The War Within

The world we live in is plagued with disease and illness. We have the common cold which is easily identified by the physical symptoms of sneezing, coughing, a little trickle of the nose. Then of course we have more vivid ones which can leave you bed-bound, you know, the "take the day off work" kind where you feel as though your body goes into complete shutdown. You can't even do the most basic of tasks—breathing, eating, sleeping—they all become a wicked chore.

Obviously there are worse ones, ones that can be physically seen and end with the lights of someone whose life had only just begun, being snuffed out. Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, things like that. They suck. Yet... What of those that are unseen? Now I don't mean something like headaches or migraines. But what of those illnesses that plague ones own being? What of a mental illness?

These aren't really seen and are difficult to identify. You've got things like Schizophrenia, Dementia, and Borderline Personality Disorder just to name a few. These are vicious sicknesses that plague ones mind, but these can have effects far more terrifying than that of a physical illness. "Why?" you ask? These illnesses simply cannot be cured, it's something you have to live with for the remainder of your life. You could get it from the age of 12 and live to be 93. For 81 years of your life you would have had to cope and live alongside these atrocious monstrosities of an illness.

So, what's the most common of these invisible illnesses? That would be depression. A chemical imbalance of the brain that can leave people looking as though they've lost all hope, all motivation. All the character of who they once were. You can have the man who smiles the brightest and is the absolute essence of joy, then depression will leech into him, and that once joyful character is living in woe, being nought more than a shadow of his former self.

This disease, this monster called depression, it usually appears with an equally destructive twin called anxiety. These two are monstrous force that is plaguing the minds of many millions of people. It is also the leading factor and cause for something that brings destruction and horror into a family. Suicide.

Suicide is something that can effect every single person. A mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, friend, cousin... The list can go on. It can even effect those that aren't new to this world yet, and that, is a tragedy. Imagine that, a girl or boy being brought up in this world without a mother or father, all due to suicide. How hard must that be for them to know? When they're older and can understand things better, how hard will it be for them to understand the reason why they had no mother or father? Suicide is a problem, and a big one at that.

This story is going to follow our main character Rick Czeczenko, an English child born to Polish parents that migrated to the UK. We're going to be following his story from before his mental illness, to understand what the causes were to it, and how he copes. The title The War Within sheds light on what will be happening in this story. We will be seeing how Rick battles with his depression with interpretations of how I view what it can be like.

This story that I am about to tell you is a work of fiction, but it is based on something very real that effects millions of people on a daily basis. Please, if you suffer from anything that will be touched upon in this story, try to get help, you're not alone in any of this. You are loved, please seek the relevant support.

All in all, I hope you'll join me on this journey and enjoy the story. Hopefully the first chapter should be up in a couple of weeks depending on my work schedule. I hope you will enjoy!