Mental Health — Is it really important??

Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being. It is all about how people think, feel, and behave.

If you have obtained a negative approach by seeing the title, then let me help you out. This is in a sarcastic sense so to speak. I hope you are back on a normal track.

Myths and Beliefs in India:-

In the olden days, people used to think that if someone stays reserved with himself/herself, or stays quite unusually, he/she is possessed by some evil force. Unfortunately, this still holds true, in many parts of India. The shocking reality is that some of these are urban areas. In India, we treat mental problems in a binary fashion — either the person is possessed or he/she is unfit to live a normal life and therefore must be sent to an asylum. Interestingly, a lot of Indians tend to visit priests, so-called performers of witchcraft, etc, believing that the victim has somehow been affected by an unnatural entity, and hence, the only solution is to get rid of it somehow.

As per a journal in the “Indian Journal of Psychiatry”, almost 40% of the rural subjects and 5.2% of medical professionals as well, firmly believed that any mental disorder is God’s punishment for your sins in the past life. We don’t have any bonafide method to test this statement’s truth value, but this is not something most of the educated society of India, would agree to. Therefore, the solution to this disorder is to perform some sort of religious activity to please God so that you are relieved of the curse. You might be startled to know this — 75% of rural Indians and 40% of the urban Indians, are not aware of the fact that psychiatry is a branch of medicine and mental disorder is just like any other disease that we can suffer from.

Statistics on mental illness

Now, what are the mental disorders?

1. Anxiety Disorders — e.g phobias
2. Mood Disorders — e.g depression
3. Psychiatric Disorders — e.g schizophrenia
4. Personality Disorders — e.g OCD
5. Post-traumatic Stress — e.g emotional numbness

We often use the terms anxiety, depression, and stress in our diction. But do we really understand their meaning? Students tend to get “stressed out” and “depressed” if the results turn out to be different than what they expected — do you call this depression? Of course not. It's just a result of hormonal change in the body because of the brain’s action to “peer-pressure” stimulus.

But we are well aware of the suicide rates in India. As per the latest statistics, every one hour an Indian student of the age group: 15–29, commits suicide. Shocking, isn’t it?

But, I guess it doesn’t matter because these students are not famous. This is no doubt in a sarcastic tone, but it is clearly relevant to the scenario after the Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide. Let me be very clear, I am not trying to convey that we shouldn’t be sorry for him. I saw a lot of stories and posts on Facebook and Instagram saying that we are ready to talk to you, please feel free to talk to us and some random meaningful arrangement of words and emojis that made sense, relative to the post. This is nothing but another social media trend that people have followed and encouraged but is this the solution?

Do you really think that the sufferers would open up to you just because you have uploaded something, in relevance to the existing trend? You might not be aware but these victims tend to be silent, in general. And why do we have to wait for the day when the concerned person is sad? Instead, we can be in touch with him/her as a good friend who tends to understand their feelings.

Most of you have a handful of human relations that you can open up to, but the real and grievous problem is with the ones who don’t open up to anyone, who tend to solve their problems on their own because they don’t want to project their incapability in front of everyone or let’s say, even someone. These guys are the most vulnerable to themselves and their loved ones because every human being, whether you agree to this or not, has a specified threshold to withstand pain in any form. The core problem intensifies exponentially when this threshold is crossed.

I want to conclude this article with a few words that I have written, in accordance with the subject:-

It’s not easy for me to open up,
Because of the fact that I have a strong ego.
I just nod my head (smiling), when someone goes, ‘sup?
But you can’t help me, by just saying Hola, Amigo!
…
I am tired of fighting alone,
I need some assistance, and also the courage to call for help,
Come to me if you can hear my silent desperate woes, or else I’ll be gone,
And you’ll regret this, thinking my sorrow, you could have felt.
…
I just want to lie down and let everything go,
closing my eyes, I regret the grief I couldn’t defeat.
Subconsciously, I think why couldn’t I let this go?
I know the answer — it’s my ego who I can’t cheat.

-Keshav Bagri

Here’s a video by a monologue artist, Prathamesh Barge who portrayed himself as a rural boy, following his father’s dreams, Mukund Mishra. Please watch this and if you feel the same I do, share this as well. Use social media for spreading something positive.

Note: This is not a true story, but there are many such Mukund Mishra’s in our society, who we neglect for one reason or another.

Thank you!