Reasons To Stay Alive?

I often see lists of ‘reasons to stay alive’ and they tend to involve things like ‘puppies’, ‘stargazing’ and ‘the smell of freshly cut grass’. Yes, these things are nice and I get what these lists are trying to accomplish but does anyone truly believe that smelling grass can cure depression? Does anyone truly believe that stargazing will persuade someone to stay alive when all they want to do is die?

Maybe I’m overreacting, but these kinds of posts make me angry. These sorts of reasons seem to simplify mental illness, whether intentionally or not.

Reminding people with depression that there are good things in the world won’t make them want to live because a lot of the time depression steals your ability to enjoy these things. I knew that there were good things in the world but to me, they didn’t seem to be enough. 

I’m afraid smelling the roses won’t restore the chemical imbalance in my brain.
I would still have depression, regardless of how many times I stopped and smelled the roses.

We don’t need a reminder of all the things we’ve forgotten how to enjoy. We need our depression to be acknowledged and treated as an illness because that’s what it is!

Would you tell someone with heart disease to just look on the bright side? Would you tell someone with diabetes that they just need to make an effort?
Would you remind someone with cancer that puppies and hot air balloons and cake exist and expect that to make a difference?
Probably not. So why do you expect this to cure a mental illness?

So why should you stay alive?

Because there is a chance that things will get better, a chance that you will start enjoying things and a chance that with time you won’t simply be staying alive, but living. Don’t stay alive for puppies or cake or even your family and friends. Stay alive for hope, as cheesy as that sounds because when you kill yourself you also kill any chance of recovery. There are so many people who have hated themselves and hated the world but now reclaimed the ability to love. There are so many people who have wanted to die and tried to die but are now so thankful for life. It’s not that there is any less bad in the world or any more good. And it’s not because they were reminded of the pleasant things in life, it’s because their illness was being treated.

You should stay alive because feeling the way that you do isn’t your fault, it’s because you are ill and once we acknowledge depression for the illness that it is we acknowledge that it can be treated. 

You should stay alive because the alternative for not staying alive isn’t stargazing or looking on the bright side or continuing to live in darkness, it’s recovery. And recovery is possible. Wanting to stay alive and wanting to live is possible.

I know you have to stay alive first before you can live, but living makes staying alive so much easier.

Stay alive for the hope of recovery. Stay alive for the hope of living.

“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer

If you liked this post you may also like my post about Suicide.

Follow