Calm Her Mind

Today, many women are silently battling depression, anxiety, burnout, and emotional exhaustion, because even in 2025, talking about your mental health still feels like a weakness that you should hide from everyone.

Let’s discuss why many women still choose to hide their mental health struggles, the toll it takes, and how we can create a culture of openness and healing.

Why do women hide their struggles?

1. Fear of being judged: Most women fear that they’ll be labelled as ‘dramatic’, ‘unstable’, or ‘too sensitive’ if they open up.
2. Caretaker mentality: Women are conditioned to prioritize others, like kids, partners, parents, and coworkers. Admitting they need help feels selfish.
3. Cultural expectations: In many cultures, women are taught to endure silently, put family first, and never ‘air dirty laundry’.
4. Shame and guilt: Women feel guilty for feeling low when they ‘should’ be grateful. This guilt silences them.
5. Perfectionism and pressure: The pressure to ‘have it all together’ can lead women to deny their emotional struggles to preserve an image.
6. Lack of safe spaces: Not all women have a friend, therapist, or community where they truly feel heard and validated.

The mental health impact of bottling it up

You might think that suppressing emotions makes them go away, but instead, it intensifies them. It also:

• Increases the risk of anxiety and depression
• Triggers chronic stress, sleep issues, and burnout
• Can lead to physical illnesses (headaches, hormonal imbalance, gut issues)
• Weakens relationships due to irritability or withdrawal

Sometimes silence isn’t golden; it’s damaging.

How to start speaking up

1. Start with yourself: 

• Journal how you are feeling and name your emotions
• Reflect on what you need emotionally right now

2. Talk to someone safe:

• Choose someone who listens without judgment
• Use phrases like: “I’m going through a lot lately, and I’d love to talk.”

3. Normalize mental health conversation:

• Share mental health posts on social media 
• Encourage open talk among friends, especially moms, sisters, and colleagues

4. Therapy is not a failure: 

• It’s a form of strength to seek professional help
• Therapy offers validation, clarity, and coping tools

5. Challenge internalized shame:

• Replace “I should be stronger” with “I deserve support.”

6. Practice self-compassion

• You don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of care
• Speak to yourself as you would to a friend in pain

How to create safe spaces for women

• Listen without fixing
• Ask twice (How are you? No really, how are you?)
• Be vulnerable yourself, as it opens the door for others
• Support, don’t shame when someone shares a mental health story

When one woman opens up, it empowers others to do the same.

What society needs to change

• Normalize mental health days like sick days
• Show real women in media, not just perfection
• Train workspaces to spot and support mental health struggles
• Makes therapy accessible and affordable

You should always know that when you feel tired, lost, overwhelmed, or when you ask for help, you are just being a human, and everybody is allowed to do that. You can stop pretending you’re fine. Know that the strongest women aren’t the ones who never fall, they are the ones who dare to get up.