Mental Health Awareness in India

”WHAT MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS IS MORE SUNLIGHT, MORE CANDOR AND MORE UNASHAMED CONVERSATION”

WHAT IS MENTAL HEALTH?

Mental health awareness in India is a big taboo to deal with , we have a need to increase the awareness of mental health in India by understanding it.Every individual has physical and mental health. Mental health is a state of our mind, thoughts, feelings and emotions. It is “a state of well being in which every individual realizes his or her potential, can cope with normal stressors of life, can work productively and fruitfully to make their contribution to community”.

Mental health awareness in India is equally important as physical health. But when we talk about the situation of mental health in India, a person facing mental health issues is being categorized as a ‘lunatic’. This happens because of lack of mental health awareness in India .

India is a country full of cultures and religions surviving together and making us secular in the world. if we guys can do so much then why not support mental health and broke myths about mental health . even lord Krishna is considered as one of the biggest psychologist , at that time mental health awareness in India was not even a concept , there was no need of awareness drives.

Mental health problem

In India, WHO estimates that the burden of mental health problems is of the tune of 2,443 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) per 100,000 populations, and the age-adjusted suicide rate per 100,000 populations is 21.1. It is estimated that, in India, the economic loss, due to mental health conditions, between 2012-2030, is 1.03 trillions of US dollars.

To combat this gigantic problem, we have very small workforce. Mental health workforce in India includes psychiatrists (0.3 per 100,000 population), psychiatric nurses (0.12 per 100,000 population), clinical psychologists (0.07 per 100,000 population) and Psychiatric social workers (0.07 per 100,000 population).

We also need to understand that mental health, like other aspects of health, can be affected by a range of socioeconomic factors. Determinants of mental health and mental disorders include not only individual attributes such as the ability to manage one’s thoughts, emotions, behaviors  and interactions with others, but also social, cultural, economic, political and environmental factors such as national policies, social protection, living standards, working conditions, and community social supports all together come in play.

Poverty and low education levels are like icing on the cake. Genetic factors also play role. In India everyone has so much to deal with and with that a barrier on everyone of not to talk about mental health because you will not gonna be understood instead you will be judged by your own society.

As a result, WHO has labeled India as the world’s ‘most depressing country’  because of lack of mental health awareness in India.                                      

Mental Health & Daily Life

We can be a happy and fun loving soul, but the stressors of life sometimes affect your mental health. Even if you don’t face any mental illness but your mental health can be affected.

It is normal to experience highs and lows, and important to take your mental feelings as seriously as you do your physical. Everyone has their god and bad days, it’s your perspective how you let them play in your future. Everyday teaches us to grow in our life.

There are many ways in which you can keep yourself mentally healthy. Read them and practice them, they will keep you going in this life.

1. Be kind towards yourself and others

2. Take time for rest

3. Exercise at least a few times a week

4. Participate in activities that you enjoy

5. Surround yourself with a positive support network

6. Practice gratitude

7. Eat a balanced diet with cheat days

8. Sleep! (Most important)

9. Educate yourself on mental health

Where to begin the awareness drive

To provide mental health awareness in India we have to start from schools and colleges

Prevention is better than cure. If prevention in mental health is to start, school and colleges are best places to start. Many schools and colleges now have in house counselors to serve mental health needs of children and adolescent. However, this is neither prevention not sufficient.

We need to work more harder by doing early interventions as in detecting the signs , spotting the changes in behavior, acting at first sign of mental health. To implement this; all schools must introduce mental health curriculum to secondary and higher secondary classes and use activity-based promotions for primary students. As we learn about civic and moral issues; students should study mental health. It will be the foundation for mentally healthy and resilient adults. schools are base for mental health awareness in India.

ORGANIZATIONS are second place to start mental health awareness in India

In the organized sector, implementation of mental health reforms should be ideally fast paced. However, we are struggling in this as well. Organisations are slow to take up mental health as priority and often team building activity, soft skill training and motivational seminars are boxed under name of mental health promotion. Organisations need to shed stigma and taboos that revolve around our culture and embrace mental health in totality.

Organized sectors should organize regular workshop on various topics of mental health to create more awareness and try to make a healthy environment around. You realize when a person works they have so much to think upon , they have a family to take care , their future to think about , image to build in society and feeling of loneliness is there in this world full of peoples.

If in the organization people can be supportive to each other, instead of judging , commenting and taunting.

Myths that exists regarding mental health awareness in India

Myth: mental health problems don’t affect me

Fact: this is the biggest myth because when you are not mentally healthy , you won’t be able to live with happiness , you will deteriorate your conditions by ignoring it.

Myth: children do not experience mental health problems

Fact: young children show signs of mental illness. In fact half of mental health signs shows before an individual turns 14 and three quarters of mental Illness begins before the age of 24.

Myth: people with mental health disorders are violent and unpredictable.

Fact: most individuals with mental health disorders are not violent. Only 3-5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with mental illness. In fact, people with mental illness are likely to be a subject of violent crimes.

Because of these myths people who genuinely face the problem of mental health stays quiet and don’t share their problems. mental health awareness in India is a taboo because of that their situation get more worse and then they are left with few things , either they will be send to mental hospitals by their family , or they will lead themselves towards the harsh realities (suicides). And only a very few people recover on their own from the issues of mental health and set an example for others. I will be sharing one real life example of a girl who fought the depression on her own-

best example of mental health awareness in India:

This story is of a college going girl, she is a happy, fun loving and caring girl. She was always there to support her friends and family. She has the helping nature for everyone. Her life was simple and normal. But then she got into a fight from the one friend who was always there for her. Her grades also started reducing. There was a lot of family complications also going even her friends were also dealing with some problems. And she didn’t have anybody to talk regarding herself.

Months passed she gave a thought to talk to a counselor regarding her problems and then she asked her mother for that and her mother replied “you are not that big and what problems can you have , you still don’t know what life is” after  this statement she said no to her. But in reality the girl was lonely and she starts thinking negative about herself and went into depression

SYMPTOMS:

She couldn’t sleep at nights. She was getting bad dreams and used to wake up full of sweat in the morning. She barely laughs and she stopped going outside and talking to anyone. She used to stay in her room in darkness for weeks. She used to have food at night only. She used to cry a lot because of over thinking.

TREATMENT:

In her pg there was one unknown girl she came to her and started talking to her. After a long time that girl talked to someone and get a boost from that unknown girl. Then she picked up her diary and writes everything she was feeling, it calmed her down. After that she started doing meditation in the morning and she started dancing for an hour daily.

Today she is so much better, she started talking to her family and friends, and she takes good diet and proper sleep. She is becoming a confident and a smart girl. Today she helps a lot of youth who faces such problems and confidently share her experience.

At the end I will say that this case depicts the reality of life, how this world will treat when you mention about mental health. It’s only you who have to work for yourself and try to be that unknown girl who came in and helped her. This world will need love and empathy. Be there for each other. so i hope this blog do justice with mental health awareness in India.

REFRENCES: https://thebanyan.org/mentalhealth/

                           https://www.expresshealthcare.in/

                      http://origin.searo.who.int/india/topics/mental_health/about_mentalhealth/en/

                           https://cognizavest.com/

                      https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

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