Pandemics and epidemics, when they took place in history, have evidently caused unimaginable harm to the healthcare sector, governments, and economies in the countries all over the world. And we are living in history itself now due to the coronavirus pandemic. lockdown all over the world has cost people their jobs, their health, their savings, and everything that ensures one’s survival! But the most unaddressed and hush-hush aspect has been that of the mental health of people all around the world. It is now emerging as an important situation when the damage has been done! Well, India saw many deaths during this time of the pandemic, directly and indirectly. And one such being suicides, the direct result of damaged mental health that is anxiety and depression and indirect result of mass unemployment, starvation, domestic violence, inability to repay loans, poor coöperation from the government, etc. India has some shocking statistics around suicides. India has the highest suicide rates in South East Asia with 300 suicides every 24 hours. Globally it takes 20 attempts per completed suicide according to WHO. The situation is more critical than we think.
Of course, now that yesterday’s incident and many such incidents of Bollywood stars committing suicide suddenly make it a trending topic all over the internet but the consistency of the conversation around suicides that we need to have, to find the solution, never sustains a day or two! That is where we lack, our drawback as a human, we are uneducated about empathy!
“Suicide”, reading the word alerts but seldom does anyone talk about it. And then it happens around us, anytime, revises itself through anyone, shatters, triggers awakens us by making someone sleep forever!
It is the most unaddressed topic that people are succumbing to. And when it comes to being discussed, you criticize the condition of depression as if it is written on a paper, you’ve read it and you know everything about it. Actually, depression is nothing but a blank sheet of paper. It can’t be expressed in words. It’s camouflaged beautifully in Smiles, Laughs, and humor until it unfolds as a disaster around you.
It’s not about the final act of killing oneself because it’s barely complete on its own. It’s a whole trail of actions and thought processes and there’s a whole set of obnoxious experiences that carries a person towards taking such a tragic step.
But we are wary, the media is wary, our parents, our friends, we are all wary of talking about it until it finally befalls. And then when we talk, we just simply say that suicide is a coward’s choice. Well is it? Is it really a choice? Can someone choose depression? Well, no need to answer this question. Even if you think that way, do you even feel a bit righteous in judging the mere action and not the reasons behind it? Which, by the way, you know absolutely nothing about. We criticize the act of suicide after it’s done as if we put a lot of hard work in saving the person. Well, we don’t have the right to even talk about it afterward.
People confidently indulge in motivating speeches, acting so sure, as if something can always be done to prevent someone from taking his life. People give obnoxious reasons and advice about living life and not running away from it, considering life a responsibility to be lived no matter how miserable, giving absolutely no weight to the emotional and mental well-being.
People think life as a roller-coaster ride, there is no getting off the ride in between. But some people just can’t take it anymore, the jerks, nausea, the height and they choose to unhitch their harness and jump off! People think the more you devour life, the more heroic it is as if committing suicide is as simple as breathing carbon dioxide.
One must never underestimate the situations that can lead absolutely anyone, no matter when and where’s king he or she might be, towards manifesting such a frightening thought in them. People think of suicide but from far grounds and because of miseducation they think it is infectious and that’s the reason they don’t bother looking closely into the matter.
I dare you to try to imagine yourself standing on that stool, even if without a rope, you can’t still imagine the severity of the destructive thoughts the person’s having in his mind. But he tries, struggles with loneliness, thrives to bring change, suffers from unprecedented emotional drainage, and then ends up killing himself. Whereas us, cowards, sitting in our houses, criticizing and having no education about the matter, waving this topic off with contempt. Before commenting anything about it, ask yourself, do you really care about others?
A situation that is severe is never hidden, it’s just that we don’t care, remain ignorant, until the end, where we get to be melodramatic about the deceased!
Now don’t be that stupid to think and talk about courage and willpower. They withered away long ago from the life of the person who is standing on a stool with a rope around his neck. A person in depression is in the mental dilemma of either living or going away. He is far away from the worldly affirmations of courage, confidence, and Faith. He is deciding between life and death so don’t try to put stupid stuff on the options list.
And to all those who think they are trying to help, don’t call yourself empaths if all you do is blame depression over over-thinking. Don’t call yourself empaths to invite people to come to talk to you about their grief just because you don’t have any. Depressed person knows who they can reach out to and who they can’t. And maybe those who commit suicide don’t have anyone to confide in truly.
Also, know that the one in depression would never talk but it’s your emotional sensitivity that will help you discover. know, that nothing singular causes it but a lot of attributes together are causative of depression. Not all of them will be visible but knowing them all is not necessary. Just have that sensitivity to identify it or even that slightest vibe of destructive, negative thoughts in another person’s mind and have a way of communicating. But before doing anything, educate yourself enough to be able to talk about it.
Written By- Hardik Sharma (hardik7711@gmail.com)