World Mental Health Day 2019: Suffering from a mental illness has always been stigmatized in the society and those people suffering from these problems have always been frowned upon by the society. Even with awareness mental health mental health is complex. Without awareness, the situation can go completely out of hand!
India has first adopted its first Mental Health Act in July 2017. The law protects the rights of mental ill people and also their dignity and privacy through the period of their treatment. However, this Mental Health Act did not make any provisions for mental health awareness at the workplace (as said by Vibha Setlur, practising advocate in Bengaluru and Co-founder of LegalChap.com)
Mental illness is never considered as serious a condition as physical ailments and on this day efforts are made to provide support and show the importance of psychological support which are pragmatic to play a helpful role by people by people who are health staff, community, NGO’s, etc.
Apathy, a sheer insensitivity of people who have not or who are not affected by the same towards these people is one of the most upsetting feelings.
People die from suicide every 40 seconds – 800,000 suicides in a year! Therefore this year’s theme is ’40 seconds of action’ and the objective is to raise awareness amongst the surging numbers! With 17% of the world’s population India records a high number of suicidal rates where almost 2.2. Lakh people die by suicide every single year! Most of these people are between the ages of 15-29!
Who hasn’t felt lonely, felt a fear of abandonment or even a period of prolonged disinterest in daily activities? Tiredness, sadness, hopelessness, social withdrawal, interpersonal problems, sleep and eating problems difficulty concentrating and problem solving and fear about the future are all signs of worsening mental health conditions and they need to be identified and worked upon.
These are just a ‘few’ signs of mental conditions, which of course can only experienced by them. Other people however go through mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder, chronic stress, anxiety, psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, dissociation & dissociative disorders, panic attacks, borderline personality disorder (BPD), borderline dysmorphic disorder (BDD), eating problems, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, personality disorders, trauma related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), psychosis), suicidal feelings, etc.
According to the World Health Organization, India is the most depressed country in the world, which then gets followed by China, USA, Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and Pakistan. 7.5% of our country is affected by mental illnesses and there are less than 4,000 experts who are available to help! Disturbingly, this is expected to increase to 20% next year!
However, mental illnesses are no unusual problems in our society!
There have been numerous cases and times when people have faced severe conditions, fighting psychiatric problems and one such case has been of that of the incredible real-life story of Barbara Lipska, the director of the Human Brain Collection Core at the National Institute of Mental Health in America.
She was a leading expert in the field of neuroscience of mental illness but sadly was diagnosed with melanoma (brain cancer/tumor). It only took a few months for it to spread over her frontal lobe, the seat of cognition, which began to shut down. In ‘The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind’, her personal experience has transformed the way she thinks about mental health and mental illness. The book is also an attempt to alleviate the stigma around mental illness.
Agatha Christie, the mystery writer was diagnosed with a dissociative fugue in 1926 after her mother’s death.
While many celebrities share their stories on social media there yet many people who sweep their personal stories under the carpet, refusing to confront them – living in their own hallucinated world. It is high time people confront mental health concerns, get actively involved; and help to foster mental health awareness!
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