Mental resilience

We are never taught to lose gracefully.
Our forefathers knew how to lose. Gracefully or not, they learnt to bounce back.

We will never want to lose.
Our forefathers knew to treat a win as an exception than the norm.

We cannot consider a loss as an acceptable outcome.
Our forefathers consider a loss as a lesson; an experience on which to build future conquests.

We are unable to live without structure; certainty was needed.
Our forefathers lived without structure; uncertainty ruled.

We will never want to be forced to live a structured life; we wanted to be in control.
Our forefathers lived regardless of structure; they learnt to cope with whatever little control.

We are unable to cope when the structure is taken away.
Our forefathers yielded with the times, like water taking the shapes of the obstacles in their way and slowly wore away the impediments.

We expect only good news - one after another.
Our forefathers hoped to get good news too - if it ever reached them.

We will never want bad news.
Our forefathers were always hopeful that bad news would not come their way.

We cannot even accept bad news as outcomes of our bad decisions.
Our forefathers stoically accepted the outcomes of the decisions, regardless.

We need pats on our backs for our work done.
Our forefathers were only too glad to be able to keep the skin on their backs.

We fret when we do not get it.
Our forefathers were only too glad to avoid the "whips" that could cripple them.

We even fear other people getting patted on their backs when we do our work.
Our forefathers knew one man could never get the whole work done.

We demand attention for ourselves.
Our forefathers were happy to stay out of the limelight.

We will never accept being sidelined.
Our forefathers knew that seeking attention is akin to a moth seeking a naked flame.

We will not accept any work that might not get us the attention we desire.
Our forefathers would have just have gotten the work done.

We have a problem.
Our forefathers had problems.

We will never accept that we have a problem; the problem is someone or somewhere else.
Our forefathers may or may not accept that problems existed but for whatever it took, they owned the problem.

Even when diagnosed, we may not even get help for our problem.
Our forefathers would be only too happy to have their problems diagnosed.

Yet as our forefathers lived to ripe old ages and died natural deaths, we - the baby boomers and after - are dying prematurely. A good number of these deaths are by suicide.

I think mental resilience is the main contributing factor.

While advances in medical science have helped diagnose many psychological and psychiatric disorders, the societal support structure and medical service providers are badly-equipped to handle diagnosed cases.

Our forefathers probably had a decent family unit to look after them. What do we have? Medical social workers? Hospitals?

Our forefathers probably had it really bad and what they have now would still be better than what they suffered in the past. So they suffered willingly. What about us? We enter the world and see it enter its golden age and then right after, it goes downhill. What else is there to give us the impetus to carry on living in this world?

The villages our forefathers came from were probably their cocoons. The world out there is an entire different universe. For us, the world is our cocoon. If our haven is compromised, from where do we seek refuge?

The outcomes for the two "distinct" generations become obvious - our forefathers ask to be kept alive by all means, we try to die when we hit our first major snag.

Our survival instincts are much less acute than our forefathers'. Progress has made us go soft and vulnerable. We lose our "under siege" mentality and the resilience to say "hit me with your best shot, buster!" but "don't count on it 'cos I'll bounce back, and bounce back stronger than you have ever seen!"

In short, Society also needs to deal with the "global warming of the minds". Whereas a cooler period existed in the past, the heat from added stress and not having undergone the baptism of fire through life-changing moments has brought about a few generations of more and more "mental weaklings".