By Anonymous
Everyone’s a mental health advocate
… Until it’s not an abstract concept anymore.
You vomit positivity on your Facebook page, put the Artidote’s latest post on your Instagram story.
You’re a good person.
Until you’re not. Until you see that girl you heard an unsubstantiated rumour about show up. You whisper a witty comment just within earshot, and your friends erupt in sniggers.
Just a bit of harmless fun.
Until it’s not.
And hey, I’m not blaming you. God knows that I’ve done the same thing countless times. Any distraction from our insecurities is a welcome one, and exploiting someone else’s insecurities achieves that while moving us up a rung on the social ladder.
What else can you expect from a people who are taught to look at the less fortunate, not with compassion, but with relief — at least I’m better off than that guy.
F**k your performative woke-ness. Being aware is useless if action does not follow. You have to hold yourself to higher standards. Your expensive university education means nothing if you graduate without learning to think for yourself. Use that brain that-almost-got-you-into-the-Ivy-League-leken-visa-nahi-aya and engage in some good old-fashioned critical thinking. Your definition of mental illness must extend beyond “Be nice to me when I’m sad, while I continue to be a d**k to everyone around me.”
Next time, when you hear something about someone, maybe try weighing your amusement against a person’s reputation. Next time you have a witty remark up your sleeve, ask yourself: is this truly witty, or am I just using the shock value of saying something offensive to score brownie points with the people who I call my friends?
To be brave in this life does not have to mean dying on battlefields. It can also mean holding on to warmth and compassion in spite of the horrible things that have happened to you. If being kind were easy, everyone would do it. Kindness is a virtue because of how difficult it is in practice. To exist in this world and not be jaded; that is the true challenge.
Be better.