Reopen the Asylums. Please!

It’s time we brought back the mental asylum.

Sure, include the spooky Victorian kind with thick stone, iron chains, and a sadistic nurse called Agnes — just a polite place where people exhibiting advanced levels of nonsense can be taken for a little lie-down. A reset. A timeout from reality while the rest of us carry on without being yelled at by strangers who learned psychology from memes and Dr Google.

I’m not talking punishment. Think of it as a wellness retreat with locked doors and padded walls.

We could gently escort loved ones, friends, influencers, and — most urgently — politicians to the gates and say, “You’ve had a long year. Why don’t you stay here for a bit?” No phones. No platforms. No microphones. Just walls, peace, and a lot of nodding while they explain their theories to someone holding a clipboard.

I don’t want to know what happens once they’re inside the place. The mystery comforts me. I don’t need details about therapy or treatment. I simply want to believe that somewhere, behind thick walls, the noise has been turned down. Shut off. Stopped.

And if this appears as politically or morally offensive — if it’s unethical, impractical, or “a bad look” — then fine. Build one for me. Give me a solitary room, experimental medicine and a courtyard view where nothing is trending, and hate lives far, far away.

Honestly, a lobotomy starts to sound restful compared to listening to justified rants delivered at full volume by people who should know better. Choosing to live inside an asylum can’t be any less sane a decision than existing in the outside world. At least it would be quieter and safer in there.

–Michael (Dark fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)