Dear Society,
All of us have our own battles to fight, our own demons that we want to conquer. But the way you’ve handled the mental health of people around you is ridiculous.
Depression is not a joke, and neither is it fancy. You shouted all over social media to come and talk to you if anyone was depressed. This is where you go wrong. It’s not about them coming and sharing your stories with you. It’s about “YOU” taking the initiative and asking people around you if they are doing fine. A depressed person is always busy battling with the noise inside his/her head. It makes them hollow from the inside. They feel hopeless. They might be smiling at you and dying from inside. “I’m fine” and “all is good” are the most common lies we hear every day, and yet we fail to understand what exactly the person is going through.
The most common question was, “Why do they commit suicide?”. The question itself is wrong. We as people fail every time someone dies this painful death. We couldn’t save them. We couldn’t be the ones they could confide in and share every feeling of theirs. It takes guts to take this drastic step. Imagine the trauma he/she goes through before deciding to finally quit their life. No logic works in front of a depressed person. They die a death every day, with their emotions fading away slowly and killing them from inside. It was our failure. We failed to recognise these souls who battled every day from such trauma.
The most common mistake we make is that we end up thinking that a successful person doesn’t suffer. Depression doesn’t see the heights of your achievements. It just creeps in from a small thought. The next notion we conclude is that a depressed person never accepts that they need help. If they do, we make fun of them, saying, “No one says he/she is in depression”. This is the worst thing you can do with someone’s life. It takes guts to accept this, and your silly statement can totally deteriorate their confidence.
If you really want to help someone going through a mental health issue, please talk to them and make them talk to you. Help them break their silence. It’s okay if you are not good at giving advice; listen to them atleast. Don’t let them isolate themselves, and never compare their situation to someone else’s. The capacity for tolerance is not the same in everyone.
Moreover, it’s high time we start talking about men’s mental health. They, too, have societal pressures on themselves & at times, they fail to express themselves. So let’s lend an ear to everyone around us and make them feel good. Let’s tell them they are not alone in this battle and change ourselves into better human beings.
From,
Someone who fought depression