Hey young people, it’s time to stop wishing for death anytime something mildly inconvenient happens and then laugh about it as a coping mechanism for some other possible underlying issues. If you or someone you know are having suicidal thoughts or are going through hardships, speak up and let others help.
Don’t hide behind a meme.
It’s OK to use humor as a coping mechanism.
Laughter is the best medicine, but not if the punchline includes self-harm or death.
We shouldn’t romanticize sadness and suffering because doing so promotes apathy.
Mental illnesses are illnesses just like the flu or a cold, except negative thoughts are the bacteria attacking the body.
They deserve to be seen by a doctor just like with any physical illness, and it’s OK to take time off and rest just like with any physical illness.
It’s not trendy to be sick.
Instead, make it trendy to practice wellness and self-love because we’re worth it.
A quick glance at social media will reveal a wide variety of hashtags related to how people hate their life or how school essentially sucks the life out of them. Stop that.
This might sound cliché, but the future can be bright and hopeful and we young people should make the most of it.
There will always be someone willing to listen about your problems and help you through difficult times.
It might just be a joke to some, but mental illness is a serious subject and it shouldn’t be in the same circle as jokes.
Cal Poly Pomona is known as a commuter school, so I understand if people have trouble establishing long-term relationships.
It can be lonely and hard to meet people going straight from home to class and back again.
But making friends requires actively stepping out of one’s comfort zone and finding people to vibe with. There are roughly 24,000 students and 600 clubs on campus, so I’m willing to bet finding a friend is possible.
Students on campus also love to joke about getting hit by the shuttle and then having free tuition. We should stop doing that too.
Thousands of dollars in hospital bills and bodily harm aren’t worth free tuition.
The emotional distress your relatives and peers will feel aren’t worth it either.
We should stay healthy and take extreme negative feelings seriously. If you need help just reach out.
Someone will definitely be there for you.
This doesn’t mean all types of dark jokes are bad either. A good example of dark humor would be “Darn, I’d sacrifice my soul to get this essay done.”
A bad example of dark humor is “Wow, this essay is the worst and I’d rather die than finish it.”
Let’s stop with the punchlines that end with someone dying.
