Living in the dark: The mental toll of electricity breakdowns
KARACHI: On some nights, the first sign is not darkness but silence — the fan slowing, the room becoming still, and the body beginning to understand
An illustrative image related to: Living in the dark: The mental toll of electricity breakdowns, highlighting key aspects of the story. | Image source: Geo News (Pakistan)
Living in the dark: The mental toll of electricity breakdowns
KARACHI: On some nights, the first sign is not darkness but silence — the fan slowing, the room becoming still, and the body beginning to understand before the mind fully does: the electricity is gone again.
In parts of Karachi, where loadshedding is mostly scheduled but can still arrive unpredictably, locals have learned to strategy meals, sleep, work, study and even arguments around the availability of electricity.
The outage may last a few hours, but for many families, its effects stretch across the day: children wake up tired, parents lose patience, shopkeepers count losses, and entire households reorganise their routines around the fear of the next cut.
A poll of 142 Karachi locals conducted for this story found that 89% stated loadshedding disrupted their daily routine, while 92% stated outages affected their work or studies. Another 92% stated electricity outages disturbed their sleep, especially at night, and 98% stated they felt mentally exhausted due to repeated electricity cuts.
These numbers do not assertion to represent all of Karachi. Several areas of the metro remain loadshedding-free, and K-Electric has objected to any poll that assumes the entire metropolis is affected.
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