Fear gone Rouge!

Fear in life they say is like Salt to food. Very important for basic survival instincts, keeping us safe in fool-hardy situations, yet what would life be like if this basic instinct went rogue. Well! It becomes a story of doom, destruction and hell for a beautiful life.

This is exactly what happened to Mitali a beautiful person, a good sensitive, loving and caring mother. These times should have been the happiest times of life for Mitali, she had given birth to her second child, a beautiful baby boy, as she called it, her family was now complete. Mitali had everything she ever wanted from life, a beautiful house, a loving husband, a talented daughter and now a healthy baby boy, what more could you ask for from life? Well, I guess the answer was having a belief in life itself.

Times were tough, all around the world, with the pandemic spreading far and wide, breaking human faith and talking lives. Mitali was caught inside the house first listening to the news and messages of the devastation happening all around the globe and then closer to home in the extended family.
Second, came the stage of getting caught inside her head, where the disease looked larger than life at her doorstep, persistently knocking on the door of the dreaded fear of death of her loved ones. Her life went from celebrations to seclusion, everything and everyone became a threat to the existence of her loved ones.

She turned from an organised homemaker and caretaker of her family to a prisoner of her fearful thoughts. The very idea to move even a single finger from the corner of her bed seemed life- threatening. Mitali stopped feeding her newborn baby, fearing she would transmit germs to her child and slowly even stopped holding her baby fearing the worst possible scenario.
she would spend hours and hours in the bathroom scrubbing herself and in turn, even scrubbing the soap if it somehow was infected with germs, at times even throwing the soap away because of her fear, that it was somehow infected. Every day there was a new brush for brushing her teeth with as the old one might have caught something in the cabinet.

She would keep her hands in her pockets for fear of touching something and perchance if it so happened, she would rush to the washroom and wash them for an hour at least. No one was allowed to come inside her room except for her husband and the kids, if anyone did come near her or the kids, everyone in the family had to take a bath even on cold winter evenings. The bedspread was changed n number of times a day. Washed clothes were washed again and dry- cleaned clothes were sent out again with the pretext of having been dropped to the floor. Slowly but sturdily Mitali’s life started to shrink to the confines of her room and worse to the corner of her bed. Life became a living hell.

Fear that should have been the catalyst in taking just enough precautions, had gone out of proportion to destroy a loving family atmosphere.
We can’t take out the excess salt from our food but as intelligent and aware human beings we sure can take out the excess of fear from our lives, if only we acknowledge that there is life beyond the closed confines of our self-imposed prison of thoughts and this is exactly what was required by Mitali to do for herself and her family. She needed to once again open the doors ofher, prison and walk out in faith towards the beauty and blessing of life.But the dungeons of fear were dark and lonely, the family had nearly lost all hope of normal peaceful and loving existence. In times so dark they say even a pinhole of light can be a life saver.

An old friend of Mitali was called to talk to her if possible, help her out of this situation full of dread and doom. Friends they say are gods way of helping you understand yourself to find your inner strength. Add time and love as hands to nurture your faith in your inner being. Family support and understanding were the perfect environment for healing, this was the perfect recipe for Mitali to take her first step off her bed and towards her life that she had completely given up due to her fear of death and loneliness.

Fear they say is like water, once it enters your house, it finds corners that we thought were safe and starts to erode the foundation. As the doors were opened more areas that were previously thought as fixed started to come up. Life-long struggles with fear were now coming forth.
All the efforts seemed to go down the drain as every day became a new challenge for the family to face. It took time and it took a lot of patience and persistence to keep moving. Mitali today is not completely out of her hyperactive fear mode still she has faith in her perfect recipe of support and all the distance she has covered from fear to faith.