‘A breakthrough, not a breakdown’: one woman’s quest to transform mental health care in India

Psychologist Ratnaboli Ray's recovery from a mental health crisis inspired her to fight for women suffering in abysmal' conditions in West Bengal's state institutions

• Photography by Ranita Roy for the Guardian

Ratnaboli Ray regards one of the lowest points of her life as a breakthrough. After years in an arranged marriage in which she felt stifled and trapped, her mental health took a catastrophic turn in 1997, when she was in her mid-30s.

I was feeling very caged, I was not able to express myself," she says, from her home in West Bengal, India. She describes the psychological symptoms as like a pressure cooker bursting. I used to get angry, have weeping spells. I was neglectful of my young son."