Beautifully rare are individuals who endure adversity, oppression, and misfortune beyond most of our imaginations and yet are somehow still able to express remorse for the struggles of others. However, there is no greater or more misplaced arrogance than that of a person who believes their suffering is more valid than everyone else’s. This is the suck of self-absorption. This is the thinking of a person destined to drown in self-pity. This, above all else, is the mindset that needs to be altered before one can even attempt to seek a glimpse of hope. The sneaking idea that no one can understand what you’ve been through is not only incorrect, it is the offense by which a self-fulfilling prophecy of emptiness and loneliness is propagated. It is the map by which to find the imaginary isolation one creates for oneself in one’s own mind. Tell people they couldn’t possibly understand or empathize enough, and you will become the reason they choose not to show you how wrong you are. Perhaps there is an untainted soul among us who has lived a life so enchanted that they may not be able to relate but trust that they are very few if they exist at all. By allowing yourself to believe they are everywhere—everyone, you will only ostracize yourself from those who might offer you true understanding and compassion.
I think this post is pretty fitting thought for World Suicide Prevention Day. There’s nothing more important than finding a way to feel like you belong and that you’re understood. That is also one of the themes in my novel, Diminishing Return. Whenever one of these important mental health awareness days comes around, I like to share this piece I wrote for the afterword of Diminishing Return. Please take a moment to read it and take it under consideration for your life. Feel free to share it with your loved ones or anyone who you think may benefit from it.
Diminishing Return
“AFTERWORD”
If you open your door, look out into this often heartbreaking world, and you cannot find hope or purpose, first, especially if no one else has, let me tell you that I am sorry. You have the basic human right to have some sort of happiness and satisfaction in your life and for any and every reason that you feel as though this right has been taken from you, I apologize. You are not wrong or overreacting or overly dramatic. This world is crushing and seems to be even more so every day. I do not believe that anyone with any depth of emotion or intelligence is blind to how desperate this existence has become. We all feel some amount of this even if we pretend to you that we do not.
Second, and please truly open yourself to hearing this, we all need a certain amount of help to find any hope or purpose here. Some of us are blessed by dumb luck and have someone or something that has helped us to clear a path leading straight to the realizations and understandings which satisfy our absolute need for happiness and satisfaction. Even though those of us who walk that path may never know the pain you carry, do not feel separate. The greater majority of those people who you feel could never understand you; they care more for you than you may be able to comprehend. I assure you there are far more people who do know pain, hopelessness, and purposelessness.
While no one could ever truly know exactly what it is that you are going through, many of those people have spent their lives hoping to have an opportunity to help you find your hope and your purpose because that is where they find theirs. Let them help you, give them purpose, allow them to help you find yours and maybe one day you can be so full of hope that you can no longer understand what it is to feel hopeless.
No one is safe from losing themselves; this is a commonality that connects us all.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression, talk to someone that wants to and knows how to help.
Here are just a few of those people:
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call 988
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
National Youth Crisis Hotline: 1-800-448-4663
National Hopeline Network: 1-800-784-2433
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: 1-800-662-4357
Crisis Text Line: Text “HOME” to 741741
If you’d like to read the rest of the book or share it with someone, you can find it on Amazon at the link below or click on the picture below. The e-book is only $.99 now until September 14. It’s also included for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited Subscriber. There are paperback and hardcover editions as well.
Joseph D. Newcomer 