When people hear the name Trisha Paytas, they either think of extravagant mukbangs with lots of junk food or controversial “trolling” videos. Trisha has exposed the horrible actions of other influencers, cried on her kitchen floor, and has said offensive slander in the past. Most people on the internet either love or hate Trisha, but those who hate her may not fully understand why she acts the way she does.
Trisha has recently teamed up with Ethan Klein of H3H3 Productions to start a podcast called Frenemies. The title is about the fact that Trisha and Ethan have had many altercations on the internet, beginning with Ethan calling Trisha a ‘catfish’ on Instagram, but a friendship began to blossom once the two met in person. Although they are friends, Trisha and Ethan still bicker on the show and Trisha even walked out on an episode when Ethan took things too far. However, the two were able to work through some issues and fans were even able to see a different side of Trisha when Dr. Drew came on the podcast.
In episode seven of Frenemies, Dr. Drew mediates a conversation between Trisha and Ethan about their friendship and what they can do to improve. Throughout the episode Dr. Drew has Trisha open up about her mental illnesses and forces Ethan to understand that those mental issues are the cause of many of her actions. Trisha also explains her gender identity problems as well as her dissociating, both of which Dr. Drew validates. This almost comes as a surprise to Ethan because he, like many other viewers, was skeptical of Trisha when she posted videos on her channel explaining how she felt.
Although Dr. Drew understands that Trisha identifies as a female-to-male transgender person who enjoys doing drag, Trisha stated that she got a lot of backlash from cis-gender people claiming she was trying to use trans people for views. Ethan interjects and claims that many trans people were offended as well, but Trisha was quick to defend herself saying that she spoke to many of her trans friends about her feelings and they all supported her, so she didn’t understand why so many others were being critical.
Trisha goes on to say that she viewed a video of Anthony Padilla interviewing those with Dissociative Identity Disorder and she realized that she has many similar traits to those with DID. When she responded online and discussed how that video helped her, audiences claimed she was doing it for attention. Even Anthony Padilla himself responded and criticized Trisha for taking advantage of this mental illness. Although Trisha does offend one interviewee by calling them crazy, she is truly having an honest and open discussion about her mental health. It wasn’t until viewers bullied her, that she made an outlandish and offensive video mocking DID switches and alters.
Dr. Drew and Trisha then discuss that Trisha does indeed blackout when she is angry and her actions are so out of character that she barely remembers when she has done. Trisha opened up about being sent to multiple mental hospitals in the past and is currently attending regular therapy sessions to improve her mental health. Dr. Drew once again validates Trisha and is proud of her for seeking professional help. Dr. Drew also notes that this behavior stems from childhood trauma and Trisha reveals that she suffered traumatic experiences that she hasn’t even told her parents about yet.
The whole episode isn’t solely about Trisha, Ethan and Trisha wanted to get to the root of their problems as well. Dr. Drew noticed that Ethan and Trisha may have a good dynamic when they bicker, however, Ethan seems to always cross a line and push Trisha farther than she’s willing to go. Trisha explains to Dr. Drew that Ethan has talked about her private information multiple times on the podcast, yet when she brought up something private from Ethan’s past she was the one who was “weaponizing” information.
This is not the first time someone has done this to Trisha. Trisha hung out with David Dobrik and the Vlog Squad when she was dating Jason Nash. David and Jason had a running bit that made Trisha uncomfortable and she spoke out against it many times. She even called out a member of the vlog squad who was dating an underage girl. Even though David and Jason were in the wrong, Trisha was called crazy and irrational for being uncomfortable with both situations. She was made to look like a crazy girlfriend in David’s videos and his big audience believed that without knowing the whole story.
Trisha admits that she constantly feels like she is being called out for toxic and crazy behavior, yet other people are doing much worse things to her. When Ethan discusses her private finances and personal relationship issues on the show, Trisha allowed it because she knew that would make a good episode. However, when Trisha said something that crossed a line with Ethan, he argued with her and made her look like a horrible person who exposes secrets when they are upset, instead of simply deleting what Trisha said while editing the video. Dr. Drew explains that Trisha has every right to be upset and she feels attacked because she thought she was doing exactly what he does to her. He also explains that to be friends and coworkers the two need to set boundaries and clearly explain what one another is comfortable discussing on camera.
Although Trisha may still be controversial (she is often criticized on TikTok for appropriating Jewish culture), there are many things people should not and cannot criticize her for.
Going forward, I hope audiences understand where Trisha is coming from and don’t jump to conclusions right away. Sometimes, audiences forget the human behind the influencer and assume that everything is done for attention, whether that is negative or positive doesn’t matter. However, Trisha Paytas has shown audiences that even the most open people on the internet have problems that they are working through privately and those problems can impact the content they create.
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