THE DISEASE CALLED IGNORANCE | DEPRESSION

DEAR YOU,

I know we are strangers, all you know are the little snippets of fairytales my Facebook profile provides, and the images you ascribe with my name are the ones I have made available on my Instagram. You determine how much you love, hate, respect, or admire me, and my level of intellect by my tweets and shares. So yes, we are strangers. But to you who sits by me on Sundays, or you who has taught me the mechanism of action of paracetamol in class, you who holds my hands at night and you who laughs with me by day, we are indeed perfect strangers, but I will tell you a story nonetheless.

Yesterday, the girl who sits two rows away from me, the one tagged the “class clown” whose smile always caused you to laugh, the one who goes out of her way to ensure everyone has a good laugh, mostly at the detriment of the teacher, yeah, she was found in a pool of her blood with a soaked note worded “I am sorry, I couldn’t do it anymore”.

“it was so unexpected”, “why didn’t she come to me” “she seemed so happy” “she had everything in life” “why didn’t she talk to the counselor or someone” “what did she have to be depressed about?” “where was she from?”  those are the questions and statements that seem to fly around after the effect.

And the boy who sat quietly at the back, the one who walked with his head down and spoke few words to a chosen select, was found with a cord to his neck hanging from the tree in his yard, with no words and preamble, for him they said, “well he was a weirdo” “dude that sucks but I mean are you surprised?” “well I knew he was quiet, but this is just so extreme” “maybe if I had talked to him…” and it goes on and on.

There is a “shame and judgement” attributed to mental illness of any sort, people feel as though because it is not a physical thing you can see or relate to then it must be fake or a figment of imagination, it must be a simple mind over matter kind of thing, but really it goes beyond that. You need to understand that no one wants to be depressed, it is not a discount code or voucher so no, no one wants it.

Do not try to belittle how people feel with the “we all have those days comments” or “it happens to us all” or stories about how you have an aunt who was once depressed, if someone trusts you enough to open up to you about their difficulty then you should make an effort to help them, if you cant find someone who can.

Do not look at them different or with sympathy like they can’t function in life, depression does not make you weak, yes when it hits you it is a form of weakness, but you are still your awesome self. It is not a disability.

People die because no one hears them, or they feel no one will understand, people hide because they do not want to be judged, do not forget that you never really know someone till you get close enough, so even of it seems like they have the perfect life they have a right to feel however they feel, it is their emotions.

Please let us be more sensitive and make conscious efforts to help those around us.

STAY SHINING LOVELIES 🌹

PHOTOS BY: THE BLACKSCRIBBLER

MODEL: THE BLACKSCRIBBLER