The Mental Health Crusaders Aren’t Coming
Masks are off. Stores are open. Kids are in school. To the naked eye, we’re back. The soldiers have remembered their domestication to suppress emotions and to continue as directed since birth. Don’t think about it, focus on it, or offer it any energy. You’re fine because they told you so.
But there are some very noticeable glitches in the system. All the soldiers didn’t fall in line as taught. Some saw the pandemic as an offering and decided to accept any losses with the hopes of finding a win. Some soldiers tried suppressing their thoughts but the suppression conjured up old, traumatic memories and they’re waiting for directions on the next steps. Some soldiers lost all hope and surrendered to the darkest because frankly, it was too much.
After two years of being told what to do, where to go, how to cleanse your space and protect your life, the commands stopped and we’re left to our own devices. If you feel like you’re not ok, go figure it out but don’t talk about it. You might prompt someone else into figuring it out as well. God forbid.
This big ass elephant is sitting in the room, draped in fear, shame, frustration, doubt, and uncertainty yet we’re consumed by, well, just about everything else but the short and long-term impact of the experience.
Where are the marketing campaigns that list potential symptoms of depression? Or what emotions you may encounter returning to the office or school? What about the feelings of hopelessness, so people who aren’t ok understand they’re not alone? And then the ah-hah moment: there’s no great effort to make sure we live our best lives. Actually, the complete opposite is in place because the task appears unneeded and unprofitable. Those soldiers are weak and would fall off anyway. Casualties of life.
Mental health was never part of the plan. Mental health requires free thinking and that would encourage the soldiers to step out of line, ask questions, or worst-case scenario, realize we’re all really just the same and any form of unification will break the system.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
