Stress Fractures: The Fault Line In Mental Health

One evening my daughter and I were dining out. We placed our order and were waiting for our meals to arrive. During our conversation my daughter looked over and pointed at another table where two women were presented with two frozen drinks festively garnished with the healthiest of fruits and umbrellas. Just as I was about to ask what they were drinking, one side of one of the ladies’ hurricane glass completely blew off in one solitary piece. My daughter and I were misted with some of the whipped cream and frozen drink debris. And the remaining drink ran down the glass like molten lava.

Perplexed, we all wondered What in the world just happened? The manager came over and was extremely apologetic. He explained that when glasses are washed in extremely hot water, they must have adequate time to get somewhere close to room temperature in order to place something extremely cold or frozen in them. Apparently, only one of the glasses came out of the just washed batch. The phenomenon we witnessed is called Thermal Stress.

Thermal stress or stress fractures in tempered glass (e.g., drinking glasses, sun/moon roofs, sliding glass doors, glass tabletops, refrigerator shelves, windows on buildings and glass enclosed showers) can cause glass to explode unexpectedly. A significant temperature variation called thermal shock can cause enough thermal stress or thermal fractures to cause it to explode. Shock to anything causes a stress response. Shock causes stress.

The many types of tempered glass have just as many types of fracture behaviors. When stress becomes too extreme for the glass to handle or compensate for, it gives. In other words, when the stress exceeds the strength of the material, it is going to react.

Glass is manufactured for many different purposes. When we say glass, we think of material that is translucent, fragile and must be handled with care. All glass is not made with the same way. However, they are all constructed for particular uses contingent upon 3 core properties: bending strength, compressive strength and resistance to environmental changes. Glass is strong if utilized for its intended purpose, protected while handling, not overly burdened and monitored for any changes in the environment.

When I was reading up on thermal stress and thermal shock, I started thinking that some aspects of glass reminded me of people. Shock causes stress. Stress causes a reaction. People have an intended purpose. People need to be handled with care. People shouldn’t be overly burdened. And people must monitor their environments and be monitored for changes.

There are a whirlwind of events going on in the world right now. People are extremely fragile in this ever-changing environment – uncertainty on many fronts. Every day, we are bearing witness to this on the news, in our friends, in associates and in our own lives of people exhibiting fracture behaviors like no other time in most of our lives. This is because various stressors are exceeding the strength and understanding of many of us. So, now we are witnessing the Environmental Stress of direct and indirect, seemingly unceasing Environmental Shock.

Glass is not designed to harm. Neither are we. But harm can be done by either one if not handled with care. If engineers work constantly to improve the quality and resilience of glass to keep people safe, we human manufacturers can invest heart, mind, and time into one another to make the walk in this life safer for everyone walking through it. Stress fractures are everywhere. If one person in this world is not safe, then we all are not safe.