An Ode to The Reality: Mental Health Matters More Than Money, Kindness is What We All Must Preach

Do you ever feel the walls closing down on you? Or do you see the darkness in every bright situation? Do you start questioning everything in your life? And do you question every person that has stood by your side and every decision that you made that has changed you for the good?

Depression is real. We tend to believe whatever we see. We see happy faces, we assume that the person is happy. We ignore all the signs, we ignore the people who are sad. We keep ourselves distant from people talking about sad things. We see a person committing suicide and we question why? Ask yourself why. 

People need love and acceptance a lot more than they need your advice. The world needs to be doused with kindness, empathy, and sensitivity. We all need to do better as a nation. You need to do better, I need to do better. We aren’t talking about the right things and we are definitely not hearing enough. Everyone you meet is going through battle you know nothing about. A reminder to be kind to each other and reach out to each other is what we all want. The future is so uncertain for so many. Let’s make sure that a support system is a certainty. 

You can sound confident and have anxiety, you can look happy and be miserable inside, you can look healthy but feel like shit. You can be good-looking and feel ugly. So all you can do is be kind because every person is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

This is a tough time for all. Everyone is stuck at their home and not many of us have the privilege of having a good house. But a good house we do not mean living in and luxurious apartment, rather it means having the right kind of people around you. With the news about the sudden demise of the actor Sushant Singh Rajput, everyone is shocked beyond words. It is a clear-cut example of not everything that looks gold is glittery. There is a life beyond the money that you earn and the clothes that you wear. This is the life that people need to search in you.

At the same time, it is also true that you must take care of your own self. No one should come to a conclusion of killing their own life. This is why suicide is considered a crime in India. All that you do does not just affect you but affects everyone around you. This one stint that has happened has opened everyone’s mind about the fact that a person can have crores of money but still not feel happy from within.  We can see Instagram been flooded with mental health awareness quotes, WhatsApp being flooded with messages like “I am there for you” and almost every form of social media being clouded with sudden mental health check-ups. But the point is, will all these people be there for you tomorrow when the situation dies down? No. At that time you will be left alone with your own thoughts and your state of mind. This is what leads a person to commit such a big thing. 

Today a lot of people will make promises. Today a lot of people will reach out to their loved ones and check on them. But tomorrow, will they care? Make sure your promises aren’t hollow. Make sure your empathy isn’t temporary. When you give someone the assurance that you will be there for them, make sure that you actually are. It takes courage for someone to talk about their feelings, so if you give them hope only to later disappoint them, they will do more harm than good.

With the lockdown going on, people have been left devastated. Everyone is so caught up in their lives that they are not checking up on others. This is why we say that, in case of an emergency, save yourself first.

We cannot even begin to emphasize how important it is to keep a check on the people around us. Generally, people hesitate to reveal their true state of mind when you ask them how they are doing. So it is important that we all dig deeper by asking questions that will have more meaningful replies. Sometimes just being a good listener can be life-saving even when you don’t know it is. If you are able to make someone’s day then do it because the world needs more love.

Everyone has post success plans. But one fails, no one wants to talk about how to deal with failure. Be kind to everyone around you. You don’t know the battle they are fighting. Rest easy and keep your streak alive.

News channels are reporting Sushant Singh Rajput’s death and saying that he had no reason to die. That’s literally not how mental health works. Our country needs to start talking and taking this seriously and not find justifiable excuses for being depressed. We all need to have a conversation.

The pre-Covid time had 45 million people in India are suffering from anxiety disorders and another 45.7 million people suffering from depressive disorders. One can’t even imagine the effect of lockdown on all this. Therefor all we can say is, continue to be in touch with the people who make you laugh and share the silliest jokes. Continue to feel the fresh air from your balcony, gardens with generous use of masks and sanitizers. Keep providing support to friends and family because all they want is your helping hand. Lockdown is not easy. And no matter how privileged you are, things can get to you. Negative thoughts often get multiplied with their own negative reinforcements. What might not actually be a huge issue to someone might be the cause of your intensified thought process. And the truth is that no one can understand these internal issues until the time you communicate.

This is a tough time and it’s okay to feel as if you are a second away from calamity. All of us feel alone and disintegrated right now. Let’s change that. Please be safe everyone and keep your close ones in your loop.

People need to be educated about depression. It is a huge illness and it can happen to the most successful and happy looking people. With every high profile death, we find ourselves in the same place. Photos of mourners and dead are splashed all over the internet. What is the need? We are failing as humans. Every time we look at those pictures, we feel saddened and frustrated about the lack of humanity amongst the people and lack of privacy and respect for the dead. With all the love, kindness, and respect our heart can muster, to whosoever will listen and will read this, please don’t participate in making trauma more difficult for their family and stop publicizing every move of theirs. Don’t publicize grief the way people are doing it right now. Don’t click on or look at the pictures of devastated family members. Our instincts should be to protect and to help. If there was a time to step back and re-evaluate how we do things, it’s now. If there was a time to be kind, it’s now. Please be kind.