Human beings, like all living creatures, are hardwired to survive. To beat all the odds that life presents us and to find a way to live. It is why we are born with a fight or flight instinct. People who opt for flight are often termed as cowards, but according to me, they are just survivors. Why fight and die today, when you can live, strategize and win on another day?
You see, just like a lit candle, we each have an inherent burning desire to live. Unfortunately, in our distant, fast-paced, cold and lonely modern world, it’s easy for that light to be snubbed out.
Many a person go through periods where they lose the will to live. It’s during these periods of depression where people don’t have the desire to do anything. Where they wish to curl up into a ball and disappear. For these people, every day is a fight between their desire to live and the evil looming shadow of depression. And sadly, sometimes the vicious monster wins and overcomes their will to live.
You can have everything in the world or you can have nothing, depression doesn’t discriminate and neither does our latent desire to live. Just because someone is always smiling and positive on the outside, doesn’t mean that reflects how they feel on the inside. Sometimes a person could be standing in a room full of people and yet feel like the loneliest person in the world.
Due to the current situation world over, people can feel trapped, both literally and figuratively. As several states and countries across the globe go into lockdowns and impose curfews it is easy to feel suffocated in your homes. While most people like to joke that a lockdown is every introvert’s dream and extrovert’s nightmare, it can be a challenge for everyone, especially if you’re stuck at home with people you don’t necessarily get along with. That is why it is so important to reach out and ask for help when we feel down and low.
Taking that first step and accepting that you might in fact be depressed can be extremely difficult, even more so if you’re a stubborn person who hides from emotions. While nothing beats professional help, not everyone has access to a therapist- either due to societal stigma or money issues. That’s why talking things out with people who care about you and accept you for who you are, can be such a blessing.
In the same way that we take care of our physical health and wellbeing, it is a must to do so with our mental health and wellbeing. After all, they go hand in hand. A person’s will or desire to live is purely psychological. The human mind is an enigma that no scientist or psychologist has come close to solving. But from the little that we do know, our thought and mindset can influence our body and health.
Constantly fighting with the vicious monster that is depression can be so exhausting and overwhelming that you just want to give up. But that’s when you need to find that latent desire to live, the one that we all have, and brandish it like a flaming sword that keeps the monsters at bay.
Humans weren’t meant to be alone. We’re social creatures. No man is an island and even though we may not always get along with our family or friends we all need each other. We are an interdependent species whether we want to accept it or not.
So when you are having one of those dark days and you feel everything is hopeless; remember the people who love you, whose life you make a difference to, your parents, significant other, your pets, friends, the future experiences that you wanted to have and then most importantly remember yourself, for you are the most important part of your story.
None of us asks to be born. We are thrown into this chaotic world against our will and we do our best to make the most out of it.
At the end of the day, all we can really do is take things one day at a time and hope that things change for the better. I think people should remember that if you are at the lowest point in your life, the only place you can go from there is up. While you breathe there is hope!
Written By Jessica Albuquerque.
A master of being a Jack of all Trades, A method in madness some may say. I’m just a girl on a never-ending journey, Standing on the precipice of my next big story.
Week 20, April 2021
