2) Did you ever get hand-me-down clothes/toys from an older sibling?
3) Did you ever go shopping for clothes at a thrift store?
4) When you were in school, were you ever picked on, made fun of, or bullied in any way because of how you looked (clothes, hair, glasses, thin/fat, funny teeth, etc.)?
5) When you were in gym class, and the students were told to pick their teams, were you ever picked last?
6a) Did your parents get divorced?
6b) …did you watch (were you in the courtroom for the proceedings)?
7) Did you ever receive welfare/public assistance?
8) Did you ever go to a “free” clinic because you were sick, then not take the prescription they recommended because you couldn’t afford the $5 co-pay?
9a) Have you ever gone shopping for food with coupons?
9b) … with food stamps?
9c) … with both?
10) Have you ever subsisted on ONLY bread and water?
11) Did you ever REGULARLY drink powdered milk because normal milk was too expensive?
12) Did you buy most of your food from the generic aisle (now known as the dollar store)?
13) Have you ever NOT had access to at least one car?
14) Have you ever been evicted for not paying the rent?
15) Have you, or has anyone in your family, been homeless?
16a) Have you ever been called fag, dyke, queer (or similar)?
16b) …even if you are NOT homosexual?
17) Is anyone in your family gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender?
18a) Have you ever been discriminated against because of your sexual orientation?
18b) …your sex?
18c) …your looks?
18d) …your religion (or lack of)?
19a) Have you, or have any of your relatives, ever been arrested?
19b) …over the holidays?
20a) Has anyone in your family ever been the victim of a burglary or theft?
20b) …rape?
21) Has anyone in the family been assaulted – physically or verbally – by someone outside of the family?
22) Has anyone in the family been physically, mentally or psychologically abused, by another family member?
23) Has anyone in your family ever been diagnosed with a mental illness (including depression), or a learning disorder?
24) Has anyone in your family ever been hospitalized for a mental illness?
25a) Has anyone in your family ever talked about, threatened, attempted, or actually committed suicide?
25b) Have you ever considered suicide?
It’s very simple.
- If you answered “NO” to *any* of these questions, your life has been easier than you think.
- If you answered “NO” to *a lot* of these questions, you have no freaking clue how difficult life can be for those less fortunate, and my guess is you haven’t really struggled at all. You have no idea what true hardship really is, and I’d suggest thinking long and hard about how lucky you’ve been before you speak negatively about anyone on welfare or using food stamps.
To be fair, even I’ve not had it that bad - there are a lot more questions that could be asked that paint a much darker picture of modern American life than what I’ve experienced. I didn’t include them because they didn’t apply to my particular situation, and this was specifically designed to cater to the people I know, to give them a baseline comparison. Someone you know, someone very close to you, has been through a lot of crap that you’ve never had to experience.
The very last question is my attempt to get others to realize that suicide isn’t what they think it is. Everyone is on their own journey, we all take different paths. If you’ve never considered suicide, then perhaps you should think about why you’ve never been down that road.
If you’ve been lucky in the Life Lottery, kindly remember that many others are not.