YOUR CALL MATTERS

“Talk to someone. Speak to someone. Open up…Reach out to someone.”.. These are what most of the people recommend we do, when we are down in the dumps. It may seem a simple thing to do. An easy solution that’s being offered for mental health. But we have to understand that it isn’t like telling people to wash their hands for 20sec to avoid infection, and expecting others to do so. What may seem like the easiest thing for you to do, is actually the most difficult thing for others to do. Especially when they are suffering.

Picking up the phone, trying to form words to express their feelings, or even getting up from the bed would be an infinitely agonizing thing to do, for people suffering from anxiety and depression. When a person becomes anxious, stressed, or frightened, the brain sends signals to other parts of the body. The signals communicate that the body should prepare to fight or flee. Those are the two things that their body tells them to do. 

So, I am here to urge people who aren’t suffering from anxiety to take some hours from your ever busy life to call on people you know, and ask if they are ok and talk to them. You don’t have to love them to do that. You don’t have to be bffs, to do that. You don’t have to know them intimately to do that. Call 3 people you know from your list everyday. Speak to them. For 15 minutes, or more. Speak about what you are doing in lockdown. Speak about the movie you saw last. Speak about something that’s bothering you, could be any little thing. Share a story from your yester years. Speak about Modi and a beer bottle. But talk. You, who is reading this, make the first move.

Don’t expect your friend or anyone you know to call you and  let you know they are sad. They might not be reading articles which tell them to call if they need help. They might be waiting for a call from someone to show them they matter to this world. Your call might do that job.

And when you call others, even if nothing of what they talk indicates their state of mind, let them know they are being loved. Tell them how much they mean to you. Tell them how great a job they have been doing. Tell them the world wouldn’t be the same without them. Remind them of how wonderful they are. Remind them of their successes and how much their presence in your life had impacted you. Tell them when they can actually hear it. 

You can do it. You who is reading this, take the first step. Call 3 people you know everyday and talk to them. IF they don’t answer, message them, don’t give up on them, do call them later. If you think your 1 hour on the phone is too long, and you have ten other things you could be doing instead, tell yourself that others might have just one item on their list of things to do and your call might have the magic to alter that. If during the conversation you think they might need help, find the phone number of a psychologist and make your friend call them. Don’t give up until they have called,

Make the call.