- By Shailvee Tiwari
- Thu, 09 Oct 2025 12:52 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Reddit Viral Post: A young woman from Gurgaon has opened up online about a shocking lack of empathy she faced at her workplace when dealing with mental health struggles. Her story, shared on Reddit, quickly went viral and sparked widespread discussions about how Indian offices often ignore or even mock employees facing mental health challenges. The 21-year-old Redditor (@sasukeuchiha_3733) titled her post, “Mental health is treated like a joke in India,” describing "for weeks, I’ve been telling my managers that I’m not doing well mentally, but no one showed any empathy."
Her struggle came to a head when she had a breakdown in the office. “I couldn’t breathe, was hyperventilating, crying nonstop, and still, nothing changed,” she wrote. Feeling desperate, she sent a formal email to HR requesting time off to recover, "I finally wrote a formal email to HR, hoping now this would be taken into consideration."
“There's a lot going on in my personal life that I'm not comfortable sharing…but it has reached a point where I feel overwhelmed and unable to cope,” she added. Instead of support, she said her managers reacted with anger and even laughed behind her back. A colleague later informed her that people in the office were calling her a liar, and one supervisor even added "more namakmirch" to the situation.
“It broke me completely. I never thought being honest about my mental health would turn into something people laugh at,” she shared. To make matters worse, her manager messaged her on WhatsApp, asking if she could still “log in” and take calls, despite clearly stating she was unwell.
Watch The Viral Post:
Mental health is treated like a joke in india
byu/sasukeuchiha_3733 ingurgaon
Her post struck a chord online, with thousands of Reddit users expressing sympathy and support. Many shared their own experiences of being dismissed, mocked or ignored when trying to speak openly about mental health at work.
"Yes, mental health is a joke in this country but what's worse is sharing your mental health woes in India," a user wrote. "Unfortunately, talking about mental health problems is a taboo in India," a second user wrote. "Folks like these expect that if we have a working body and fingers to type on the keyboard, they can just treat us like they want to," wrote a third user.
"Mindsets are unfortunately super narrow and probably not getting better any time soon. You have to try your luck and push for a medical request of some sort because you will just not be taken seriously," added a fourth user. "This is so damn sad. Maybe try going to a psychologist/doctor and ask them to prescribe you a few days' leave and try showing it to your manager?" a fifth user added.