My mum can be the nostalgic type. I remember her once looking down at an old photo of me and saying, “aww you used to be so cute!” I paused for a moment, and asked “used to be? But I’m still cute right?” She muttered something along the lines of “of course, of course you are”, but she never looked up, and instead gazed lovingly at the crinkled photo in her hands. It was within such experiences that I realised I had since become a fully grown man, and at some point, lost much of the adoration and care from those around me, and from society at large. I had stopped being a cute boy with scruffy hair, dark eyes and a face spattered with freckles; and since become, what seemed to be, an oppressive, dangerous and privileged man, undeserving of sympathy and who was collectively responsible for all the world’s ills. I don’t quite know when that happened, but it clearly had. I realised as I walked the streets, nobody looked at me anymore. And if they did, the old glint in their eyes was now replaced with coldness, dislike, and fear. Nobody said anything to me, or certainly not anything nice, there was little kindness at all. Invisible. Disliked. Feared. All the positive attention I had squandered as a child, was now gone, and I don’t think I’m the only man who feels this way. So today, I don’t want to ask why this is, but rather when did it happen? For it was not always this way. So I ask you, when does a boy, deserving of love and care, become a man deserving of neither? What do you think? ~ Sources Suicide by age and sex [1] [2] [3] [4]  [5] Images by Ben Collins, Kiwi Hug, Midas Kofska, Azph, Gradienta, Erik Lucatero from Unsplash. #mentalhealth #malesuicide #mensmentalhealth #mensmentalhealthawareness

2023-02-23