TO OUR ETERNITY

Pain Promotes Growth!!!

I believe that most of us have gone through some type of pain and we dealt with it in our own way but some of us weren’t able to and parked beside it. Pain, as defined by a group of white dudes, means sadness caused by some emotional or mental problem and I believe that we have different limits to it and some like myself have a tendency to downplay this emotion because it is said in my layman’s tongue, (Mwanaume ni kukaa ngumu)

I recently lost a close friend to it (not death though) but I can’t shake the feeling that things would have turned out better if I reached out more. Pain in our generation is so weighty that the mere feeling of it generally gets related to depression and the lines get so blurry that we can’t tell the difference. I am not sure if she was in pain? or if she was depressed?

She had the google signs of a person going through pain then I tried my least (because if it was my best then…) and comforted her, but then she also secluded herself claiming she wanted to understand her own person and I thought that was a sign of personal growth but when I think about it, that was depression 101 (Solitude). I hate how you realize some things after time runs out.

She was quite the clown, wearing a happy mask every day, laughing, making jokes, making a fool out of all of us but I guess some of you will say it wasn’t about us but about her. Aaaaargh, what is real? How can you help someone when you yourself don’t even know they need help? Okay, I’d like to be clear on one point though, don’t come telling me about therapy because I am certain a larger percentage of the youth would rather die than go to an office and tell a total stranger about their problems. Mind you pale - Kenyatta Hospital – Therapy is free for all people under 25 but looking at the stats more like 1.5% of us go there.

Yesterday was the World’s Mental Health Day and I giggled at the joke that society makes with the awareness. Don’t get me wrong, I fully support awareness, but what comes next after that. So I know we are a generation of depressed people and the world recognizes us for it, but so what? How will that information help me? Knowing that won’t give me the Ksh. 10,000 I need to consult a professional, it won’t give me the Ksh. 50,000 needed to get the treatment.

So what can we do about this problem? How do we reach out to our loved ones without invading their personal space? How do we make them feel comfortable enough to speak freely about their issues? Or should we ask that physiotherapy should be a course that we must take so that we can minimize the cases we have? I believe in affirmation but what if they are in a dark place and they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and just keep on falling into the abyss of their newfound world of darkness that seems ‘kinda cool’ because of the trends going on.

So does pain promote growth or are we not strong enough to grow. Well, I believe we all have an opinion on the same, so feel free to share yours!