Bullying. It's a sad thing, it's painful, common, hard to effectively detect and stop, and has been known to cause suicides all too often, but that's only the majority of what's commonly noticed and discussed. As such we come to the conclusion that that's all there is to it, that, when it's all over the effects will wear off eventually. Well, that's what we're here to discuss.
Well, I figure I might as well start with some statistics, for example, 25% of students report being bullied over the school year, our class has 29 students, 25% of 29 is 7.25 so about 7 students in our class will report being bullied sometime this year, more will probably keep quiet about it and never seek help. So this is still far from being a small issue. Now all that may not be new to you but, back to what we were talking about, I'm sure that they'll get over it and be okay, right? No. Never. Bullying isn't something you can get over and move on from. Like a deep cut bullying scars one, it's just that it can be harder to see the wounds that don't kill you. Studies have shown that those who were once victims of bullying carry increased odds of suicidal thoughts/acts and anxiety/depression related mental illnesses. However, there are many effects statistics cannot track, effects that vary completely depending on too many variables to count; victim's personality, what time of day the bullying occours, who the bully is, where it occours, and many more things resulting in anything from paranoia to suicide to blocking everything out to a complete personality change. Well, that's all I have to say about this for now. Thank you for reading my blog and remember to question everything.
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Mental illness, much associated with the crazy person down the street who thinks he's constantly on fire, or that babbling lunatic in the loony bin. Such a horrible thing, right? After all, illness is right there in the name, surely it must be horrible to suffer something like that. Come on now, I wouldn't ask that if there wasn't more to it, would I? Indeed, I'm here to tell you that 'illness' and 'sufferer may' often be misused in the case of this condition set. A common problem for those with any mental 'illness' is that having one is seen as a horribly embarrassing problem and huge character flaw, and affiliated with poor mental health, and thus the fault of the 'sufferer' when often the two are unrelated. Unlike physical illnesses, mental health and mental illnesses aren't often correlated, someone can have any number of mental illnesses, despite their mental health as shown on the graph below. Granted sometimes the same things that cause mental illness cause deterioration in mental health, as all mental illnesses have different effects, but they are not the same. Another huge problem is the supposed rarity of mental illnesses, partly because of how they're viewed, people tend not to tell others about their mental illnesses, meaning there seem to be few examples of mentally ill people in our lives, so they must be uncommon. The truth ofthe matter is that a large percentage of people have had a mental illness, at least 10% of people will all have one simultaneously, and 25% will have one over their lifetimes. Even further, studies not to mention the people going undiagnosed for one reason or another, mental illnesses are extremely widespread, and yet surveys in the US showed that only 20% of those with mental illnesses, all of which are more serious ones, are locked up, either in jails or mental hospitals, thus showing that even those with the most serious of disorders tend not to do anything too horrible.
Now, it is believed that all mental illnesses handicap the sufferer in some way, preventing them from functioning as well as other members of society, which is often true. Many times, they function better. Psychopaths with their cold cunning intellect are often very successful at business, often running multi-million dollar companies, and since they often fixate on one person, or group of people, are very loyal. Social anxiety disorder encourages it's hosts to think inwardly and learn more about themselves, and a purely beneficial one is synesthesia, those with synesthesia have mixed senses, allowing them to smell feelings, see sounds, taste colours, etc, which makes them amazing artists. And so, I hope you see why it being called mental illness is not only ignorant and mislabeling, but also disrespectful and downright destructive. That's all all for now, have a good day, and remember to question everything. "Be happy and smile". Odds are, you've heard something like that before, after all, that's just how our society treats happiness, as a necessity for a good life, like if you aren't happy you're doing something wrong.
Some people probably don't see the problem with that line of thinking, after all, it's what we've been raised with, told to smile, only shown the most successful people when they're smiling and never when they're frowning, always having "how happy ____ will make us" appealed to, and dubbing emotions similar to happiness as "Positive" or emotions opposite of it as "Negative". However there are many issues with this philosophy that society fails to notice, for example, it denies the necessity of other emotions, seeing them only as obstacles in the way of happiness, or steps that we need to climb to get to happiness. But really, they are just as important as happiness. Each emotion is a tool for life, including happiness, all having their uses. Anger allows us to sense injustice, envy makes us work harder to work toward an objective, fear keeps us out of danger, and happiness tells us that nothing is wrong. Now, you will likely have focused on that last bit "If it means that nothing is wrong how could it be bad" well, reader, there isn't anything wrong, so long as it isn't forced. Forced happiness causes people to be blind to problems and incapable of sensing, and therefore fixing problems, later causing anything from a slight failure, to an oppressive relationship, to depression, to suicide. And the biggest problem, is the belief that it is the goal, the idea that "Feeling good" and "Feeling happy" are the same thing. Who remembers the last time you felt horrible about being happy? Now who thought that that question was ridiculous? I'll bet that many people don't remember ever feeling bad about your happiness, or thought it childish, but the fact that it is possible should show that happiness =\= feeling good. You are perfectly capable of feeling good from something else. So to summarize, happiness is; not a goal, not better than other emotions, and overvalued by society. |
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