“If tears stained clothes like blood, maybe hospitals would have an emergency ward for mental breakdowns”
– Surbhi Dhama
We reward mental hard work more than physical. We call it grit. Intelligence. Success.
Yet when you face a mental breakdown –
There’s no Emergency Button.
No ER rush.
No fast-track lane.
Break your leg? You’re wheeled in.
Break yourself mentally? You’re told to “hang in there”.
Hospitals have trauma units for bones and physical injury, but not for mental breakdowns.
You can bleed and be seen.
But if you’re drowning in your thoughts, the world expects silence and patience.
Why????
Because mental pain doesn’t spill on the floor.
Because it doesn’t make others uncomfortable until it’s too loud to ignore.
The irony?
We push people to their limits mentally-
But don’t give them a place to collapse safely when they’ve crossed the edge.
There will be emergency numbers-
but you’re expected to whisper when you use them.
There will be helplines-
but only if you don’t make a scene.
There will be support-
as long as you don’t scare anyone.
There will be numbers to call-
but not the space to truly fall apart.
Because when the pain is not tangible and visible- we just choose not to look.
– A piece from my journal.
