That feeling of loneliness, or being just alone in this world, is actually a feeling that we all have felt. Maybe it is my mental health experiences that make me believe that, but really that feeling is there, and we often hide it.
It is actually normal. And I don’t believe I am alone in feeling that we all have felt that way at least once.
However, it is a lie.
September is suicide prevention month, and although we understand the horror and pain, we barely put ourselves in a vulnerable enough conversation to talk about it. Not just about suicide, but about the full reality of our own emotions.
It may be fear that we create that says if we talk about the feelings that we once had, or we have now, then it will make us less than. Even saying something can make us be “out of the ordinary” may be scary. We as a society even create environments that hide away any feelings at all. “Don’t share your personal life.” “No negativity at work.”
I think as humans we can come to the common consensus that life is hard. We all live it, and there are things that happen where we can really be damaged by our emotions and hide them away, yet they creep in on us. But why this awareness of Suicide is so important is that we believe in the agenda that if you have emotions you are weak. Society may want you to believe that, but the truth of the matter is that to have emotions at all you are actually quite powerful.
If we took vulnerability and changed the idea to make it into strength I can imagine how much would change. We must have these conversations and it is important that we know that the lie that eats at us is so false. You are not alone: We are not alone.
An incredible free resource at NYIT is the Counseling and Wellness Center. It is hard for people of all ages during these times and they have many resources that are all confidential and available for students. Such as individual or group counseling, and every Tuesday they have introduced “Teletalk” on zoom, for quick informal meetings.
Suicide Prevention Hotline (suicidepreventionlifeline.org) 800.273.8255
Crisis Text (text “Got5” to 741741) crisistextline.org
NYC Mental Health Hotline 888.NYC.WELL (Text “WELL” to 65173)
LI Crisis Hot Line 516.679.1111
Domestic Violence Services 800.621.4673 or thehotline.org
The TrevorLifeline for LGBTQ youth 1.866.488.7386 thetrevorproject.org
TrevorText text “START” to 678-678
The Trans Lifeline 1.877.565.8860
The bear package is a bit of information that they share to anyone looking for some more information: https://www.nyit.edu/administrative_offices/counseling_wellness
It is okay to get extra help, we all need it sometimes. It is harder to realize as most of us students are online, yet we are a community, and you do matter.