The Silence is killing us...

As there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel with the hope of a #COVID19 vaccine in the air. However, as countries and states slip back into FULL LOCK-DOWN with South Australia seeing the most restrictive isolation practices globally, ironically beating out it neighbour Melbourne for the title most restrictive state in the world. Yet it is not the Rona Virus that I fear the most. It is actually the isolative practices that governments are imposing that concern me the most and should be setting off warning bells 🔔 in all areas of the public health sector.

Yes, 2020 has produced challenges and supported rapid changes like never before. Essentially putting a magnifying glass on many shortcomings of our society, that has highlighted our resilience and capacity for change, however with the rapid pace that has facilitated change and progression into areas of technology that aren't yet proven as beneficial. It is the rapid pace that the world of technology has been able to leap that I see as similar to the Crack epidemic in the ghettos of America or the Heroin epidemic in Cabbramatta Sydney Australia.

Where the laws of supply and demand, exposed how punitive practices and the Criminal Justice System is failing society's expectation of safety, that results from phrases such as tough on crime, war on drugs. Ideological rhetoric disguising the political garbage sprouted at elections times. Research suggests that paradoxically prison actually facilitates increased danger and risk in the surrounding communities.

What we know about humans is that we are meaning-making creatures, creating the humane dilemer that easily becomes stigmatised through the use of Labels such as poor Mental Health, suffering from depression, social anxiety even FOMO feeds the practice of deficit and risk.

The current practice "we" society has of isolating people or siloing them, ultimately removing people's ability and capacity to participate as an equal in an unfamiliar of foreign social settings. People don't get sick in isolation, and they definitely can't get well by leveraging and visiting punitive practices upon them.

According to a 2018 national survey by Cigna, loneliness levels have reached an all-time high, with nearly half of 20,000 U.S. adults reporting they sometimes or always feel alone. Forty per cent of survey participants also reported they sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful and that they feel isolated.

It is the steady increase in loneliness and what the research tells us about loneliness. It is 15 more times fatal than smoking, akin to being and an alcoholic, ultimately any reduction in quality social connection leads to feelings of loneliness and may cause death. The health complications that result from feelings loneliness & anxiety must not be underestimated.

I would also suggest that any attempt at a one size fits all solutions for complex traumatic individual experiences, has already been proven not to work. When we admit and understand what we are currently attempting to achieve with Suicide Prevention Strategies is not working, then we can look to doing things differently.

Humans are social creatures that have an inherent curiosity to unpack and understand, we are meaning-making creatures, that need to make sense of what is happening physically that is coupled with an emotional experience also. So any movement away from acknowledging and remaining with the emotional process is doing us harm. With our lives so full of everything designed to interrupt our process of staying with validating what we are experiencing would see those feelings remain dormant and unprocessed and diagnosed as PTSD.

The biggest breakthrough I ever had in a therapeutic environment was when a therapist said to me that's understandable I would expect that you should feel like that. After years of trying to deny, control or change my experience of life, I realised that acceptance and awareness were insightful and valuable tools in my developmentally delayed world post substance dependence.

So to everyone whose life this may ripple out into. It's ok what you are feeling is something you are meant to be feeling its part of being human, and you are not alone. There are more people than you are aware of who are feeling just like you do right now. So start calling people you know, and before you know it, you will be talking with them.

The stigma and discrimination that results through the practice of labelling or diagnosing people must stop if we are to beat this suicide epidemic. If people want to resist politely say we have been trying it your way for too long now. Society is losing far too many people unnecessarily as a result of people remaining quiet; silence feeds the stigma disadvantaged people experience.

If we want different outcomes, we must do things differently.

This is a community problem and will require a community solution.