Javeed Sukhera MD PhD

Selective empathy is moral blindness. It’s when compassion depends on who suffers, outrage on who’s harmed, and silence on who speaks. True empathy isn’t agreement, it’s feeling another’s pain even when it challenges your comfort or loyalty.

Two mothers cry beneath the same sun,

The ground drinks salt from both their tears,

Grief travels like smoke,

Crossing fences and languages,

Finding lungs that did not light the fire.

One of the most painful aspects of the last few years is not just the violence…

but how easily empathy has withered in its shadow.

Too many have come to believe that acknowledging another’s pain somehow erases their own.

Callous indifference has proliferated like a virus…

Would I find,
in that relentless beating,
in that deep drawn breath,
the same proof I carry,
that we are both tethered
to the same air,
the same fragile fire,
whether we want to or not?

Families do not need to be dragged into political circuses or fed misinformation dressed up as science. They need honesty. They need research that brings clarity, treatments that bring relief, and support that brings dignity. Not partisan political theatre.

Hope in hard times isn’t wishful thinking. It’s the choice to act with purpose when so much feels out of our control.

Hope gives us agency to author our story instead of letting circumstances write it.

Hope means modeling clarity and intention, showing others that their choices matter too.

Free speech means free for everyone—not just those who think or look like you. If you want to fire or dox people for their views, you’re not a free speech advocate, you’re a hypocrite.

Choose your words carefully. Are you making the world safer or more violent and dangerous?

Polarization grows when we treat our own views as inherently good and others’ as inherently bad.

This mindset erases complexity, shuts down dialogue, and deepens divides.

In healthcare, trust is sacred. Critique makes us better. But baseless or partisan attacks corrode trust and strike at the covenant between medicine and society. Illness and healing aren’t partisan. Our work is for the greater good, and we must protect that trust with vigilance.

When people fear your power, they’ll try to tear you down. The answer isn’t to shrink. It’s to stand taller, trust your voice, and keep speaking.

There is agency in refusing to be flattened into a caricature. There is power in choosing depth over distraction. And there is freedom in staying rooted in our humanity, even when the world around us tries to strip it away.

School shootings are not a mental health issue. They are a gun issue. As a child psychiatrist, I see kids struggle every day—but their struggles don’t put AR-15s in classrooms. #GunReformNow

Hyperpolarization destroys trust, silences nuance, and fuels division.

Dialogue builds bridges, restores humanity, and paves the way for real progress.

A healthy society depends not on louder voices, but on deeper conversations.

The most important thing we can do is love deeply and let ourselves be loved without conditions. Love brings people together and creates a community where we can give and receive space, kindness, and understanding.

The keepers of the lie fear the lantern’s light. So they chip at its frame, dim its glow, and let the darkness swallow it whole.

The world needs your fire. Just make sure you’re not burning yourself to keep others warm.

When we divide the world into good and bad sides, we give ourselves permission to stop seeing each other as human. Choose a different path. Choose to transcend. Choose to be love and light.

Even when it’s hard.

Especially when it’s hard.

We are witnessing one of the most inhuman and painful moments in our collective history. What stories will we tell our future selves? What will even be left of us if we are nothing but hardened hearts and empty shells?

If your first response to your neighbor’s suffering is to question its authenticity, not to offer care, then the real loss isn’t truth…it’s our shared humanity.

When we turn our hearts away from compassion, we lose the threads that bind us and our humanity begins to unravel.

Connecticut now has the strongest #mentalhealth parity enforcement legislation in the country. Proud to host state leaders for today’s bill signing and contribute to this important bill.

There is a particular kind of grief that comes with losing our elders.

The slow fading of a generation that carried our stories, our roots, and the sounds of our childhood.

May those who have passed be remembered with love and light.

A reminder to every immigrant compelled to display your gratitude for your new home:

Your greatness is not granted by borders or nations. It lives in your resilience and your humanity.

You bring richness and strength to every place you touch.

No one can choose you to be worthy—you already are.

Home is not
just where we are from
but what we choose to build
line by line
brick by brick
memory by memory
even across borders.

Happy (complicated) #CanadaDay

When support is demanded instead of invited, it stops feeling like solidarity and starts feeling like control.

Allyship is not about absolute agreement. It is about mutual respect.

If one can’t say “I see things differently” without being labeled a threat, then the space was never safe.

True solidarity is not about purity tests or forced alignment. It is about holding space for complexity, grief, and divergent truths.

Centering only your own pain while ignoring others does not advance your cause. It erodes trust and weakens relationships that can foster healing.

There are moments when the veil thins,
and truth stands naked in the light.
Some feel their soul begin to shake,
others blindly chase power and might.

I’ve joined TikTok! www.tiktok.com/@drsukhera?_...

This body…your body
was never meant for the altar of mindless labor.

Drape yourself in mercy.
You are your holy ground.
Let it be enough.

You are not merely what you produce.
You were always sacred,
even when the to-do list remained undone.

May you offer your nervous system
Unconditional permission
to unclench.
To breathe.
To be.

This Eid, my prayer is for the world to uplift the dignity of those suffering and bring ease to their pain. Wishing all those who celebrate a Happy Eid.