by Kristen Abell
Earlier this week, actor and comedian Robin Williams killed himself. I spent the next 24 hours crying or tearing up at every mention of his name. Not because I can imagine the pain he must have been in to take his own life, but because I know. I know, and it pains me that not just he, but that anyone else has to feel that way ever.
My younger sister once compared depression to slaying dragons. We all have dragons to slay, but most of the time, our dragons are sleeping. For those of us with depression, however, our dragons are awake and kicking, and in order to go about the rest of our life, we must first slay them. Sometimes we slay the dragon. Sometimes it slays us. Either way, it takes a hell of a lot of strength and courage to face that dragon every day – whether we win or not.
And for those people that don’t get why it’s so hard to seek help; for those people who have put up barriers by believing that those of us with mental illness are weak, less than, other; for those people who believe that depression and suicide are merely paths for those who lack courage, well, they have their own dragons, too. Only they’re not fighting them – I am. And I’m exhausted.
One of my favorite tweets from Monday evening was from @tracywilson:
When someone dies of cancer, the refrain is “f*ck cancer.” But when someone dies of depression, it’s “get help.”
Well.
F*ck depression.
Because that’s exactly the problem, isn’t it? We treat cancer like a disease, and we treat depression and other mental illness like it’s that person’s fault for having it. I’ve sounded the cry before, and I’ll sound it again – it is time to take this seriously. It is time to recognize that mental illness is no one’s fault and everyone’s problem. It is time for us to make this about how society treats mental illness and not about an individual’s lack of courage.
It is time for people to start slaying their own dragons. Let’s make sure we provide them the armor to go to battle.
Sue Caulfield and I would like to provide you all a safe space to chat about mental illness in student affairs, so we will be initiating a chat at the #SAChat hashtag on Tuesday, August 19th at 8 p.m. eastern time. We hope you can join us.
Originally posted at the Student Affairs Collective on August 14, 2014.