Regis Machdy, Witness, Victim, and Survivor of The Cruelty of the World
This world is such a beautiful place to live. Well, yes, it is true, for some people. Playing when they were still kids, going to school, graduating from school, finding a job/building company, finding spouse, having children, raising them, and finally meeting the old age. It is one of the idealized version of what is a ‘good life’ and i could agree with it. It is beautiful, indeed.
At the same time, for some people, this so-called-beautiful world is not true, or even partially true. Some people really scream, and cry because they have been given life to live in this world. One of the biggest reason why people feel something like that is because, mental illness. Worse than that, our environment plays a big role in it. While hereditary is also a factor of mental illness for some people, most of people get it from environment.
Depression is one of the most common mental illness found in people all over the world. It makes people hopeless, blinded by the darkness, and feeling that whatever wish they wish, it will never come true. It is really hard for people to live with depression because it is always following them wherever they go. It is also one of the factors many, many people decide to take their life (Robin William, the famous comedian, Chester Bennington, a singer of the famous band, Linkin Park are a few examples of people who died because of depression). Despite the severe effects of depression, thankfully, it is curable. Beside going to professional such as psychologist, or psychiatrist, people can do a self-healing program, and one of that self-healing program is by reading self-healing book.
Loving the Wounded Soul, a book for us, normal people who want to do a self-healing trick. It is also beneficial for people who do not suffer from mental illness because this book gives a unique approach regarding depression. Yes, this book mainly talks about depression, but the author of this book mixed psychological knowledge about depression and self-healing tricks for people who are depressed.
This book did an amazing good job. It gives us new perspective regarding depression, mainly from psychological perspective. There are a whole lot of new information regarding depression, such as, is it genetic, can it be imported, cultural factor of depression, etc. The author is successful to make the reader understand depression from a different perspective.
Regis Machdy. Yes, that’s name of the amazing author of the book, Loving the Wounded Soul. He is a graduate from the University of Glasgow, UK, and a co-founder of a start-up called Pijarpsikologi.org, a start-up that has a focus on providing plenty of information and free consultations to Indonesian people.
He is a depression survivor. He needed 42 times consultation with psychologists to recover from depression. He is a witness of the cruelty of this world. How people can become evil, and how this world cheated on him. Life is not fair, maybe that phrase is not enough to describe what he was going through. He was a victim of this world cruelty. Toxic masculinity is one of the many factor that almost destroyed his life. Yet, even when he became a victim, he chooses to be a survivor, a survivor of this world cruelty.
Personally, i am so amazed of Regis. To be alive is not an easy task for people with depression. Plus, the condition can be worse because normal people can really have bad stigma about mental illness. People labeled them as freak, drama queen, and sometimes even ignoring them. It is hard, really hard, when you have to fight alone in your own battle. It hurts, a lot, when you tried to scream, and people choose to ignore you, or judging you. It is hard, difficult, and challenging, yet, this man succeed.
His book becomes one of the national best seller book in Indonesia. His effort and experience as the survivor of depression help many people out there to confess to what they feel, to acknowledge if depression is real, and to normalize mental illness, just like physical ones, and he succeed of it. Many people reach him through his social media platform regarding how they feel, what to do if they are having depression, etc.
He helped so many people, both personally, and professionally because he knows having mental illness is hard, especially when you are surrounded by environment that does not not support, or acknowledge what you feel. It is saddening, because it is real. Depression, anxiety, multiple personality disorder, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and countless other mental illness…they are real.
I can not be thankful enough for what he did, for what he inspired me to do. I can only wish that may he get the best of his wishes, whatever it is.
Lastly, i just wanna say that, maybe living in this world is hard for some of us, but no matter what happened, or what will happen, please…please…please keep surviving.
:)