3 Indian Women Break Mental Health Silence After Loss

A 16-year-old girl holds photos up to her mother's face, repeating the same words over and over: "This is you." Her mother, experiencing a schizophrenia episode, insists the woman in the pictures is a stranger.

That girl grew up to be Dr. Kavita Arora, a child psychiatrist who now asks every patient about the family members who aren't in the room. She's one of three women sharing deeply personal stories in Homecoming, India's first anthology about women navigating mental health challenges as daughters, wives, and mothers.

Dr. Nandini Murali lost her husband to suicide. She remembers sitting through crying spells in Madurai while the family's golden retriever climbed into her lap, wrapped both paws around her neck, and licked away her tears. Now she runs SPEAK, an organization helping others through similar grief.

Dr. Pheroza Godrej has spent decades caring for her 46-year-old daughter, who lives with severe OCD and anxiety. The question that haunts her most: what happens when we're gone? Her answer, repeated through the years, stays the same: "You will be cared for."

Growing up, Kavita thought every family looked like hers behind closed doors. Her father worked as the neighborhood doctor while her mother's episodes brought violence, shouting, and paranoia. March became the hardest month because her mother's relapses lined up with exam season.

Nobody taught her what schizophrenia meant. Neighbors heard the fights but never asked how the children were doing. Kavita and her brother learned to read the atmosphere acutely, forming what she calls a survival bond.

Books read by flashlight, school sports teams, and friendships that have lasted 38 years kept her going. She didn't think of them as coping mechanisms back then. They just felt like the parts of life that made sense.

The Ripple Effect

Each woman's story reveals what medical training often misses: most of the living happens between doctors' appointments. The anthology gives voice to the caregivers who hold families together while carrying their own unspoken struggles.

When Kavita asks about family members not in the consulting room, she's honoring everyone her childhood self needed someone to see. These three women are finally asking India the question too few people asked them: How are you doing?

Their stories are changing who gets centered in mental health conversations across India.