Nicole Barrett76 said:I am truly sorry about that. Regarding that man who took his own life, I can't help but feel that mental anguish is a different beast entirely compared to physical pain. It’s a heavy thing to process, and honestly, it feels like we shouldn't even try to draw direct parallels between different types of suffering. Even when looking at financial struggles, the reality for someone living with schizophrenia just doesn't measure up to the hardships faced by those dealing with chronic physical illnesses or people who have been managing intellectual disabilities since childhood. From what I understand about how things work here in the States, there isn't much of a safety net for those specific cases, especially since schizophrenia often doesn't manifest until after someone hits their 30s, leaving them without the long-term support systems that others might rely on.
If you happen to be dealing with a medical condition that first surfaced before you turned eighteen, there’s actually a provision that allows you to inherit up to 70 percent of a family pension, provided that the total amount doesn't exceed $2,000. $133So, if you take 240 and multiply it by 7, you end up with... $560.
Now I find myself wondering, which nation would truly be considered the more humane one?
I honestly feel like the worst thing anyone can do when facing a chronic illness or any kind of permanent disability is to just sit there and do absolutely nothing. It’s that paralyzing inertia that gets you, and if I’m being completely honest with myself, that is exactly what I’m doing right now.
If we can't manage full-time hours, then moving to part-time work seems like the only logical step. But, as I’ve mentioned before, when you're dealing with being visually impaired like I am—or if someone is completely blind—the odds of actually landing a job in Human Resources are only about six percent. It wasn't always this way; that number used to sit at a mere two percent before the European Union started pushing for more serious inclusion standards regarding people with disabilities or mental health challenges in the workplace.
I truly feel for that young man and the impossible situation he found himself in, though it’s heartbreaking to realize how many others have faced similar struggles. It’s a sobering reality that about 10% of people living with schizophrenia unfortunately take their own lives, and most of those tragedies happen during the early stages of the illness before they've had enough time to figure out how to navigate life alongside it.
Even when you look at clinical depression, that percentage holds steady at around 15%.
I don't have any set rules to follow here, and honestly, I don't see much point in getting bogged down in all those statistical data points. I used to be someone who leaned quite heavily on a "statistical" way of thinking myself, but I've since moved past that approach.
It all really comes down to the specifics of the case, though I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that the country where the situation takes place makes a massive difference too.
I'm currently living with my mother, who's fully retired, while I'm out here grinding away at a job that pays basically nothing more than minimum wage.
It really depends on what you mean when you talk about living in a more "humane" society. If you find yourself in a wealthy Northern European nation, your quality of life might actually feel a lot lower compared to your healthy neighbors. But, looking at the bigger picture, I suppose it’s still a better situation than being in India or parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where most people are just struggling to survive in poverty. In those places, it almost doesn't matter if you're healthy or sick—life is incredibly difficult regardless.
Maybe you should try to shift the focus back to yourself and your own situation for a while, focusing on how you can actually help yourself function a little better—and perhaps more importantly, how you can start feeling a bit more like yourself again. I really think it’s worth leaning into every resource available to you right now, whether that means staying consistent with your medication, committing to psychotherapy, or just exploring whatever other tools might help you find some stability. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what else I could offer, but please just take care of yourself.
I was just thinking about someone like Stephen Hawking, who arguably faced one of the most profound physical challenges anyone could endure. Even with those kinds of limitations, he managed to stay remarkably positive right until the end, pouring himself into writing books and even finding the courage to experience the view from Earth's orbit.