Welcome to the 21st century

Population: over 6 billion. Major western powers: USA. My country: Australia. My view of it: Slowly sinking down hill. Why? Mainly politics, but there’s some other factors that are found not only here, but everywhere. Ignorance is a main one. But not just any type of ignorance, it’s the type when people honestly think they know and understand everything. It pisses me off because I want to scream at them for being so ignorant and acting like they know everything, but I can’t bring myself to because I know they honestly think and feel like they do. I use to be the same. It comes doubly as hard when it comes to mental illness. Most of the “normal” people genuinely think they know how we all feel. Once again, I use to be the same. They think depression is long lasting sadness that can be cured, all they need to do is find the right thing to make us happy and the depression will “disappear”. They think anxiety is over worrying and once we calm down or the thing that is making us nervous goes away that we will be fine again. And finally, they think Post Traumatic Stress will eventually fade as we get older. Then there’s the “bigger” mental differences like autism, schizophrenia and ones like those. That’s when they pull in stocks like medication and just hope for the best. Most people don’t help or even believe in long term “mental illness”, they think it’s a phase, or a way to get attention or even just a reason to shun and humiliate you. Rather than trying to help and make it better, most people will turn away from you, tell you to “man up” and stop attention seeking or just generally not allow you to talk about it. Guys have it worse than girls in many places. I mean most the time people see girls as “weak” and “emotional” anyway, so they can sometimes get help, but for guys it’s completely different. Even a mention of feeling emotional and he’s made fun of and told to “man up”. And that’s not even to mention what happens if you have a reason behind it (like abuse, rape etc). Basically in those cases, no one wants to know. It’s all “don’t ask, don’t tell” type of things. It just doesn’t make sense. People know that bad stuff happens and that suicide rates are going up, yet they refuse to talk about the issues or what caused them. Yes I know it’s hard to hear and a lot of the time you don’t know what to say, but it’s still better for the person to get their story out and at least hear that someone cares and is sorry you went through it… well for me it is anyway. I just wish they understood. I mean even with my friends (a lot of them have been or are currently suicidal), I just feel like none of them really understand. This is probably because most of them suffer from depression or anxiety, where as I suffer from a mix of Post Traumatic Stress and depression, but I thought that it would help and that we’d be able to help each other. Instead I just feel like I’m helping the ones I can (mainly the ones who have been through similar situations to me), and all most of them can think about is how they are hurting. That’s why I like Suicide Project. We all know that each other is hurting, we all know it is completely different circumstances, but we all bond together to help each other. I really hope it’s here in 20 – 30 years when my kids (if I have any) are old enough to know what all these “mental” issues are so if they ever need it, I can be sure there is a place for them to go even if they feel like the world has turned it’s back on them. I guess that’s all for now.

CPC