vomiting syndrome that got a million views.' "
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00:00Hi guys my name is Tasha and I am a teenager living with a chronic illness.
00:04When your teen says they have a viral video you're like oh my god what kind of video.
00:09But then you realize okay you raised them okay.
00:16So I have something called cyclic vomiting syndrome and I've had it my whole life but
00:20just recently got diagnosed with it over the summer. When I saw that TikTok was gonna get banned
00:25I was like well this is a chance like this is a sign I need to get my story out there.
00:30If I get stressed if I miss a meal if I don't get enough sleep like 40 other different triggers
00:38I throw up anywhere from like 20 to 40 times. We kind of figured that something was wrong for
00:44a long time I'd always kind of had a sensitive stomach we thought I might have been like dairy
00:48sensitive at one point. I read about this condition and it just seemed to match her
00:54so closely and it's actually they think it's a migraine variant or related to migraines.
01:00If you're throwing up like that many times talk to somebody talk to somebody like it's not normal.
01:06Obviously it felt extremely validating to me to have that diagnosis. I'm so lucky and so privileged
01:12that I like I have a mom and I have family who like told me it wasn't in my head. You're not
01:18crazy if you think there's something wrong you know your body better than anybody else knows
01:23your body. Don't let people tell you like there's nothing wrong or it's like it's just stress if you
01:28know deep down you know it's not. Being a spokesperson for people with this issue is
01:36such like a calling to me. Just give her some power back over this condition. I feel like it's
01:43also really empowering to think that something that has impacted my life so negatively has now
01:48become something that is so positive and I think that is also like extremely inspiring to like
01:54myself. While it is difficult this is my life and this is something I'm going to have to deal with
01:59for the rest of my life but I would say like I'm a strong person and this is something that I will
02:04forever push through.