Clarification on The Problem With Gratitude
I have been happy to note that my writings have been growing shorter. However, my previous post on the problem of gratitude was too short, leaving out salient details. First, when I said I see posts about gratitude everywhere, I meant literally everywhere on the internet I visit regularly. I wasn’t speaking only of The Mighty. Second, writings with even a hint of gratitude or positivity are triggering for me, so I never evaluate such content beyond noting that “gratitude” or “positivity” are mentioned. This is not fair, as such content isn’t necessarily of the harmful sort that I rail against. Having said that, I have been subjected to the less helpful sort of “gratitude messaging” here on this site. I was told that what I had gone through had made me stronger, so that was a positive thing. It has not and it is not a positive thing, but I was never able to articulate my problems with this philosophy. Around that time, I had encountered a meme posted by a mental health advocate and comedic writer named Lane Moore. (I posted my own version of the meme here on the site a while back.) This is Lane’s take on it: “Surviving your abuser didn’t make you a ‘better person,’ going through trauma didn’t ‘make you grow.’ It took away your joy and your trust, it almost killed you and it shouldn’t have happened. If you grew or blossomed after, it was despite them…” There it was, the reason that I cannot accept my negative experiences as positive, stated simply and beautifully.
I wrote a poem called “Weathered” about my experiences with depression. The following lines are the most pertinent to the topic at hand.
“I do not
Fight. Should I stab the wind with
A sword, shoot the rain
With a gun? I end
Each beating, neither victor
Nor victim. I am
The stone, weathering
The water's constant onslaught. “
Nothing helps. Medications don’t help. Therapy didn’t help. Looking on the “bright side” doesn’t help because depression is a metaphorical color blindness that reduces everything to dark and threatening shapes. The only thing to be done is ride it out. My failure to see the “bright side” minimizes what I am experiencing, as well as being one more failure on top of a lifetime of rejection and failure. Even if a post about gratitude isn’t the harmful sort, I cannot see anything on the topic as anything other than an accusation that I am not doing enough. I will end this portion of the program with a simple plea: when we are admonished not to give people a hard time because we don’t know what they are going through, that admonishment also applies to well meaning advice.
Finally, the main point of my previous post on this topic was the disservice that is done to bullies and to society as a whole when such misbehavior is excused as the fault of the bullied, or justified as something that the bullied should be grateful for. My apologies for not being more clear. If I weren’t a talentless hack, I wouldn’t leave misunderstanding and confusion in my wake.
#Depression #MentalHealth #Suicide #PTSD #Disability #Trauma