Unseen Pain

Why is telling a depressed person “Just try to be happy” the same as telling an individual with a broken leg, “Just try to walk?”

Everyone is helpless sometimes; so, learn to appreciate what you have and can do! -Tamanna Das

Empathy is always greater than sympathy.

Why is it so difficult to understand a person’s feelings when we, too, feel the same at times?

When we see blood and wounds, we feel the pain by imagining it only because it is too common, right?

Wrong! Mental health issues are proven to be more common than the common cold itself! So why is it so hard for us to visualize or even try to notice changes in someone’s feelings and emotions? Because we fear it. The fear of being engulfed in something so intense as our emotions is not an easy thing to overcome, but it is necessary. Imagine being helpless. Imagine being unable to use the only form of communication to effectively communicate. How must that feel? Terrible, of course. Physical pain is only appreciated and seen because of its visual aspect. If you burn your hand today, the scars are acknowledged by strangers, with pity in their eyes, and loved ones with remedies and care. If you break your leg, no one will force you to walk or work and strain yourself.

But what if you find no motivation? What if a day goes so bad that the cycle of guilt in your head does not allow you to lift your pen to write another word or to have another spoon of food? What do we receive then? Nothing.

The pain we can’t see is still worth the care! ‘I only believe what I see’ is a well-established philosophy that the world has often revolved around. But what about dark matter? How do we still believe it exists if we cannot see it? Because of its volume, mass, and the space it takes. Simply enough, our mind takes up that space too. It has the volume of holding memories that affect us; it needs space to heal and process; it has a mass that weighs us down or lets us feel free sometimes. We cannot simply ignore it, as if nothing is there in its place. The digital cloud- the invisible space where information is stored. We see nothing when we try to look for it, but it has the ability to hold our life’s work in it. How do we put our faith in it and buy a subscription then? Pain is not something that should be discouraged. Studies show that emotional blows are equivalent to almost two fractures at once, if not more. The need of the hour is to understand that no one is alone, and no one should be alone.

No one should feel unloved and unheard. We need to understand that the healing process of emotional wounds, especially depressive ones that often need clinical therapy, has longer treatment periods than any physical wounds. It is easy to hide behind medications for physical pain, but emotional and psychological issues leave no space to stop our daily life. So, appreciate the people who try to work throughout the day, along with fighting an internal battle. Life is not easy for anyone, and it only gets harder when the people around us fail to understand our issues. Do not judge one without knowing their story. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about! Be kind; receive kindness.