Blog...
THE ALARM
What are the symptoms of an affected mind?
And what would possibly trigger such a mind?
197·3 million
As per WHO, 450 million people suffer from a mental or behavioral disorder; about 7.5 % Indians suffer from some mental disorder whereas less than 4000 Mental health practitioners are working for it. Reports of limited availability of specialist mental health human resources (psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and psychiatric social workers (existing ones are also mostly in urban areas) have been stated. As reported by survey by NIMHANS in 2016, 1.9% of the population was affected with severe mental disorders with overall prevalence of mental morbidity was higher among males (13.9%) than among females (7.5%). Nearly 1 million people commit suicide every year. Government sponsored health insurance policies do not cover mental and behavioral disorders at the same level as other illnesses consequently this creates difficulties for patients and their families to bear economic burden.
The Experts Suggest
- Talking about mental disorders eradicates stigma & discrimination resulting to empowerment of Human rights.
- Mental illness takes a toll on economy of the country with job retention and restricted job access.
- Break the vicious cycle of poverty, physical disorders and mental illness.
- The red signals for Visiting an MHP are the 4D’s: (applicable for self & others) –
Acting Dangerous towards self & others, feeling Distressed so much that person getsDysfunctional in daily ventures, behaving or thinking Deviant from usual.
The Fight Against
- Ignorance and lack of awareness related to mental health and its treatment value.
- The degrading, narrow-minded and humiliating attitude towards those suffering from mental illness or visiting any MHPs.
- Lack of assertion and Doing nothing fruitful to Overcome by the distressed being.
The (Probable) Solutions
- Develop EMPATHY. Not to question yourself WHY ME ONLY? – To have that knowledge that we all are in the same platform of struggles in this world. But the only difference is the nature of challenges. Count the number of blessings in your life present at the moment in order to stay positive. Stay connected to your near and dear ones to feel belonged.
- From the perspective of the affected, rather than choosing any undesirable act, one shall surely visit MHPs to seek psychological support and professional help to untie the mental conflicts that are holding you back to move ahead
- In larger perspective, increasing awareness programs related to mental health issues and variety of cost-effective mental health services so that clients from all economic status can avail it and the discrepancy between the treatment resource available and rate of mental disorders is lessened.
The changing landscape of marriage in India.
Marriage, a conventional institution has experienced a drastic change with the usherance of increased use of technical gadgets, materialism and craze for financial prosperity and requirement to keep up standard of living to show off, excessive expectations from either of the partners, lack of commitment leading to extra-marital entanglement, excessive increase in false ego and adjustment issues with spouse or other family members are contributing to divorce.
Changes in the societal structure and priorities in an individual’s life and choices are affecting marriage. Many joint families are getting shortened to nuclear families. Failure to bring balance between Work & family –life is found to have great impact on marriage. The trend of educational attainment among women and need for economic independence has brought more chances for them to stay outside homes and less involvement in household responsibilities, thereby giving rise to conflicts in sharing load between the couples. One crucial area that is getting compromised is Parenting. Children and adolescents are found to present with complaints of loneliness when they find an emotional vacuum in them without their closed ones who appreciates them, listens to them when they are distressed. They resort to engaging in external means of enjoyment like drug abuse, peer over involvement, excessive use of gadgets, illicit sex or even to the extreme of committing suicide, and lead a life without any discipline. Least social pressure to marry, single unmarried parent, couples staying childless, rates of cohabitation have also increased among young adults. Thereby, the society is at loss to nurturing the essence of emotional bonding within families and gradual deterioration of family values are found too. This can be one of the psycho social factors to mental illness.
Are we entering a new society?
Novelty is always welcomed if it is going to bring advancement. The “We” is often replaced by “I” or “Me”. On one hand, we are happy and proud to witness technological and scientific advancement and newness in several areas of these materialistic spheres in our new society. On the other hand, a drastic and severe drop-down in noticed in the value system of the society which is impacting on mental hygiene of people thereby badly affecting family structures, relationship dynamics, economy, educational progress, physical health etc unlike before. People is doing self-care more on materialistic platform than taking care of their inner world, thoughts and feelings which is resulting mental breakdown, hence resorting unhealthy shameful immoral acts.
What are the primary causes?
- Lack of maturity yielding out of minimum knowledge regarding the true self and handle their dealings with others.
- Lack of an adequate role-model, in one’s immediate environment, who can teach those values and morality.
- Lack of knowledge to find out right manner to channelize impulses or negative energy.
- Increase of desire to enjoy materialistic benefits at the expense of soul-satisfaction.
What does the future has in store for you?
Though all generations are responsible for societal advancement, but the youthful spirit and the creative spur among youths act as a driving force to eradicate stagnation in society and bring prosperity. But unfortunately, the present scenario presents us with absolutely opposite picture of demotivation, unproductiveness, immorality and insincerity among the young generation. Maximum youths are “at a Risk Zone” due to their reckless behaviors like substance-abuse, committing suicide out of depression, glued to technological stuffs, getting involved in irresponsible sexual relationships & trusting on virtual interactions more than sharing with immediate near ones in family, etc. It is pretty difficult to consider a better future of society when the future-makers are unaware of the essence of sound and healthy life. In recent trend, areas like Economy, Relationship, both Physical and Mental health and Moral values etc are at stake.
We might be leading a comfortable life with access to several technical prosperity and easiness with least hard work in near future. But a massive deterioration in humanistic values of the society is waiting to emerge soon with increase in animalistic actions more than before, until the higher governing authorities and each individual make conscious efforts to implement restriction on this unruliness.
Spiritual knowledge, though is undermined often by many, but provides us the pathway to right way of living with values to mould life towards positivity and growth. It high time for society to realize before it calls forth overall befall of humanity. Self-regulation can be executed by being AWARE, through PRACTICE with use of KNOWLEDGE. Bringing a balance between inculcating values of selflessness while enjoying material life is highly demanded of everyone to stay really happy.
