Stigmatization of Mental Health in India.

Stigma is defined as “interrelated problems of knowledge (ignorance), problems of attitudes (prejudice), and problems of behavior (discrimination).”

Mental illness makes up to 15% of the total illnesses in the world. In India alone,which is the home for over a billion citizens, a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the year 2015 says that one in every five Indian suffers from mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, etc which is about 7.5% of India’s population that is almost 200 million people.That means India has the most number of people in the world who suffer from some form of mental conditions at some point in their lives.

India also has one of the highest suicide rates in the world losing over 220,000 people every year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) a student commits suicide every hour in India. It’s not surprising that the suicide rate is so high given that they are directly related to not diagnosed or treated depression, bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, stress disorders, schizophrenia, etc.

This is because there are only about 5,000 psychiatrists and 2,000 psychologists in a country of 1.3 billion people. In addition to this only 0.06% of India’s health care budget is put into mental health and mental awareness. Despite this mental illness still remains a taboo among the Indian population.

Due to stigma about mental health, lack of proper awareness and professionals help only about 10-12% of people suffering with mental conditions and illnesses seek professional help. Many people who seek help are often referred to as lunatics, idiots, retarded, crazy, violent, etc. and also face judgments and comments. This eventually leads to a vicious cycle of isolation, shame and suffering in order to appear “normal” under social pressure which only intensifies the present conditions.

However, it is hard to expect society to ‘care’ about mental health when they don’t really have proper knowledge about it. In order to normalize mental well being we must first look into the stigma, ignorance and lack of information of mental health.

As parents we must stop saying “What will people say?”. As friends we must stop saying “You are just being sad and depressed”. As a family we must stop saying “It’s just a phase”. And as a society we must stop judging, victim blaming and educate ourselves and others about issues relating mental health and support and promote mental health.

This can only be possible when we make a nationwide effort to educate, activate and talk about mental health and sensitize the subject in the society. It is also important to note that seeking help for mental illness is very expensive presently hence, it should be mandatory to be given access to safe, effective and affordable treatment as any other illness.

However, with the help of social media, proper policies by the government, educational programs, crowd sourcing, etc we can help people become more aware and help people take their mental health as serious as their physical health.