{"id":10473,"date":"2019-10-07T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wearenotnumbers.org\/home\/story\/lies_about_suicide_and_depression\/"},"modified":"2019-10-07T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T04:00:00","slug":"lies_about_suicide_and_depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wearenotnumbers.org\/lies_about_suicide_and_depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Lies we tell ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is Gaza from above. Each house has a family, each with a different story. And it&rsquo;s a pretty safe bet that each family has at least one person going through their own version of hell. Mohammed is the most popular name in Gaza, and to me, it represents all young men struggling to keep from being overwhelmed by depression. This poem is for the souls of all the people who choose to end their lives and those who are not yet there, but close. I want them to know I&#39;m thinking about them.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><iframe loading=\"lazy\" align=\"right\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"360\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/paAY9fcCfj8?rel=0\" width=\"640\"><\/iframe>I&rsquo;m depressed<\/em>, he says.<br \/>\n<em>It&rsquo;s not depression, what you&rsquo;re going through<\/em>,<br \/>\nthey insist.<br \/>\nWhen he was alive, Mohammed expected nobody<br \/>\nto care or lend a hand.<br \/>\nWhen he took his life, he believed,<br \/>\nthis was the only way to remind the world<br \/>\nthat he existed and suffered.<\/p>\n<p>In my city,<br \/>\nthey think you lock yourself in your room<br \/>\nwhen you&rsquo;re depressed;<br \/>\nfeel sick, sleep more,<br \/>\ncry most of the day and act &lsquo;weird.&rsquo;<br \/>\nThey think you always have a choice<br \/>\nto be happy or sad.<br \/>\nThey believe you have the key to a better life;<br \/>\nyou just don&rsquo;t use it,<br \/>\nif you admit to being depressed.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\" style=\"float:right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/wearenotnumbers.org\/assets\/uploads\/files\/1570498721.jpg\" width=\"427\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But in my city,<br \/>\nall of us are mentally sick.<br \/>\nAll of us live the same shit.<br \/>\nAll of us feel and cannot handle depression.<br \/>\nYet all of us think the others are exaggerating.<br \/>\nAnd all of us assume others are perfectly sane!<\/p>\n<p>In my city,<br \/>\nIt&rsquo;s somehow a shame if you admit<br \/>\nyou are sad or depressed.<br \/>\nThey expect you to be strong,<br \/>\neven a hero,<br \/>\nimpervious to weakness,<br \/>\nalways courageous.<\/p>\n<p>But the truth is this:<br \/>\nIn my city,<br \/>\ndepression knocks at every door,<br \/>\ninvades every heart<br \/>\nand wins almost every battle.<br \/>\nIt&rsquo;s strong.<br \/>\nIt can kill.<br \/>\nWill it leave soon?<br \/>\nThat I doubt.<\/p>\n<p>In my city,<br \/>\nyoung people find peace in suicide.<br \/>\nTheir families and friends<br \/>\nweep and regret.<br \/>\n<em>I wish I could have helped<\/em>, their friends say.<br \/>\n<em>He should have known it&rsquo;s haram<\/em>*, others say.<br \/>\n<em>The number of suicides is growing<\/em>, the government warns.<br \/>\n<em>I, or someone I love, could be next<\/em>, I say.<\/p>\n<p>*Haram: Arabic for &ldquo;forbidden&rdquo;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each house in Gaza has a suffering soul inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[39,38],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/wearenotnumbers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/e7d43-rsz_aerial_gaza-1140x445.png",1140,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/wearenotnumbers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/e7d43-rsz_aerial_gaza-463x348.png",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/wearenotnumbers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/e7d43-rsz_aerial_gaza-300x300.png",300,300,true],"full":["https:\/\/wearenotnumbers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/e7d43-rsz_aerial_gaza.png",500,500,false]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - 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