September is Suicide Prevention Month. Nevertheless, suicide remains a sensitive, and likely less touched, matter, because of the overwhelming stigma and misconceptions, on top of the weight of suicide itself. We are all aware that suicide is the event of intentionally ceasing one's own life. We are also "aware" of "some" of the reasons it happens. But despite this awareness, it's a wonder why we cannot break through its trappings—be us the suicidal person, a relative, an observer, or an unrelated person.
I chopped this really long blog into five sections, links provided. You can choose whichever piques your interest, if any. In this blog, I'm not going to talk about my depression/suicide story, or discuss technical knowledge (there are registered professionals we should consult about that), or give some motivational speech to lift up suicidal people who might not even be able to read this. There are a lot of those articles already. In this blog, I'm going to talk about some of the untouched and undiscussed topics about the people outside depression from my perspective. This may trigger you in a lot of ways, but let me flow my thoughts out.
DISCLAIMER: This blog represents the opinion of the author and the author alone. While this blog is influenced by various academic and insight articles, this blog should not be taken as a sole reference to the broad talks on suicide. Discussions are also welcome.
"It's all in your head", "Come on, just be positive", "There are a lot of people who have it worse", "Be grateful for your life"—these are among the toxic positivities we hear, a lot. Even for people without mental concerns, these actually sound cringy. <read more>
And with these toxic positive remarks comes the convenience card. There are people who are only "depressed" when it's convenient for them. There are these people who don't really reach out to people, who don't really cheer up people, who ridicule other people's sufferings. But when it's their time of sadness, they suddenly become "mental health advocates". <read more>
Yes, information at our fingertips. We are free to take whatever mental health quiz we see. But, remember that they carry risks, too. These quizzes should not be solely relied upon. As much as they seem to resonate our feelings with their words, they are standardized questions with certain algorithms to generate results based on the combination of answers. <read more>
Suicide thoughts are not something to be made fun of, but honestly, I can't blame the memes. Partly true—a lot of people reduce the relevance of depression into mere sadness. There is this overwhelming reduction which you might have experienced yourself. Some people are suffering from depression, which outsiders view as "attention-seeking" or "too demanding", to which people respond with ignorance, dismissal, or toxic positivity. <read more>
I don't know how all religions work, but regarding mental health, I believe that concrete, human support works better than "just spiritual" support. "Directing people to prayer" might not be enough at all times. Maybe, on top of suggesting prayer, religious leaders can teach their members (especially the depressed ones) meditation, mindfulness, calming anxiety, and other science-backed practices. Science and religion CAN mix—let's not be closed. <read more>
In summary, I'd like to remind everyone that these are just my opinions. But, I hope there are insights you picked up. We are sometimes mean and insensitive to others. We make mistakes, but we can correct them. We are human. And we have the ability to support each other.
Comments