Editor’s Letter: “With us, you are never alone”

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f you circle a lot and get q-jumps days in advance every week with everyone else in your lively flat, you’re probably having a pretty good time at Warwick. You can probably surround yourself with people who tolerate and understand you 24 hours a day if you want to.
This means you can get over disappointing assignment marks with Nando’s trips and movie nights, and risk offending most people you don’t know, thanks to the safety net of external validation your group of friends provides you with. You’re in a lucky position.

Having no-one to go on comforting Nando’s trips with leaves you exposed to the risks and dangers of reclusion and desperate action.

But if you never really enjoyed the vibe at circling, felt intimidated to talk openly with people you don’t have much in common with, and – for whatever reason – failed to find your feet as a fresher, the likelihood is that your bad marks will piss you off significantly more. Having no-one to go on comforting Nando’s trips with leaves you exposed to the risks and dangers of reclusion and desperate action.
For some it’s Netflix, for others its drugs, but everyone in this position has their own mechanism for coping and escaping, the abuse of which can plunge them at any time into a vicious cycle of destructive behaviour.
It’s not something that Warwick boasts about in its prospectus, but – in light of a recent VICE article of student suicide rates which singled out Warwick’s worrying statistics – I think it’s worth highlighting how difficult the campus mentality can make it at times to feel normal about being yourself.

I know that there are hundreds of people here that, visible but anonymous to others, are suffering in silence.

I have made profound connections with people here and had some of the best times of my life, but there was a long time when it felt like that scenario would never be my reality. I have a number of friends who have, at some point in their time here, endured a similar period of disaffection. And I know that there are hundreds of people here – people that queue behind me in Costcutter, sell me my ticket at the student cinema, sit opposite me in the library – that, visible but anonymous to others, are suffering in silence.
We anxious depressives may not announce our presence on campus as loudly as the sports teams, or make big news with our fundraising endeavours, but we are here, and we’re just as much a part of Warwick’s student culture as anyone else studying here is. During my time on this exec, I hope The Boar can – beyond its functions as a source of news and views – continue to provide students with a judgment free space for expression.

Someone understands you, and you are never alone.

It’s the articles which detail personal experience that I gain the most from reading; when you feel like an outsider, there is nothing better than learning you’re not alone. With so many forces at work telling us what to do and how to be, we need to take every opportunity we can to have our own voice. So I’m taking this as an opportunity to remind you: someone understands you, and you are never alone.