Author: Kallem Anoop Reddy
“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor and
more unashamed conversation.”-Glenn Close
In light of the aforementioned quote — it is quite ironic because mental health is a hoax; it is a “fictitious aspect” that seeks to persuade society that a particular human being is incapable of functioning as an average person.
I’m sorry you had to read that, but the vast majority of the largest democracy in the world sadly has that opinion.
One of the topics that most people choose to neglect or dismiss is mental health. Many people believe it to be “feminine” or something only weak people would discuss.
History
In my honest opinion, these problems arise from improper education of the previous generations. All they were taught was entirely from a book, which only consisted of lessons about solid factual subjects like science, social studies, mathematics, and more, but leaving out a critical aspect of a human being’s life mental well-being. Since then, our ancestors have centered their lives around subjects they learned about. What would have happened to them if they had experienced depression? Did they think of any solution? Or did they talk about it to anybody? Or did they just say “It’ll pass” to themselves?
Since then, it has been stigmatized by society. If you suffer from a mental illness, the common misconception is that there’s something wrong with you, as a person, as a human being.
It was classified as a luxury product in later stages. When one talks about it with someone else, people typically assume, that person is just a whiner who has all of their basic needs met.
Present
Sadly, the same education system that was in place then still exists now. Fortunately, some universities and schools are taking steps to improve students’ mental health at the ideal age without imposing immense pressure on them through homework. Interestingly, teens my age and younger individuals launch nonprofit organizations to aid the vulnerable.
Additionally, WHO is making outstanding efforts to assist individuals in need of mental assistance, particularly during and after the COVID-19 lockdown when people lost their loved ones and were unable to cope with the trauma.
Prevention
We must first look at the sources of stigma, which are to blame for all of this in one place, before moving on to the preventative stage.
Prejudice towards those who have mental illnesses frequently results from ignorance and fear. Stigma has a significant impact on how people feel about themselves and how others perceive them.
One must educate themselves, get informed of the facts, and evaluate their own prejudicial thinking in order to deal with this. Later, educate others and spread the same message to further spread it across society.
One of the key components of combating stigma and other stereotypes is educating oneself and others.
I’ll end by emphasizing that a person’s mental health is not just another little aspect of their life that can be disregarded and neglected afterwards. The world needs to discuss it freely and seek counsel from it.
“All Indians are my brothers and sisters” as mentioned in the
National Pledge of India. You could simply lend a shoulder, as
brothers and sisters frequently do.
