When The System Condemns Closeness
- lucywishart7
- Dec 24, 2025
- 1 min read
Read the full article on Medium
During one of my hospital admissions, another patient and I — both adult women — held hands for comfort.
It wasn’t romantic or secretive. It was a human response to fear and isolation.
Later, we were accused of having an “inappropriate relationship.”
What was being named as inappropriate wasn’t harm.
It was closeness.
Mental health systems often equate safety with separation. Patients are kept apart, touch is restricted, and support is expected to flow only from professional to patient.
Because separation preserves control.
When people support one another, the system is no longer the sole source of regulation and steadiness. So connection gets reframed as risk.
But in depriving environments, reaching for another human isn’t pathology.
It’s survival.
Sometimes, what a system condemns as closeness is simply people keeping one another alive.
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