LETTER | A phone call could change one's life

LETTER | Mental health is not a fictional issue that we can underestimate, especially its effect on those whom we call “friends”.

In crucial times like these, when unfortunate people are economically suffocating due to sudden retrenchment or other unwanted reasons that have hampered their survival, our help is seriously needed, even if it’s just a laughter-filled phone chat.

As an interactive person, I truly believe that making a phone call to people can be a good way for us to understand the painful realities that we don’t see, terribly faced by people we are close with or someone we happened to know in the past.

Our concerns expressed in voice could be a relieving pill for them, which might silence their depression for a certain while or mask their demoralisation with a fake smile. Today, when depression is quite common among society, a person’s wide smile may be his harboured tears.

Politics aside. The opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has, via his Instagram caption, advised us all to show care for our friends or people we personally know by giving them a ring. A phone ring will not solve one’s problem, but at least, it can be a happy sign to the person that he is still being cared for and loved.

Money, undeniably, does help those who are in desperate need of food in these very challenging times, but relaxed conversations like, “How are you, my buddy?” can be very psychologically helpful in reminding them that life is about the rollercoaster journey together.

Never underestimate a phone call that is made by someone we used to know because it could positively change how we should see our life, despite the bitternesses that are crippling our raison d’etre.

That phone call would be the greatest thing ever to happen to someone’s life since the pandemic happened, especially when they fail to really believe that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.