“Society knows perfectly well how to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death.”-Andre Gide

Often we conceive death as someone physically no pulse, not breathing, dead. That is not necessarily true. There are several ways to ‘kill’ people. Sometimes it’s with the things we say; words can hurt a person just as much as physical abuse. Saying things that personally make someone feel attacked or unworthy can leave deep internal wounds. “If you kill a man’s sprit, you just as well kill the man.” We sometimes don’t realize how big of an impact the things we say can have on someone. While the pain we’re causing isn’t physical, it can sit deep inside of them long after the words are said. People carry the words with them everywhere they go, letting it haunt them, every time they look in the mirror, it’s not their reflection they see anymore, but the words and the names. Eventually the mental torture wears down on people and they begin to start believing the things themselves. They become a more quiet, shy, nervous, depressed, shell of a human that they used to be. The words slowly driving them crazy, leading them to do things they never thought they would. They’ll find a way to ease the pain, often times inflicting pain upon themselves, making their outside hurt just to take a little away from the pain their feeling inside.  We make people feel like outcasts. We tell them they are not welcome or good enough to be a part of what we have. They no longer get to feel like they are a part of society or that their existence is not valid. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget the way you made them feel.”