In the era of social networking, people are connected with a thousand number of people just for sake of, well, social networking, but in reality, they do not find any single person with whom they can share their problems or even their thoughts when they actually need to. By means of social networking sites, people can reach out to one another easily but somewhere down the line they often get lonely and stressed out.
“The big problem with your generation is that most of you are mentally weak, you do not have the courage to bear any emotional detachment,” said one of my mentors when one of his nearest young ones committed suicide. I thought about this a lot of times and it left a question mark – Are we really emotionally weak? Or is one declared emotionally weak if he/she is expressing his/her emotions? Generally, it is presumed that girls are more emotionally weak than boys. That’s why they cannot hide their emotions and their eyes swell up with tears over any small matter, while men can control their emotions easily. Is that true? Or is that the reason why men suffer heart attacks more than women? I think our patriarchal society imposes this perception deliberately on men. Men are also humans. They also have a heart, a brain, arteries, and veins like women do. They also get affected, when they feel something is going wrong.
Actually, sometimes we try to share our problems with the people around us, and they don’t even pay attention to us, instead, they laugh at us. Instead of listening to us, they give us advice like, “Now you are a mature person, you should not behave like that, you should be brave, you should not be so sensitive because you have grown up.” These lines strike our minds every time we want to talk. The situation then becomes critical when we don’t like to share our problems. When we are silent or distraught we want just someone to listen to our problems, and not get some unnecessary advice instead. That’s why we are afraid to talk about our problems in front of people. We are afraid to be laughed at and afraid to be discussed about. We then choose not to discuss our issues, in turn, converting them to bigger problems like depression or emotional trauma. In such cases, we become weak, incapable of handling pain.
In the middle of completing or chasing our dreams, we have to face many problems, and we need someone who pays attention to us and listens to us and whenever we need, give some meaningful advice, instead of laughing at us. Actually, physical injuries can be treated well by going to hospitals, doctors or physiotherapists. You can cure physical injuries easily, but what about emotional trauma, heartbreak, the pain of losing someone, the pain of being jobless, the pain of not achieving our childhood dreams, the pain of not fulfilling our parents’ dream?
You will never feel the pain which is felt by someone who is seemingly fine in front of you. Maybe, one is pretending to laugh, to focus on his work, to talk to you but internally he is broken. After writing this, the question that arises in my mind is, can’t we share our troubles with our near ones? Can’t we cry publicly just because we are growing? I think depression and emotional trauma have become a part of our lives in abundance. If you dig deeper into the problem, you will realise that every second or third person is suffering. It might be someone who is very close to you. Maybe for someone, it is a small thing and after sharing his feelings with you he/she can overcome the emotional distress. Maybe someone really needs your help. So please go and listen to them, believe me, they will share their problems, all the truth, everything with you. I know your time is very precious but if you can help someone out of their pain, it will be all the more valuable.
On the occasion of the new year, I pray that the coming year turns out to be great for all and no one has to feel the pain of loneliness. We can fight out our external problems but it becomes difficult when we have to fight with our self internally, without showing emotions.