Breast cancer survivor Chhavi Mittal opens up about the need for support
Just because you are back from the hospital doesn't mean you don't need support from people anymore.
Chhavi Mittal has been highly vocal about her breast cancer diagnosis, subsequent surgery, and the recuperation period. Now, she has opened up about the need for support after the operation, once one is back home, in a candid chat with actor and cancer survivor Lisa Ray, sharing that she experienced a lack of empathy from some close friends.
“Every second day after my surgery, there was a lot of discomfort in my breast. I often found myself comforting my breast as I would get a lot of swelling. I did that once in a restaurant when a very close friend said…stop doing it…stop attracting attention to yourself. And until then, I didn’t realise that it’s something that’s attracting attention. It’s just that I was comfortable doing it. Slowly, but surely, one by one, I had these kind of incidents with so many close friends, and I think that played a lot on my mind,” shared Mittal, 44.
She added, “Just because you are back from the hospital doesn’t mean you don’t need support from people anymore. That’s when you need it the most. And I felt that, too. In fact I was judged and looked down upon for my behaviour and for my mental health by the ones closest to me. One by one, I lost all my ‘friends’ coz nobody had the patience to let me heal.”