This piece of article is contribute by a close friend of Sevenpie who recently underwent depression and have since triumphant over this social epidemic.
I’m in no way professionally trained or even remotely think I’m qualified to give out professional advice, I am merely speaking from a personal perspective as someone who has considered, planned out and eventually beaten the thought of suicide.
1. Finding Purpose
I believe one of the reasons I ended up where I was is because I lost meaning along the way, I used to place my grandma as my no.1 priority as I felt that she was the only one who truly cared about me as I was growing up. When she passed, however, it felt as though life had no meaning, for what is life without someone who loves you? Thus it’s important for us to find purpose on our own and not to rely on others for meaning.
2. Build a social circle
As I was feeling incredibly down, as a last resort I posted all my feelings online. And to my surprise, many people whom I had stopped talking to over the years started reconnecting with me and from there I have built a supportive social circle to stop not only myself from falling into the trap of feeling alone, but others as well.
3. Change
Another thing to take note is that while it sucks and we feel like we don’t want to do anything, most of the time a change of routine or scenery helps lots. I was cramped in my room playing video games for at least 4 years, with minimal outside world connecting and the only thing keeping me sane was my ex, but notice how I said ex. There’s only so much a person can take. Now, I’m really active, I do sports, gym, read, go for trips and I feel a lot better and I think there’s a direct correlation there.
4. Help others
As insane as this idea sounds, sometimes by helping others we get to find joy that we can’t seem to give ourselves. It’s a good idea to start by helping others, then help yourself as you realize that you must “Treat yourself as someone you are responsible for helping.” – Jordan B. Peterson
Why do we break our backs to help those in need but ignore ourselves? We’re worth more than that.
5. Reach out
Perhaps the most important part as I myself personally needed counselling to get back into shape, if you ever find yourself down and want to get better, or even don’t want to get better but just want someone to talk to, reach out to people near you or a public counselor but if you can afford it, a psychiatrist is good help. But if you’d want to talk to someone anonymously, There’s always Befrienders, who was truly a big help. I personally remember a lady who was really nice and identified herself as Sally. (they can’t give out their real names) And I don’t think she knows how much of an impact she had in my recovery, as before I hung up I remember her saying “We’re not supposed to give out advice, but don’t be so hard on yourself,” and this was because I was calling myself a monster over and over.
So thank you Sally, wherever you are.
If you’re feeling down or unwell, please reach out to the numbers below.
Befrienders KL – 03-7956 8145
Hospital Kuala Lumpur – 03-2615 5555
Women’s Aid Organisation – 03-7956 3488
Header image source.
