‘My brain is broken.’ How would you respond?

I once worked with a man who experienced suicidal thoughts.
He had lost his (high-powered) job due to his depression and now thought of ways to kill himself every day.
We would meet once a week and I was always struck by the phrase he used.
‘My brain is broken,’ he said. ‘So what’s the point in carrying on?’
Another client I used to see had a stammer. They had developed it in their twenties.
English was their second language. They didn’t stammer in their first language. But they worked in London, had to use English all the time and it was a cause of embarrassment to them.
‘Why do you feel embarrassed?’ I asked.
And they used the same phrase: ‘Because I’m broken. Everyone can see I am broken.’
I believe both these stories will have a happy ending and one of the reasons is the honesty shown.
The beginning of mending is to acknowledge something is broken.
When we do that, help comes and finds us.
We’re all broken in different aspects of our lives. It isn’t a crime…just what it is to be human.
And to acknowledge it is not the end of the story…it could be the beginning.
As Ernest Hemingway said, ‘The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.’