Current Conditions of awareness

Current conditions of awareness regarding:

MENTAL DISORDER & MENTAL CONDITIONS

“It’s just a phase beta, try to be happier”, I’m sure all of you have heard this line or something similar from parents or society-driven adults sometime or other in your life span.

India as a country still lacks the proper awareness which is required for something as serious as Mental Disorders. As a result of our casual treatment, about 7.5 percent of Indians suffer from some mental disorder and it is predicted that by end of this year roughly 20 percent of India will suffer from mental illnesses (confirmed by WHO).

What is a Mental Disorder?

Mental disorders are also a type of health condition which involves changes in emotions, thinking, or behaving patterns (or even a combination of these). Mental disorders are also associated with distress and problems functioning in social, work, or family activities or even a combination of abnormal thoughts, perceptions, emotions, behavior, and relationships with others.

Mental disorders include:

Depression,
Bipolar disorder,
Schizophrenia,
Psychoses disorders,
Dementia,
Developmental disorders,
And many more…

Is it something serious/fatal?

Let me ask you just two questions.

If any organ of your body starts malfunctioning, would that be serious?

And What’s the most important and complex organ of a human organism?

I think you guys got the answer.

Yes, Mental disorders and Mental Conditions could turn out to be pretty serious.

Just as serious as it would get if any other organs like heart, kidney, lungs or liver start malfunctioning. Sometimes even more serious than those.

A clear comparison is often made between ‘mind’ and ‘body’.

Poor physical health can affect mental health negatively.

Similarly, dire mental health can affect physical health negatively too, may even lead to an increased risk of some mental health conditions.

This is probably because people with mental health issues are less likely to take physical care of themselves as they’re required to. They are not as likely to give up smoking, reduce alcohol consumption, and make positive adjustments to their diet.

And people suffering from severe mental health conditions are highly risked for even taking up decisions like self-harm and suicide.

Then, Why doesn’t our society takes it seriously?

With an estimated 56 million people alone suffering from depression in India. Our country is facing a serious mental health crisis(according to a survey from 2017, 1 in every 7 Indians were affected by different kinds of mental disorders). The pandemic has only worsened this situation. But a lot of us in India have misplaced beliefs and attitudes towards mental health, a primary reason why mental illness is not taken seriously in India. Some of these are:

Well, I think it’s because MAJORITY STILL ISN’T AWARE of what mental health, the term is, what are MENTAL ILLNESSES and HOW THEY SHOULD BE LOOKED AFTER. and how our mental health is so important that it affects our..everything, from our physical ability to do our work to control our moods, to how our thoughts and beliefs are formed for the rest of the life. ( Some don’t change that contribute to being the dominant traits of your personality)

Another reason could simply be that many people DON’T WANT TO KNOW about what mental health is.

Anything slightly related to your mental health becomes A VERY SENSITIVE TOPIC TO DISCUSS. The majority isn’t compassionate and it’s difficult for people to find someone who’s truly willing to listen to them out daily. People shy away from talking about it, thus leading it to be a taboo subject automatically.

NEVERTHELESS, SPEAKING UP MATTERS. When you don’t decide to speak about something that’s bothering you, you suppress it, and you continue to do this adding ignorance in after some time, for the rest of your time. That’s what’s wrong. When you don’t speak up, something automatically becomes neglectable, taboo, to be taken for granted, and it ceases to exist eventually.

OUR INDIAN CULTURE AND ROUTINE IS TO BE BLAMED A BIT TOO. We’ve been told since the beginning to behave fixedly, to work like idiots, shut up and die quietly from a heart attack at a presumed appropriate age. A lot of people are inherently inexpressive here. They risk speaking about themselves, and they face trouble accepting and loving themselves. That’s why, when they do find somebody who listens to them truly for once (could be their lover, or best friend, etc.) they latch onto them for life and they fear losing them, in turn giving rise to insecurities and many more problems.

We have a habit of thinking that we’re causing the other person their time and being a pain for them, if we talk about ourselves for more than 5 minutes, so forget about reaching the point of discussion about mental health issues that’s why now many people even your closest friends would tell you straight up to visit a counselor or a psychologist for your problems so that you stop wasting their time. Umm…hello! All problems don’t need medical assistance. Simply talking and maintaining communication with someone who cares for you and you do too helps a lot!

I don’t think “It’s the way mental illnesses are portrayed in our society” could be a point here because I’ve never come across anything negative or against mental health in ads or media. People do disagree but I’ve never seen Depression made fun of by the media. Instead, the media is helping spread the good word. Look at us here!

In the end, it’s up to us, what we want to do about it, and how we want to go about taking care of our mental health all the while encouraging others to do the same. There’s no space for forcing or pushing someone to do something when it comes to mental health. So, better to just spread the word and leave the decision to the respective individuals.