Mental Health Awareness in India

• 2020-07-15

If asked about what is mental health, the definition comes in easy, a state of well-being where individuals can cope with the normal stresses of life and contribute to her or his community. But if asked how to better mental health, or what is someone’s opinion about someone suffering from mental illness, the stigmas related to mental health/illness stems up.

India, a country where superstitious beliefs and stigmas are deep-rooted, the topic of mental health is always linked with prejudice and fears. A person suffering from any mental illness would see it as a weakness and keep it to him/herself rather than seeking help. We desperately need to tackle the idea that a person must hit ‘rock bottom’ to accept that he/she is having a mental issue and need to receive mental health support. Now, one would not wait for every bone to be broken in their body before treating their broken arm, right?

Mental health till today is still seen as a taboo in India, people are embarrassed or not allowed to talk about their mental health as it is mocked upon, especially with the common slang “Pagal hai Kya?” (are you crazy?) and it is a dire urgency to change this attitude towards mental health.

Awareness about mental health in a country like India, wherein every 5th person is going through the misery of some form of mental illness, is particularly important yet is a less talked subject. One needs to be made aware that mental illness doesn’t ponder about one’s wealth, health, or background. It can take anyone in its clutches and most of the public in India is suffering from depression or anxiety disorders and is taken for granted/ lightly.

Every 2nd person is taking anti-depressant medicines, without having the full knowledge of what the medicines are for or what the person is suffering from. An individual should at least have basic concepts cleared about mental disorders to not take the wrong medication or be diagnosed incorrectly. Since childhood, we are not taught how to cope with disappointments, failures, and expressing our feelings is termed as a sign of someone who is not mature or cannot take up responsibility. To aware India about the concerns of mental health, we need to eradicate the deep-rooted stigmas associated with it. For this, we need more conventions and programs, government funds to improve mental healthcare, interventions in the educational system of our country to educate students on how to handle daily life hassles and especially to dawn upon the importance of not just excelling academically, but also overall excellence of an individual in which mental health should be given utmost priority.

Just how ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,’ ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, and other such campaigns gained a lot of success and awareness, campaigns about mental health need to be addressed as well. We need to make India understand that mental health is the same as physical health and that it is not to be ashamed of. If one can go for a full body checkup to a doctor and not be catcalled, the same goes for early intervention of mental health. Anyone suffering from any mental illness is not crazy, anyone trying suicide is not weak-minded, anyone expressing his/her opinion/feeling is not shameless or a child.

The public of India can and should be concerned and be sensitive about mental health as much as they are for physical health. We have thousands of remedies, Ayurveda, homeopathy, allopathy for one disease or physical illness and if we compare this with mental disorder or illness, it is the same just that in terms of psychology it is called several types of therapies.

Especially in these times of global pandemic, let us pledge to aware of our country’s public about everything there is to mental health for the betterment of an individual as well as of the country.