Perspective

I’m male, I’m white, I’m straight, I’m middle-class, I’m educated, I’m privileged, I’m lucky. But there I still those days where I’m asking myself, “why do I have to be the one with anxiety?” People say things like, “cancer doesn’t discriminate,” to highlight the harshness of the disease, and some people use similar slogans when talking about mental illness. Although I’m not sure I agree we can similiarise (definitely not a word, but hey) these two illnesses in this way, I believe there is merit in recognising a mental illness can affect anyone.

As I discussed in my last post, (My anxiety, my problem.) anxiety can be isolating. This means (at least for me) it’s very easy to stay inside you’re own head, with your thoughts, for extended periods of time. This isn’t healthy. A couple of days ago, I saw a tweet that said, “even on your worst day, you’re living somebody else’s dream.” The tweet included a video of (what I assume were) African children receiving toys. They were overjoyed, it was beautiful. When you witness something like this, that shifts your perspective back into line, it’s very humbling and it can sometimes alleviate some of the negative (and in my case, selfish) feelings that arise with one’s mental health.

Of course, I don’t want to be a bigot and sound like I’m saying, “Oh, you think you have it bad? Have you seen the conditions the people of (insert country here) are living in?” But when you are able to recognise, sympathise and empathise with other people, a greater understanding between everyone is achieved. And when more people understand each other, the world is a nicer place to be (I think, anyway).

See you later.