Don't Fob Me Off

The latest copy of Vice magazine is on mental illness, and funny how I actually find it the most interesting issue ever (it's not to say the others aren't good. In fact, I'm quite a huge fan of it now). I have been faithfully reading every article in it, most of them written by people suffering from one form of mental illness or another, ranging from depression, hypomania, bipolar disorder to anxiety attack. It's a sick coincidence that Paul Hester killed himself last Saturday because of depression. It makes me really depress just thinking how depression affect so many people in the world yet it's so misunderstood. (Am I making sense here?)

Maybe I am revealing too much by saying it here, I know I am prone to depression, and I can see traits of it in my family. I am not doing a "me too" here or anything, but I do know the seriousness of it and how much it can screw up one's mind/life, to the extent of losing one's will to live. To those who are ignorant or unforgiving, they might just dismiss it as something stupid or the sufferer is simply too weak in the mind. It's not that at all. I hate to sound scientific, but it's really all about hormones and how the brain is actually working (which in the case of metal illness patients, it is obviously not functioning normally), and it's beyond one's control how or what he should be feeling. It's definitely not a conscious effort to be depressed (although there exist some attention-seeking drama queens around, but that's another story altogether and is not worth mentioning at all). If cancer patients deserve all the care and help and sympathy, so do people with mental conditions. Patients (defined as people who are ill and are undergoing treatment) are patients and there is no way how one form should be discriminated from another.

I just hope people can be more aware, and most importantly, be more sensitive to those who are really suffering from mental illness. It's easy to just label them as crazy but is that really the way to go? They might seem to have it all on the surface, just like Hester. A family, a nice house, a career and heaps of money, but does that mean they won't go to the dark side? I reckon everyone is capable of crossing that border, I know I am.

On the personal front, I was in a totally so-over-it mood today at work, for various reasons. The inner child in me acted up (again) and I pissed off to Chapel Street in the middle of the day to have some retail therapy.

I am seeing Thisrty Merc tomorrow evening, at least that's something to look forward to. I don't s'pose I have much inspiration left for work this week, I will just cruise along. Meanwhile, I think it's time I put on some Crowded House music, enough of hip-hop crap on MTV already.