Mental health and mental illness.

Mental Health: you should know about it  for the sake of your Life and wellbeing

We’re all social beings and some of us go through bad experiences in our lives. Some strugal due to brain dysfunction. People should realise that like any other part of the human body, the brain can also suffer from problems, which may require treatment. This isn’t anything abnormal........

I will start my words with some recent real incidents .

 I will start my words with some recent incidents

Stuti Sharma, 26, remembers a girl she had met in class VI. The girl seemed a little weird, socially awkward and was not very good at grasping things. "She used to have multiple breakdowns at school, because some kids were plain mean. Our teacher tried to intervene by saying she was a little 'unstable', but that only made matters worse. She couldn't even complete a year in the school and suddenly stopped coming. It was only later I realised that she was actually suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety disorder," says Sharma, who works in an advertising agency in Gurugram.

Arjun Bhardwaj, the 24-year-old student  who jumped off the room on the 19th floor of Hotel Taj Lands End in Bandra on Monday, had spoken to his father after live streaming the "tutorial on how to commit suicide" which has now gone viral.Chatur Harinarayan Bhardwaj spoke to his son on 2 April and found that Arjun was "disturbed and depressed."

Deepika went on to launch the Live Love Laugh Foundation to raise awareness about mental health issues. Many celebrities were inspired to come out in the open and talk about the need to address mental health — Varun Dhawan spoke about being depressed during the making of Badlapur, and more recently, Honey Singh admitted that he had been undergoing therapy for bipolar disorder. While depression is a term often used loosely, many people had not even heard of bipolar disorder until Honey Singh or Shama Sikander admitted to having battled it.

More than 50 million people in India suffer from a mental illness. In 2011, India recorded the highest rate of major depression in the world at 36 per cent. According to doctors, roughly 10 per cent of India’s population suffers from depression.

Approximately, one in five women and one in 10 men are victims of a major depressive episode at some point in their life. This number is alarming because it means you have more than one person in your circle of friends and family who could be thoroughly depressed despite their brave exterior, and you’ve probably had no clue about their condition.

We often find it hard to get our lives back on track, since we get too involved trying to keep up with life’s pace. Yes, depression is real. So is anxiety. And yes, it’s perfectly normal if you suffer from it. But not many people understand what it really feels like to be trapped in that phase when you are no longer happy and not pleased by the things that once made you feel good about yourself.

In today’s fast-paced life, stress persecutes each one of us. A student worries over not having delivered his best in the exam. A teenager, not as well-off as his other friends, tries hard to combat peer pressure. An intern tries hard to prove her worth. A working woman, at top management level, grapples with domestic violence at home. A man deals with feelings of inferiority while struggling to impress his boss at work.

How many of them are willing to talk to a professional about such issues? “What’s the need? It happens to everyone.” “It’s no big deal!” Not one of them would approach a mental health practitioner for their issues because each one of them believes doing so will make people believe that they are creating mountains out of mole-holes.

This is a common phenomenon in the country where subtle mental ailments are brushed aside and tagged as 'weirdness', thus making life difficult for patients. Many fail to get timely treatment, primarily because these ailments are popularly seen as nothing more than inconvenience. Dr Samir Parikh, Director, Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences, Fortis Healthcare, says, "It is appalling to see the epidemic rates at which mental illnesses are on the rise in India and yet there's a tendency to look at the disease with suspicion and paint mental health as a stigma, thus forcing many to come out in open for the treatment."

World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted that 20 per cent of India's population will suffer from some form of mental illness by 2020. "With the unprecedented increase in crime rates, corruption as well as surmounting unrest among the population, there is ample evidence to show the need to focus on promoting mental health and psychological well-being today," he adds.

In a survey by The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF)- "According to our qualitative analysis, people with mental illness are likely to avoid discussing their mental health concerns openly due to the fear of being labelled or judged,” the survey said. “Furthermore, some people believe that mental illness can only happen to people who are ‘mentally weak’ and people who have ‘too much money and time.’ For these individuals, seeking support from a mental health professional is seen to be a sign of ‘weakness’.”

According to the Ontario Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), people with mental illness say stigma and discrimination are two of the biggest barriers to leading a satisfying life. This is also one of the major reasons why someone might not seek the mental health assistance which they may need. How can we solve an issue if we are not aware of the issue in the first place.

While there are several examples of people overcoming depression and other mental illness to excel in life, they did so with the assistance of others and by being treated correctly. We cannot let more people lose the battle to a problem that can be resolved. We need to help ourselves and others (who may need our help).

This is where we need to start – by talking about the issue, listening and exploring ourselves. 

Be Aware and Spread Awareness✌

For more query contact on dhyancounseling@gmail.com