While I hate the terms toughen up or man up because I believe they contribute to some of our mental health issues it seems to of come to a point of absolute ridiculousness.
Words are violence.
Are they? no. By definition they are not. They can be violent but they cannot be violence and the two are very different things.
Why do you give such power to words. They are noises we've collectively decided mean something and some are more "offensive" than others.
I know we can say things that can have a profound impact on each other and I believe we should always try and treat people with kindness first and foremost. However sometimes things get nasty, people get hurt, feelings get hurt. It's an all around shitty situation. But no violence was committed.
We need to stop grouping words with actual violence, you know when someone gets the shit beat out of them or stabbed. Violence is "behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something."
Physical force...
Sure, maybe I'm arguing semantics, but mostly I just think there should be a divide between words and actual violence.
If a man yells at his wife, I can't put that on the same level as if he comes home and throws her around the living room. Whilst neither should be acceptable they are vastly different scenarios.
It also leaves it up to interpretation which is entirely unfair. In our current situation violence is clearly defined, how do we include words? or volume at which spoken. What about intent? who gets to decide the intent of someones comment?
It opens a whole can of worms, people start banning words and really truly infringing upon freedom of speech.
We get it, its socially unacceptable to yell at someone that they are a useless cunt. But not all situations are like that and you could easily end up with a huge amount of unfairly prejudiced decisions based on the opinion of one or a minority.
We need to toughen up
For our own good. What use is it creating more things that can hurt us? You can't avoid it if someone runs up and punches you it is probably going to hurt. You can program yourself to not let some angry nobody hurt your feeling by saying mean things though.
Just think, Why do I give a shit what they say or think? Do they mean it or are they just trying to hurt me? If i let it hurt me it means they got what they want, tell them to go fuck themselves instead and move on
I know, some people are just mentally stronger, and honestly I get that I suffer from problems myself. But I suffer because of what's inside my own head, not what anyone else says.
No one can hurt you with words unless you let them...
It seems W.H.O decided to take it upon themselves to change the definition to fit psychological, but then again, I don't really give a shit what they say because I can think for myself. I don't want to create a softer world because being soft makes us softer, which means mental health problems will continue to increase.
If you're truly struggling you should seek support because it is never worth it to end your life, but you shouldn't let what ANYONE says have any impact on your mental state.