Harloween: Erin Valenti- Into The Matrix

I recently had a freaky situation that reminds me of this: I was at a mall that I don’t normally shop at and noticed a woman wearing a really cute dress. I thought about asking her where she got her dress, but I thought it was creepy, so I didn’t. The NEXT DAY, I was scrolling through Facebook and the dress/company showed up in my Facebook feed!! I did NOT say anything out loud, as I was alone! How did it know?!? So creepy!

As someone getting their MSc in neuroscience, this brainwave monitoring device for bosses to heavily monitor and discipline their workers is terrifying; scientific management to a WHOLE other level. The field of neuroscience and neuropsychology should be used to benefit peoples lives, not make it worse.

Just to throw out as someone with Bipolar disorder, my personal experience was that the women that I know we're often waiting longer for a diagnosis because it was initially diagnosed as something related to "mood swings" or "hormones" and only once those had been ruled out was Bipolar considered. The 2 men in my support group were almost immediately taken more seriously in terms of looking straight at a mental health explanation for their behaviour and symptoms. Just my experience

I knew Erin. We were in a peer group for entrepreneurs and i actually talked to her in person 2 weeks before this happened. From what i gathered, she was in possibly the best mental state she had ever been in. That was my impression. She was extremely well poised and little to nothing rattled her. She was also very pragmatic and a realist so she wasnt the type to believe anything - quite the oppoaite. She was extremely intelligent so to convince her of something, you better have strong evidence and/or an argument. When i heard she was "freaking out" on the phone with her parents, that really struck me because my immediate reaction was "she must have heard or seen something that was way out of bounds" it scared me, honestly, because i always considered her a person of integrity and very credible I find it very hard to believe that she lost her mind and crawled into the back of her car and died. Based on everything i knew and observed, and if the agreed upon facts of this situation are mostly true, I think common sense and basic logic points to homicide. What is further disturbing is her families fear in pursuing this. Im sure they suspect it. I cant explain how much i am sure her mind was in a healthy, strong place, but in some of these peer groups, people get very transparent and vulnerable. I wont disclose anything other than the narrative that she suddenly lost her mind is extremely unlikely. I have wondered, to this day, what in the world would make her say "we all live in the matrix" in some sort of panic. She must have stumbled across something extremely convincing and disturbing. Scary stuff.

I am a software engineer and i tell you, this is the time to decide which technologies we SHOULD NOT develop.

Oh man I've met her! I had no idea this happened to her!! She's so kind and although my interaction with her was very short she really inspired me with my personal small business and had some really helpful advice. She was such a huge advocate for women in tech!! This is heart breaking I'm so sad I've never heard her story. She was truly incredible!

“Just because we can doesn’t mean we should!” Amen Stephanie

No lie- this is one of the scariest Harloween episodes ever. I’m fricking terrified of all this technology

I own a record store and plenty of "sane" people buy records without a player. Its art and sentimental to many.

As someone with ADHD, the idea of being reprimanded for not paying close enough attention is absolutely terrifying.

All harloween episodes should be in one playlist so we can watch them all the time😍

I have hypothyroidism and I take medication for it. At the start of COVID I wasn't able to get my medicine for a few months. When I was able to get it, I started talking it like I always did. It put me into a thyroid storm and caused mental fog and extreme anger until I passed out. The hospital refused to see me because they thought I was just drunk. My pharmacist is wonderful and knows me, so she was able to look at what I was experiencing and figure out I had essentially OD'd my thyroid. It was so scary.

Hey Steph, I have bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and PTSD. I was diagnosed at 18, and I am now 48. I appreciate you talking about the connection between mental and physical health and how it is so debilitating. I struggle with chronic pain, Ibs, and sleep apnea as well. It is incredibly difficult to live a normal life. Just felt like someone heard me today when I watched your video. Thank you. ❤️ it is possible she did have her first manic episode, and it would have terrified her.

Stephanie THANK YOU SO MUCH for not using background music when you talk about topics IT MEANS SO MUCH.

blameitonjorge did a video about Erin 3 yrs ago & I, too, went down the rabbit hole. That video is one of very few that i rewatched bc i just couldn't let it go. Im so glad ur covering her case & all of the layers to it, i feel like it should be more well known. May Erin rest in peace ❤

I’ve been captivated by this woman & the events leading to her death since I first heard about it a few years ago.

I don’t understand how you aren’t at a million plus yet. Totally deserve it.

Her personality does remind me a bit of people I've known who have Bipolar II, which is a less intense version of the disorder, to put it in VERY simple terms. That level of extroversion and high energy creativity very much describes them, and only rarely would they swing into the depressive side of things. But my best friend once had a very scary experience after just a tiny bit of weed and some alcohol during a New Year's party that was like a manic episode that turned into a psychotic break that thankfully only lasted the night, but she'd still get flashbacks of it for months afterwards. She had to spend that night strapped to a hospital bed because she was out of her mind at that point, but the hours leading up to it just seemed like an intense manic episode. She hadn't been diagnosed with Bipolar at the time, and in fact that incident was what lead to her getting the diagnosis, because another factor that sent her into that episode was a medication she was on that causes extreme instability in people with Bipolar, but I can't quite remember what it was. I think it was for tissue damage in her throat from her ED..? It's been a few years. But yeah, I've also seen similar episodes in my mother, who I don't think has Bipolar, but it's never been ruled out, either. For her it was Gabapentin that caused the mania and confusion. Extremely scary. Even landed her in the ICU once. I'd say this poor woman definitely had something in her system, but it could easily have been something totally innocuous that just hit her system wrong, and she wasn't able to get help in time.

No way her car was there for 5 days without being noticed. Really good video and assessment! Impressive work .

I'm a nurse and professor in a college of nursing. When it comes to the thyroid, it has to be closely monitored; whether hyper or hypo. Depending on the condition, thyroid storm can occur as a result of over or under-medicating. This usually results from patients not following up as regularly as they should. If the cause is in fact thyroid storm, as a busy professional woman, she may have been inadvertently neglecting to follow-up with her doctor. Just a speculation.