you've probably heard this before. your parents talking about their childhood, saying that life was super shitty, but no one was depressed. but maybe you, just like me, started thinking - their jobs were shitty, their life was shitty, they were sad, but, they weren't depressed? that doesn't make sense, does it?

no, it doesn't

mental illnesses have always been here, with us. it's not an "invention of the 21st century". the only reason why we can see people talking about it now more and more often is because it's becoming less of a taboo topic. but why was it taboo in the first place?!

let's travel back in time a bit. it's 1910, early into the 20th century. women have almost no rights, black people either. the superior race is the Caucasian one. men have to work, they can do whatever they want, including assaulting women in any way. are you starting to see the issue here?

you've probably heard the phrases "men don't cry" or "bring back manly men". they both exist only because of stereotypes. men weren't allowed to show any sort of emotion and so instead, they drank down their feelings with alcohol (which is what many people do nowadays too, but that's for another time). while it's completely normal to drink sometimes with friends, getting drunk just to forget about your emotions and feel good just doesn't work. it's also very bad for your health. you should seek help, but that wasn't possible at that time. so, men were only able to get wasted every night and never cry, or show that they were sad. that's one of the things that contributed to older generations suppressing their feelings and mental issues.

now let's talk about women. as I mentioned earlier, in the past, they had basically no rights. they were supposed to stay at home, "make" children, cook, and take care of the household. they also had to do everything their husband told them to do, and basically not resist. that meant that they weren't allowed to show their emotions either. can you imagine what would have happened if women started crying because their husbands were beating them or making their life miserable? even now, when a woman says that her husband raped or beat her, many people will say that it's her fault cuz insert random excuse. so, you can probably imagine what it was like before, in the past. no showing emotions, nothing. oh, you're depressed? no, you're not, you're not allowed to.

i think you can see now where this whole issue is coming from. parents of our grandparents were teaching them that men cannot show emotions. that men cannot cry. that women have to do everything in the household and they aren't allowed to be sad either. then, they passed it over to our parents. and it's been going on like this over and over again.

however, hopefully, it's stopped now. now that we have access to the internet, to social medias, we can see that people are sad. people are depressed. we can see that mental issues aren't something to be ashamed of. many people suffer from them and while it's not something that should not be taken care of, it's also not something you should be ashamed of. our generation is probably the first one that's being open about mental health and having mental issues. and even tho mental issues still aren't something many people talk about, more and more people are starting to talk about it. why? because again, there's nothing wrong with it. in fact, it's been proven that talking about your mental illnesses with your friends for example, or with a therapist, or anyone, helps make it better. so what are we waiting for?

oh and before you say anything, no, mental issues are not something that's a 21st century thing. it's always been here, but now, way more people talk about it. just like how people say the same about LGBTQ+ people,

it's nothing new. but now it's not hidden and people are finally talking about it freely.

love always,

Max