A Million Little Things Is More Than Just A Show Title

Trigger Warning: This article deals with the topic of suicide

This past week, I’ve spent time catching up on the new seasons of shows, as well as checking out some new series that have premiered recently. In the age of binge watching, I prefer to let a couple weeks worth of shows build up so that I can accurately determine if I like the show, or if I don’t. I don’t always like a show from the first episode, but if I stick with it, it ends up being one of my favorites. The show that has really become my favorite is A Million Little Things.

A Million Little Things

From the description on the ABC website, the show is about how friendship isn’t about just one thing, it’s about a million little things, and how it is depicted in a  group of friends from Boston who bond together during unexpected circumstances. Spoiler for those that haven’t seen all of the trailers, one of the friends kill themselves and the rest of the people in his life are left wondering the possible reasons he did it.

One of those most powerful things that hit me, was a line one of the characters said when reassuring one of his friends about the reasons their friend committed suicide. It’s not one reason that caused it, it’s a million little things.

Many times, it is thought that when a person decides to commit suicide, it’s just one big thing that happens that they can’t bear to live through and that’s the reason why they choose it. I’m not a medical professional and I can only speak from my experience, but to me that’s not it. There’s generally not just ONE thing that happens that puts us in a state of despair that we can’t imagine pulling through. It’s not one thing that knocks us down and we forget how to get back up.

It’s a million little things that happens. It’s getting knocked down so many times, it’s hard to get the strength to keep getting up. To me, this is exactly what the million little things feel like.

Thankfully, I no longer feel a million little things pressing down on me. Instead, I try to find a bunch of things going right in my life, and to get going strong through there. It is very hard to look past all of the hard things that we go through in life. Not many people have a perfect life, and sometimes it’s hard to work through the bad times.

I really love this show because it opens up so many conversations around suicide. It shows how it affects the friends and family of the one that committed suicide. It also shows what happens to the person that attempted suicide and survived it. It dives deep into the struggle that no only men, but people in the black community how it’s not something that’s talked about as much as it should be.

One of the main characters, Rome, attempted to commit suicide, but stopped once he found out that John committed suicide.Throughout the episodes that have aired currently, he described how everything is right in his life, and how he loves his life, but he still feels so sad inside he just wants it to stop. He is diagnosed as having depression after being forced to go see a therapist. He didn’t feel comfortable at first.

He learned that it can be hereditary, so he went to visit his parents to see if his father ever dealt with depression. His father responded that everybody feels sad sometimes, that’s just apart of life. However, his mother informed him that his father has dealt with bouts of depression.

Nowadays…

This is so common in the black community. I have been told by so many people to just focus on something else, or stop feeling sad because other people have it worse. It’s even more difficult to get mental health services due to the stigma that deeply surrounds it, even today.

My goal is to change this, and open up the conversation revolving around depression, mental illness, and just being open about our emotions in general. Many people believe in keeping things bottled up inside, instead of letting ourselves experience the emotions that we are dealing with. I’ve personally done this for years, and then I just became an angry ball of emotions. I would get mad and explode over every little thing, because I had so much emotion bottled up inside of me and I had no idea how to express it.

Now I want to encourage everyone to talk to someone about how their feeling. If you’re struggling, tell someone. If you had a bad day, talk about it with a friend. It’s okay to be happy, and it’s okay if you aren’t. The emotions that we feel as people are real, and we shouldn’t be afraid to feel them.

If you need to see someone professionally, don’t afraid to do so. It’s okay and that’s what they’re here for. Many people don’t know, but many jobs and companies actually pay for therapy. I was afraid of using it, because I didn’t want my job to know I was struggling, or what I was dealing with. However, I later learned that most of my coworkers had taken advantage of the service and used it to work out the stresses of the job.

There are many resources out there to help you, just know you are not alone.

You can always call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.