Mental Health

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when someone talks about mental health? Okay, let's just not go there directly. What does actually mean by mental health?

Mental health is all about our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental health is important as much as physical health. As children, our parents always tell us what we need to do in order to lead a healthy life. Having strong bones, great immune, etc. We all agree that our physical health is important; do you think our mental health is any less important? Do we really care about our mental health as much as physical health?

 

Mental health statistics in India

According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) from 2014 to 2016

● 10% of the population suffers from common mental disorders

● 1.9% suffer from severe mental disorders

● 13.7% of the Indian population will at least once in their lifetime be diagnosed with mental health disorders.

I am not scaring you sharing all this information and I am not saying you are/ you'll be one of them but to make you aware that Mental health is as important as physical health.

 

Here, in the growing world, in most of the cases whenever someone consults some counsellor, therapist, etc. they are already facing severe mental disorders. It's all because some people keep up with themselves, some people aren't even aware of their situations, some people don't speak up in the fear of facing embarrassment. Most people facing mental illness don't seek help which is because when we experience shame we do not want

to talk about it. It prevents us from reaching

out to others and therefore we do not seek

help.

People with mental illness will not go to a mental health professional for treatment.

Somewhere we are still stuck into culture and superstitions. There are still some people who think that mental illness is caused as punishment for our and insist on a non-medical explanation for mental illness like black magic, etc. Some might think that the person is intentionally behaving in an inappropriate way. It is important to remember that mental illness is caused by a complex combination of factors like genetics, socio-cultural factors,

environmental factors, etc. It is NEVER caused because of personal weakness. Thus blaming someone who has been diagnosed with a mental illness is not helpful. Instead, it will be beneficial to provide support and show understanding of them. Emotions and thoughts affect human behavior differently.

In short for some it may be easy but for some it's hard. It's okay to have an upset mind, we just need to work on it to make it better. You're not always aware or prepared about some situations but how you handle yourself in that particular situation is what really matters, how to get over things doesn't matter just how to get over things which bother you and make you sick. Not everyone cries, not everyone laughs, not everyone knows how to react, not everyone speaks up because everyone is different in their own way and everyone has their own different reactions and different feelings for certain situations. If you were able to get out of it on your own that doesn't mean everyone can do it by themselves. So be supportive,

Approach, assess, and assist in any crisis

Listen non judgmentally

Give support

Encourage appropriate help

Encourage self-healing and other supporting strategies

Respect feelings and emotions.

 

“What mental health needs are more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” 

Glenn Close

 

Written by,

Rtr. Vipasha Sharma,

Rotaract Club of KVPC.