As tough as living with anxiety and depression is, talking about it can be just as challenging. There are a variety of reasons why people who suffer from mental health issues don’t talk about them.
- They want to pretend the problems don’t exist.
- They are afraid of how people will react if they talk about their issues.
- They don’t know how to cope with the feelings (or lack thereof), so they can’t/don’t expect anyone else to help them either.
I have used all of these reasons at one time or another, but then I stopped. I’m no longer shy about talking about my anxiety or depression. In fact, I probably talk about it too much (judging from the looks I occasionally get from others: slightly wide eyed with lips pressed together or forehead wrinkled and mouth open like they want to ask a question but never do), but they are both part of who I am.
Anxiety and depression might be hard to live with, but they are nothing to be ashamed of. Millions of people suffer from these ailments, but hiding in the dark won’t make them better or go away.
Because I’ve hesitated in the past talking about mental health, I was always cautious and conscious of how I talked about it in my fiction. I wanted my characters to be troubled, but not too troubled.
That changed when I wrote Humanity’s Hope.
I knew from the beginning that I wanted Caleb to suffer from mental issues. I wasn’t going to be cautious. I was going to have him be debilitated by his ailments.
Now, don’t be confused: I am not Caleb, and Caleb is not me.
Yes, I created him and understand what he’s going through, but he is his own character. He has bits of me in him, but he is not a reflection or representation of how I deal with anxiety or depression. In addition, I’ve never been in a zombie apocalypse, so Caleb is on his own in that regard.
It was important to me to have Caleb struggle with his mental health and be overwhelmed by it because it happens to real people every day. But at the same time, these people (and Caleb) find a way to rise above and survive. They find the strength within to show up and do what they can despite feelings of worthlessness and like they are strangers in their own mind.
Caleb has his flaws (as all characters and people do), but he also has a lot of strengths. My hope is that those who suffer from anxiety and/or depression see some of themselves in Caleb and find the will, desire, and courage to push on.
Life can be tough. Zombies can rise, and the vast majority of the world can get wiped out. Or it can be challenging to get up in the morning and go to work—we all have our struggles. Whatever a person is going through, it can be difficult to understand and cope with, but at the end of the day, we get the chance to make the most of our lives, and we should take it.
