Prena Poetry

People die in silence everyday and yet here we are foolishly trying to convince them that there is no reason to feel sad or they’re either too young to be suicidal. We’ve heard families convincing each other not to be depressed but rather feel grateful, and friends faking sympathy with barely any idea about what you are actually going through.

The idea of mental health awareness and suicide prevention is not just about reaching out to the people with fancy pamphlets, medications and cliché speeches. It is about whether the people out there are being heard or not.

But instead what do we actually do when someone opens up? We slam them with a label and eventually tag them with an expiry date. A girl in early teens expressing her anxiety is an ‘annoying attention seeker’. A man in his mid 20s fearing that he might not get his life together is a ‘failure’. Suicidal youths are ‘selfish’ and suicide victims are boldly imprinted as a ‘coward’.

Mental illness and minor suicidal behaviour is just a one part of such a wider picture, and yet our society doesn’t take it seriously. Until we get to witness a suicide, where the half of us blames the family for being irresponsible, while the other half falsely potrays the victim as a weak personal and overwhelm the corpse with sympathy. In the end what good did we actually do? What did we achieve sympathizing a dead body? When we could been there for them earlier and quietly listened rather than judging them for what they couldn’t be.

Reaching out to people is easy but it matters whether you listen to them or not. It’s not always the helpline numbers and month long medications they need. ‘people need people’ and its only people that can fully heal another people. The next time you come across a sad girl, don’t tell her to patch up her insecurities with a make up. Stop shaming men who expresses fear. And stop labeling your child as lazy just because he/she withdraws from the environment around.

We never know what actually happens inside a human mind.

Your neighbor’s laughter is not always joyful, your child is not just ‘lazy’, your depressed friend isn’t stupid, your mother and sister isn’t an attention seeker, your father has fears same as you, and you are not selfish. Be there for someone, someone will definitely be there for you. You are strong, you have always been. There’s no doubt about the humanness and boldness you carry.

to all the brave souls

love from Prena

remember to be kind