This story broke my heart. Then I read the comments and now I am looking on Craigslist for a used woodchipper to start running people through.
This was published in Newsweek:
My Son Took His Own Life. It Was the Lockdown That Got Him
My elder son, Matthew, was 24 years old when he died. In June 2020, he moved to Birmingham, Alabama to embark upon a new career, a career for which he’d spent a year training in Greenville, South Carolina. In South Carolina, he had had a roommate. He’d worked with a team. He made friends. He fell in love. My gregarious son had a bright future ahead of him.
In truth, I don’t think that the move to a new city would have affected him all that much if it weren’t for the draconian measures in place isolating him from human contact. Instead of the regular interaction he had originally anticipated, he found himself working from home, interacting through email, Zoom meetings, and telephone calls.
Lockdowns, shelter-in-place, and social distancing thwarted attempts to make friends and develop a life beyond the walls of his apartment. He was alone and, without the necessary social interaction, lonely.
So lonely he could die.
Matthew was all alone in a new city shut down by the government. To alleviate his loneliness, Matthew got a puppy, an active, boisterous German Shepherd. His father, my husband of nearly 33 years, and I saw the difference that puppy made in his life. Matthew’s perspective brightened. The puppy distracted him from persistent isolation.
My son left a letter. The heart-wrenching words speak of loneliness and heartbreak. He had no close friends in Birmingham with whom he could have talked about his feelings. Being assigned to a location far from any family members, there was no one nearby who could physically check in on him, meet with him, see him at short notice.
I can’t blame a virus for my son’s death. The contagion that killed him wasn’t an infection of the body. It was an infection of the psyche. He was so lonely that he finally couldn’t stand it.
We need to talk about the toll of lockdowns.
This is heartbreaking.
I understand this completely.
Our governor has been a real piece-of-shit when it comes to lockdowns and shelter in place.
I have moved across the country several times and it was tough. Leaving friends and family behind, being a stranger in a new place. I’m very lucky that I have a wife to move with me, at least we can be there for each other. Moving alone is much harder.
I have covered that in parts of the country the suicide and overdose rate for young people exceeded the COVID death rate in those same age brackets.
Alabama is one of those places. More young people died of opiate overdoses than died of COVID.
This is the reality of the situation. Yes, we should protect the elderly and those with preexisting conditions that make them susceptible to COVID.
The widespread lockdowns have been an utter disaster.
I know a few people who got COVID, they all survived saying it was a bad flu for a couple of days.
I know two people who had cancer treatments delayed because of COVID and because of that have suffered much more.
To combat a mostly survivable virus, the mental and physical health of people under 40 has been utterly destroyed. That is the lesson of the lockdowns.
So after reading this woman’s cry from the heart, how did the readers of Newsweek respond:
Comment Number 1:
Sorry for your loss, but lockdowns, masks and social distancing are not draconian measures, they were, and are the logical and necessary measures that people can take to protect themselves from a deadly virus that you can’t see smell or taste. Until most people are vaccinated and until there is a viable cure, this is the new normal we are all dealing with, Once again I feel for your loss, but I’m also upset by the nearly 1/2 million unnecessary deaths that have been caused by people that think wearing a mask and staying away from large gatherings is too much to ask.
Comment Number 2:
It’s unfortunate, but he was an adult, responsible for himself. All of us are mature and coping with this situation.
We have and he could have, taken up home occupations, such as learning new skills. Carpentry, plumbing, cooking, cleaning house (same as the rest of us). He had a dog, there are activities allowed for pet owners, more than the rest. He could have done Facetime, and other computer social platforms. And so many other methods of helping other HUman Beings or Animal Welfare or Shelters.
Comment Number 3:
Most sincerely sorry to hear of your loss. Billions of people around the planet right now are suffering the same thing. We would all rather be going about our normal lives. In my humble opinion I believe your son must have had some underlying problems to have acted the way he did. Instead of railing against covid-19 precautions which are absolutely necessary, you might want to use your energy to promote Suicide Prevention and psychological support for other people who find themselves suffering like your son. If you’re looking for someone to blame it’s Little Donny Trump who deliberately did everything he could to caused our nation to fall into the darkness.
Comment Number 4:
It is not the lockdown, though even for me it’s beginning to wear thin, but the fact he relied on others for his enjoyment and self-esteem.
My son fell too. Though not by death but by mental illness and I can’t do anything as he’s an adult, miles away and blames me for lockdown. As I’m trapped here, I’m angry, hurt, worried but I know I’ll make it and I hope my son regains sanity and health.
This is Darwinism playing out and nobody said it was easy.
None of these people are sorry for her loss. None of these people are empathetic to what life is like for so many people suffering under the lockdown.
These people want everyone else to suffer so they can have some feeling of safety and then go on to blame Trump or others for the death of this woman’s son.
These people are awful.
Now add to this that the “party of science” says that even after mass vaccinations, we need to remain socially distanced, locked down, and wearing masks. It’s only the beginning of February and we are already being told that we need to accept that we will be locked down through the summer. There will effectively be no return to normal.
It won’t matter how many young people kill themselves or overdose or becoming addicts or alcoholics, the media doesn’t care about them, only about COVID numbers.
At this point, I’m of the opinion, that anyone who firmly believes that a healthy person under the age of 35 must be locked down and unable to go to the gym or socialize needs to be fed through a wood chipper. It’s time we stop killing young people to make panicky Karens feel safe.
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