Mental Health; Acknowledge its significance!

Mental health is a topic that’s not discussed as much as it should be, especially in India. It’s considered silly since it’s just “thoughts in your head”, and more often than not, the only response received while trying to confide in someone is to stop thinking about it and move on.

You can’t expect someone facing mental health issues to be able to turn it off like a tap. It’s not that simple. Mental distress is just like any other ailment we may have, like a broken arm, and it needs to be treated with the same seriousness. If you break an arm, you can’t just fix it in a second and move on, can you?

If not treated at the right time, mental distress can lead to serious consequences, such as self-harm and suicide. I have a scary statistic here which says 1.4% of deaths globally are caused by suicide, and in India, that number is roughly 1%. 1% may seem like a small number, but when you think about it, 1% is one in a hundred people. Out of one hundred deaths, one is due to suicide, and that’s just considering confirmed deaths. The number of people with suicidal thoughts could be much higher, maybe 5% or even 10%. If your office has two hundred employees, that’s twenty people with suicidal thoughts. That doesn’t seem so low now, does it? The number one cause of non-COVID deaths during this entire period has been suicide. The number one killer between the age group of 15–39 in India is suicide. That’s a lot of people. Suicide may seem like the easiest solution to all problems, but the worst part about suicide is that it’s probably the only form of death that leaves behind more victims than the person who died.

If you’re having these thoughts, remember that you are not alone. People are willing to help you figure it out, and don’t be afraid to seek out medical help if you feel like you need it.

If you’ve watched the Malayalam movie Kumblangi Nights, there’s a scene where Saji, played by Soubin Shahir, visits a therapist and ends up crying to him. Most people, including me, would have laughed at that scene, but I don’t think that’s the emotion the director intended to inflict upon us. It was a serious scene, and Saji was critically mentally disturbed. It’s not just in movies, though. When I was in the twelfth grade, I was going through a tough time, with academics and some other issues. I couldn’t find anyone to open up to at the start. I tried talking to my parents and a few friends, but nobody could understand what I was going through, and it’s not their fault at all. As a society, we aren’t used to confronting someone with mental ailments. I finally found refuge with a friend, and I’m grateful to her to date for being there for me back then.

The only time we acknowledge the existence of mental distress is when a celebrity commits suicide. Recently, we lost a prominent actor in Bollywood, and for the next few days, everyone was very concerned about mental health in social media. Let’s hope that we realize this is a serious issue, and this concern never ceases to exist.

It’s not so hard to accept and deal with mental health. If you’re facing something, find someone you trust to talk to or consider going to therapy. Therapy is not something very taboo. It’s a very normal thing to do; it’s just like going to the doctor when you’re sick. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I feel that everyone should go to therapy once in a while, as it can help get their mind back on track. If you know someone who’s going through a tough time, do your best to be there for them. A supporting friend can go a long way in making someone feel better.

Mental health is something that needs to be talked about and acknowledged more. We are in this together. Let’s do our best to be there for each other.