You walk along a busy street, and hundreds of people go past you. Each of them is simply one of the countless. They are nothing but moving figures. Nobody notices the other’s faces, features, let alone feelings.
The lady in a black coat is probably rushing to a meeting.
The girl with the pale blue jacket is moving with determination… a future director, maybe.
The young man with an odd hat walks slower, probably thinking about his future.
An old man is slowly but surely proceeding along his way, using his cane as a support.
Yet, their personalities remain invisible.
"Walking along a busy street" - an AI artwork I generated using starryai.
It is normal that we ignore these people, after all, imagine that you had to get familiar with each and every one of them… it would take forever, and your brain will explode with new information.
"Walking along a busy street" - an AI artwork I generated using starryai.
Invisibility is even more prominent for those who spend their commute sheltered in their own car.
You never get to know whether the man in the car behind you is planning his wedding day or grieving the loss of his father.
All those feelings remain hidden from the world - partly because that is how it is built, and partly by our own choice.
Who wants to appear weak, after all? Who wants to be an empty soul, inferior than all their colleagues with shiny CVs and excellent feedback from their managers.
You have to be strong in order to survive. You make your struggles invisible to avoid being kicked out.
We keep on pretending that we can manage with our duties. We sometimes believe in that so strongly that we no longer doubt it even though our mental health is spiralling down. This becomes even more prominent when you are carrying the burden of health conditions since your childhood. You are told that you should perform well, to strive to be at least as good as the average. This either makes a child to overperform, while still believing that they are not doing enough, or conversely, they give up, assuming that they can never achieve what is expected of them. The only questions that remains is… why are our struggles forced by society to be invisible?
I admit I am one of them - for the sake of my own sanity. Those of us with autism brings about the wish to investigate the details of everything. But that frequently leaves you overwhelmed and exhausted.
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