Samreen Tak
“Health is wealth”, is the age old proverb, meaning good health is the greatest wealth. Good health is central to human happiness and well-being. But the significance given to health in this swiftly changing world is no more pleasing. Health is the state of complete physical as well as mental well-being. Lamentably people who tend to be physically fit often assume their mental wellness which is not the case always. Earlier health was not given the attention which it needed; it was only after 1990s that we saw the urge put forth by writers and health professionals to talk about health in social as well as medical dimension.
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Currently the whole world is gripped under the deadly blanket of Covid-19 crisis. Every day we are witnessing the death of thousands due to this Virus, simultaneously witnessing the rise in mental health related issues. Everyone’s mental health is getting impacted during lockdown. Across the country mental health experts have to deal with an increasing number of people, particularly youth.
Suicide rates are increasing at alarming rates in the country. The number of people contemplating suicide has already increased in this era of global pandemic. India so far records the highest number of suicides globally.
Adding mayhem to the already coping Covid- crisis making the situation even more hazardous. This pandemic has forced a ‘new normal’ in human lives; social alienation, frustration, anxiousness has become common. This is making people to get them adapted to deteriorating conditions enforced by post-Covid era. Due to which world is slowly changing and so are the humans. In these unprecedented and unpredictable times news of deaths, suicides, fear, psychological trauma, panic attacks are indicators of mental health. People are rendered jobless, students are confined to four walls, and domestic violence has increased.
Dreadful and this bleak situation has made many people to fall in trap of self-harm. Young people are resorting to suicides over little personal life blues. Health care professionals are of the view that youngsters are more prone to mental illness. Tele-counselling sessions are conducted by professionals due to the rise of depression and trauma among youth. But what about those unprivileged who have been put under digital gap? Also what about the patients, are they recovering? Is there reduction in suicide rates? Unfortunately the answer is no, nothing has been changed instead the scale is going up.
Talking precisely of Indian sub-continent, there are cultural as well as social variations, 70 % of Indian population is living in villages and hence far from the reach of digital privilege.
This digital gap provides space for falling literacy rate and ultimately marginalizes the already marginalized people. These people least bother about the mental well-being of a person and living in this social setup of ancient black and white world constantly made them to indulge in social taboos, Which vehemently puts them all together in category of marginalized groups.
Also people with mental health problems are often stigmatized in our society which all together adds to their miseries and making their lives difficult. India as a wholly diversified nation has increased its pace in the development of medical sciences. Producing thousands of doctors must not be the goal instead giving quality health care facilities must be. The decisions that youngsters make while choosing their carrier is often negated by parents and society which makes them vulnerable to depression and end up killing themselves.
Their silence and strange behaviour is often mistaken as teenage phase of life. Mental health taken for granted by parents sometimes or other times being judgemental leads to degradation in the end also that might be the reason why experts of psychotherapy are made strangers to their patients.
The ‘Covid-19 Blues’ study, was conducted by Bengaluru-based Suicide
Prevention India Foundation from April 24 to May 28, found that job loss
or fear of it, stress, isolation and financial insecurity were people’s top concerns. Nearly 30% of therapists said they had observed an increase in people who have self-harmed as well as expressed suicidal ideation.
Talking about mental health related problems is not enough, in these
times of mental health crisis we need to support people living with it. We as humans lack basic morals; we don’t have enough patience so that we can meticulously listen to folks and if we somehow manage to do so our conversations end by passing judgments without empathizing the person.
Lending a caring hand or living with the person can do wonders in itself.
And also that support or care must not be for time being; if you give all the affection and love to that person within seconds of leaving him/her, the person will be suffering from the same trauma again. Support in any way must be long and enduring. Even sometimes people with robust support from family and friends could not help but feel deprived too; you never know how that person might be feeling in the darkness of night.
We need to be there for each other not only in words but in person too, because of our kind efforts someone could find the reason to live. Everything takes its time, instant works are only meant for machines, we humans need to be patient and our developmental stage itself demands patience and right time.
Healing takes time, yes it is process. Nothing occurs in fraction of a second, everything has its own time of fall and you see rise too. Only humans have the tendency to be patient in any situation despite of being strong or weak. It hardly matters.
There are these situations in everyone’s life where they no longer feel alive, all broken, tormented, helpless, tired you name it.
This feeling of depression moulds them completely they either come out stronger or broken there is no in between. They say depression can hit you at any stage of life, yes you never know when your struggles are going to take the shape of anxiety, when your burdens are going to cause bent in your back, when your heart is going to become hollow, your heart beats or doesn’t beat at all. You begin to question your existence, everything around looks lifeless. You distant yourself with your loved ones not because you start hating them but because deep down in your heart you believe they won’t understand your situation and their prejudices are going to reinforce only.
As show must go on, you continue your day-to-day chores with that chaotic heartbeat after every minute. You meet people, you laugh, eat, do everything that is expected from you to do but deep inside in your darkest naked world you only know how it feels when you have to force your brain to start working every morning you wake up.
Eventually with the right guidance, care and treatment you evolve out of it like you fall in deep pit and it took time and lot of energy to come out of that pit alive. Being hopeful is what it takes to come out of this swamp at an individual level. Sometimes when everything seems falling apart right in front of our eyes we feel a strange kind of emotional breakdown.
We feel depressed for no reason, try to aloof ourselves. These are the times we need ourselves the most. We need to build our bond with our own being so strong that whenever we fall, the moment we get up we find our own being standing to pick us up.
The intricacies of mental health issues need to be dealt with affection and caring attitude. We need to aware people of mental health issues and its devastating consequences. Youth being the nation builders of any country and if their health is not being prioritized we could not think of any development. Rising concerns over mental health issues need to be addressed with cognizance and good healthcare system. It is high time to address these issues collectively and come up with robust solutions.