A Word on Suicide - and Why it is Never the Answer
Last week, a classmate of @me-shell and mine took his own life out of the blue, coinciding with the suicide of Chester Bennington - the front man of Linking park. Chester himself took his own life on what was supposed to be Chris Cornell's 53rd birthday - the former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman. Chester had been very close to Chris, performing Hallelujah at his funeral and being deeply impacted by his death as described by bandmate Mike Shinoda:
"He was getting halfway through [rehearsals] and getting choked up. Even when we did play the whole song and it was taped for TV he kind of just stopped towards the end."
No-one will ever be able to prove a definitive link between these events. Despite this, I will be taking this blog on a detour away from cryptocurrency today to discuss the elephant in the room - depression and suicide.
The Mental Health Stigma
In modern society we have a phenomenal health care system that looks after all our physical needs. People recover from horrifying injuries and can literally be brought back after flatlining - I have been exposed all too much to these events as a result of my mother being a volunteer Advanced Paramedic for over a decade. Despite all this, our healthcare system is lacking unbelievably when it comes to taking care of our mental health.
Depression is one of the nastiest mental health conditions anyone can suffer through. It pushes people further into isolation, which is exacerbated by the social stigma that is too often associated with poor mental health. A large proportion of society attributes depression to failure, and blames the individual for the condition. However, as demonstrated by the deaths of Chris and Chester, even the rich and famous are effected in the same way each of us could be. They were endlessly successful, yet that did not stop them from taking the most drastic action one can take.
What Causes Suicide
Does this surprise you?
It is very easy to paint a successful, happy picture of yourself on social media to convince all your followers your life is perfect, but this has two unfortunate side-effects that we often fail to consider:
If you are suffering through loneliness, isolation, or depression, no-one will ever know as you have put up an outward front of happiness. The worst part is that depressed people actively put up this front and are stigmatised into not reaching out.
Other people think that their life is far worse than that of all their friends on social media. In fact, extensive social media use is directly correlated to plummeting life satisfaction and happiness.
At some point, the scales tip and the coping resources of the individual are outweighed by the pain which they are dealing with. It is critical help reaches people before their scales tip.
We Can all Make a Difference
It is trivial to be caught up with ourselves all the time, and forget to keep an eye on the people around us. There is no harm in reaching out to old friends you have fallen out of touch with, or checking in on family members from time to time. To you it may take 30 seconds to drop a message, or half an hour of your time to call someone. To the person on the other end it shows someone cares, which can mean the world to them.
When we explore this is the context of the internet, things get a lot more difficult. I would bet my life savings on all of us forgetting, from time to time, that the people we interact with across the internet are just as real as you are. It is easy to be a keyboard warrior and plaster your own perceptions and assumptions across the person on the other end. It is much harder to apply empathy and see them as a human being too. Please remember to be kind to one another.
If You are Depressed, Know it WILL Get Better
Suicide is never the answer.
It may look like checking out will fix things for you, but taking this route will leave utter devastation in its wake for friends, family and the community. Please reach out to the people around you and tell them how you are feeling. Most human beings on this planet are surprisingly decent when to comes to dealing with life and death situations. If you do not want to reach out to anyone, and would for any reason prefer to talk to a neutral party instead, here is a list of free international hotlines you can call 24/7.
Adam was 24. He left behind a loving extended family.
Chester was 41. He is survived by a widow and six children.
Chris was 52. He left behind a wife and three children.
Remember that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem - and it is ok to ask for help. I would like to let Chester wrap up this blog entry with one entry from his discography of suicide notes.
Content credit:
[Banner, unable to identify original author]
Isolation, HerCampus
It Gets Better, EqualHearts
Heavy, Linking Park
Footer, @me-shell
Thank you so much for sharing this. The facts are absolutely heartbreaking but so true. I am myself a suicide survivor and I can relate so much to what you say in this post. Depression took away my sanity, my personality, my friends. It is so unfortunate that the stigma attached to it is still very present and that people tell us to take medication and change our mindsets and this and that and then we start to view ourselves as vulnerable and dependant on artificial means to function properly.
Im doing all I can on a day to day basis to end the stigma. We need to make a conversation about this. Thanks alot for sharing ! :) @dutch
Everyone always thinks that they are the only ones who have a hard life, whereas everyone else is doing perfectly fine. We need posts like this that talk more about this issue openly and outwardly. It's so important. Thanks for opening up this topic area. Have a great day!
You are so right - while the topic is not the most pleasant it is critical we can talk about it in the open so everyone knows they are not alone if they are going through this.
Thank you for your comment.
Great post, I think you should share this on as many other social media outlets as you can.. it's just my gut feeling that most of the Steemians here are forward thinking, positive, and (probably) not suicidal. Then again, I could be totally wrong on that... I just mean that from my week+ I've been here, I've noticed far more support , encouragement and love than I've seen on most other social media platforms combined lol.
My point? You should spread your "If You are Depressed, Know it WILL Get Better" message as many places as you can! That said, it seems the "We Can all Make a Difference" aspect can apply to anyone :)
You're right about people struggling putting up a front of happiness; like a social mask to hide the true emotions they're going through. We live in a judgemental world and i think sometimes thats what may turn people away from asking for help. I hope this post reaches out to someone who is struggling and gives them a positive change of views!
Ohh, that's sad...
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Sorry to hear about your classmate @dutch
Great post and hopefully it informs people.
Nice to be open about suicide, I've spoken to another person today who posted pictures of cutting his arms. Hopefully he reads this too.
Greetings, fellow-dutchie
Hello friend @dutch , great post, i congratulate you, keep it up
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