In 2017, the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland became the subject to 6213 suicides, 5821 of which were in the UK and 392 of which in the ROI. In the UK, men are 3 times more likely to take their own lives than women, and in the Republic of Ireland 4 times more likely.
Where these statistics are gradually beginning to decline (although do tend to fluctuate every few years), there are many ways in which these could have the potential of being prevented. Of course, me writing a blog post about how you need to ensure that even those of whom you perceive to be the strongest of friends is unlikely to make drastic change to the world, but if it makes you think and you go forward to check up on those you typically wouldn’t, then even that’s a start.
In a modern day society, men are still very much deemed to be the strongest people walking planet Earth who have absolutely no chance of experiencing any emotional trauma and are obviously 100% okay all of the time, right?
Wrong.
12.5% of men in the UK are suffering from one of the common mental health disorders. Of that 12.5%, only 36% go on to actually receive the help that they need due to the ongoing taboo and pressure that they have to not feel validated in regard to their incredibly valid feelings. Alongside this, there is also thought to be a large male under diagnosis in terms of when it comes to actually psyching yourself up enough to actually go to your GP, which again completely eradicates the push forward in terms of getting help, correlating and potentially being of reason to the 36% who actually do end up getting the help in which they require.
Where it’s important to increase the awareness of the fact that men suffer too, and factually to much more of a severe extent than that of women, all human beings with a functioning brain and body, no matter the circumstance you may potentially be in you’re as likely to be affected by a mental health illness as anyone else, which leads me on to the main point.
Our strongest friends that smile everyday, are high achievers, get up and function in the most perfect of ways who we never see have a bad day are the ones that we, in hindsight, need to inevitably worry about the most. As a human, I think I can talk for everyone when I say that it’s rare to feel like you’re on top of the world systematically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you truthfully are, then you go Glenn Coco, but for the majority of us who aren’t, it’s easy to trap yourself in feeling that you’re the only one who feels like that as a result of the visage that everyone around you puts on a day to day basis.
Text your friends that you feel may be doing good, because the chances are that they’re not and a simple “Hey, how are you?” could make them feel worthwhile and valued. Creating a strong trust relationship with a few people that you know won’t share your business is important in living, as long as it’s reciprocated. Do not be the person that drops all of their problems and worries on a person and is never there when it comes to them needing it in return. Once you develop a strong trust relationship with atleast one person, of whom you know you can talk to about literally everything (and I mean literally anything) life does become that little bit easier.
As individuals we are very much selfish, as blatant as it is. In a society as brutal as it is today, where we’re expected to go through up to 12 years of gruelling education, finish with atleast 5 4-9 grades at GCSE, then go on to do A Levels and then go to University, which is £9,250 a year, may I mention (thanks Theresa May, you’re a real one), then go straight into a 9-5 job with near to no experience other than the extreme stress the education system has put us through. But, we need to become a little more selfless in terms of getting through what more there is to face.
As a 17 year old girl who’s still trying to decide what she wants to do with her future, it’s very much pressurising and does have an impact on your mentality when everything is thrown at you all at once. You feel the need to impress your peers, to do your parents proud, to retain a stable relationship with your friends, to ensure that you still have a social life but at the same time making sure that you’re up to date with work on the academic side of things, to make sure you’re doing the right thing if you’re in a relationship and making sure that you’re there for them as much as you are yourself. Despite that, though, those around us of whom come from an older generation are in favour of pressurising and enforcing their nostalgic memories of how they were doing at our age and how they had moved out and were working 3 jobs.
The youth of today has a lot of pressure to change the world for the future, too. Climate change is the most evident it’s ever been, with the UK experiencing the coldest February ever in 2018 but the hottest February ever in 2019. World leaders, such as Trump, who put forward the stupidest of ideas and believe that they’re correct. The fact that, in 2018, women were still 22 cents underpaid by the dollar. These world problems are in our own hands and we are the ones that need to push for the continuous and ever lasting change on the society.
Over the years I’ve learnt that bottling up your emotions to the extent that the bottle is over pressurised and very ready to blow is not good for anyone; it’s not good for yourself as this pressure is built up over a long period of time, and when it finally goes bang it begins to flood black the pain of what began the build up, and it’s not good for the others that witness the explosion as everything all at once is difficult for anyone to handle. I’ve learnt that keeping people updated on how you’re doing on the daily is a good thing, and doesn’t mean you’re over sharing, it just means that you have a good relationship with one another where you’re very much ready to deal with the effects. But, most of all, I’ve learnt that receiving a simple “Are you okay?” text when you’re at your pitfall and in serious need of a pick me up is one of the most helpful and crucial things in terms of supporting one another and can help remove the taboo and discomfort when it comes to talking about mental health disorders rather than normalising them and making them stylish trends.
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” – Dalai Lama
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