Normalizing Mental Health Issues

If someone is talking about Mental Health in India, the first thing that comes to their mind is the scenario of locked in a hospital cell or roaming the streets like a psycho. If someone visits a psychiatrist, people’s perception about that person would be something like them incapable of living their daily life. Most of the time, kids are told to stay away from them and maintain s distance, as if they are going to jump at kids and start doing something crazy. People are told that they would harm them. WHO, from a survey, figured out that India is one of the most depressed countries in the world.

The fear of stigma is so bad that people suffer until they commit suicide but still they do not go to psychologists. Even the amount of psychologists in India is very less compared to other countries. We have the perception that to live a happy and successful life, a person needs to be perfect. We worry about physical perfection. But nobody cares about what might go on inside. Some people also think that going to a psychiatrist and taking medicine will turn them into an even more crazy person. There’s a stigma in everything – if men cry, if someone asks for help, they are weak, if someone suffers mentally, they will go crazy in some days and roam in the streets.

Depression and anxiety are normalized a little but what about those people who suffer from OCD, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder? They are termed as “Crazy”. The sad part is not that people have these diseases. The sad part is that during their treatment, they are going to be alone on their own and nobody will even try to help them or support them mentally. India is still backward in so many ways, even after the fact that we are in the 21st century. The change will take time to arrive in India, but if one person starts following that change, another ten and hundred people would be compiled to do so as well.

By – Anisha Sen

Content-https://www.spsnational.org/the-sps-observer/fall/2018/mental-health-mattersnormalizing-conversation