It is rare to be asked what depression feels like... or how it feels to be uncontrollably manic. Phrases like "snap out of it", "why are you acting so crazy", and "Maybe this pill will help", come to mean very different things. It is rare to get asked how it feels to be overwhelmed by anxiety for weeks at a time, or what goes through a mind when a panic attack hits me while driving 75 on the highway. People say, "just relax, take a deep breath", or to "go with the flow". But does anyone really want to know how it feels for a person to be obsessed with keeping their hands clean, or how terrifying it is to meet new people or to be in a room full of strangers? I think a lot of work can be done to improve these stigmas. However...
Many times it does not seem like people want to understand. They demand, we disappoint. They roll their eyes, we isolate. And while it may be true to a certain degree that people's hearts are in the right place (and some are, don't get me wrong), how can a person help without also having the desire to learn? It's rare to see books in their hands, or magazines opened to pages concerning social anxiety or - insert condescending label here - . Some are told many times to read said articles or books them self, but that desire to learn doesn't seem to extend to many people without mental concerns of their own (as if anybody is prone to being fucking crazy). Most people are in the dark, but since they're not the one's who spend most of their time alone in a room, someone else is expected to spend more time in the sun. How can they not see that their light looks different than ours?
I'm often reminded of a verse from a Pink Floyd song called TIME: "The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older - shorter of breath - and one day closer to death." Now, that line may be interpreted in a completely different way by every person I know. THAT is the magic of music.
To get that magic to work the way it was intended to work, however, people need to ask others how THEY feel about the spells cast upon them. A dialogue must be started. Minds need to be open to new ideas. A genuine interest must be present. Otherwise the music just sits there unobserved, and alone. The magic within it never has a chance to change a life, or make a friend, or... spend any time in the SUN. It will only ever be the same in a relative way. People only become older and shorter of breath, and every day they choose not to ask how the sun feels to others, is one more day they go without understanding how the same sun effects them.
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