Because It”s All About Our Mind

By Awanish Shahi:

First time ever in 2011 Indian Census enumerated the mentally ill persons. I didn’t see the statistics but tried calculation to get a probable figure. For calculation I zeroed in on one estimate which said that every two out of five Indians suffer from depression and anxiety. Longing for fast and furious progress, we Indians unknowingly invited a decomposer which is decaying our composure. So in backdrop of this superficial growth we are losing our minds. According to World Health Organization, depression will be the second largest illness in terms of morbidity in another decade.

If we see the awarenessof this problem, it has started but still slow. Urban society seems to be updating itself on the mental cure agenda but our countryside still remains untouched. We pay endlessly to our fitness trainer to get our body toned but when it comes to therapy, counseling and cure for our mental well being,we balk. We have immense stress and get hypochondriac very often;do we need counseling or therapy session? We blare; get reluctant and some times get evasive. This ‘therapy’ and ‘counseling’ like words have very dismal significance in our perception.

The social stigma which accompanies mental health problem is completely inhuman. A so-called ‘mentally ill ‘person is shunned from the society;he can’t work and can never live in mainstream normal society,and is a quintessential dweller of asylums and rehabilitation centers. Apparently a mental ill woman suffers a lot than a man and being a woman adds to her plight in society.

We have to see how this notion resided in our mind through years and how we can trespass any bad or detrimental phase of our life. In ancient Indian society mentally ill was considered as evil or witch-haunted, and with passage of time this saw a change in terminology as abnormal behavior, socially unacceptable, mad, insane and special residents (of asylums, jails etc).

Few years ago I saw the movie Tare Zameen Par and also saw how a kid suffering from dyslexia was counseled and transcended to a new kid with high aplomb and high energy. Why can’t we seek help in terms of counseling and therapy?Nowadays the psychological well-being of a human today is more of a socio-economic and social relationship. Today we have many systems of psychological medicines in India as Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and revolutionized modern psychiatry which integrates mental health care in community.

It’s not very hard to change the deep rooted problem related to mental illness .The change will come from ourselves .We are the sole conservers of the our greatest asset i.e. mind. It’s the situations and milieu around us which control and shape our emotions, mental composure and feelings. We don’t know how we will respond in an emotional catastrophe, anxiety, over stress and someone who can share and assist in fighting these problems is unavoidable. We, in spite of keeping our problems in disguise, sulking and thinking what people around us, will think can dig ourselves to see what is topping us and get healed by seeking mental health assistance.