Suicide is not a selfish act. When someone loses their battle with depression or anxiety, the loved ones left behind often have absolutely no idea how to react or feel. While moving through the stages of grief, they eventually get to anger, which seems (at first) to fit the dimensions of the void left behind quite well. But thats a cop-out. Its an easy way out for someone scrambling (and failing) to understand something. Imagine one day, without warning, you slowly lose interest in everything in your life. Your friends, your family, your hobbies, your job... All the things you once loved, your brain now tells you is a chore, a hassle, a pain in the ass, or simply too much work. Imagine watching in horror as this feeling involuntarily escalates, day after day, until you begin feeling like answering the phone, making a meal, or even getting out of bed was so daunting a task, that you simply dont bother. You just... dont... want... to. Eventually, you start feeling that everyone in the world has become an opponent, or an enemy, out to get you somehow. Imagine KNOWING that feeling this way is ridiculous and pointless, but being forced to feel it anyway, unable to manually alter your mind-state - like theres some twisted, sadistic puppeteer in the back of your mind, making you feel this way anyway, laughing maniacally with each tug of a string. Imagine feeling this way for a decade. Imagine your own mind becoming your biggest enemy of all - being absolutely unable to shake the feeling that life is literally too painful to bear, but knowing that you have to suffer on indefinitely, only so you wont hurt those around you. Suffer on, so that OTHERS wont hurt. Then eventually, you feel those others tire of your constant moodiness, your drama, or whatever other lame euphemism they want to give it. They grow weary of your apparent inability so just suck it up, or get over it, and they start to push you away, until, in your own mind, even this last sliver of a reason to live starts to fade... Until youve looked depression in the eye, and seen the vast, endless darkness and emptiness there, you dont get to judge, you dont get to point the finger. Calling a victim of depression who loses their battle selfish will only help to perpetuate the stigmas that provide depression the perfect incubation chamber in which to fester. If you know someone who suffers from depression or anxiety, dont get angry. Dont push them away. Get educated. Help them. Drown them in understanding and patience. Heres a great TEDTalk given by Andrew Solomon on depression and anxiety: (ted/talks/andrew_solomon_depression_the_secret_we_share). Hes been all the way to the bottom and back, and lives on to speak of his experiences (very eloquently, I might add). Suicide is not a selfish act... To call suicide a selfish act, is selfish. Rest In Peace, Robin Williams. :(
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 15:58:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015