The absence of knowledge of mental health issues does not necessarily imply the lack thereof. In India, for vast majority of the population children with differential learning abilities or differential neuro-functioning have been treated under the common umbrella of disobedience and mischief, wherein the parents’ resort to various discipline mechanisms to improve such behaviour. However, these methods have run its course of effectiveness and created a spiral where kids growing up repeat the mistakes and lead their next generation into a similar scenario unknowingly.
Mental health issues are largely genetic wherein early and timely identification followed by treatment could help the individual lead a life with better well-being. The lack of it results in aggravation of the issues and results in non-social behaviours.
But in this blog, we look at some stories of extraordinary vigour from young change-makers who decided to use nurture to achieve mental and emotional well-being.
Acceptance is key to better mental health
Recognising and accepting one’s emotions are the first steps to managing our mental health. But what do we do when we have never been allowed to express our emotions freely and in a safe manner? Society with its uptight expectations rarely provide scope for being ‘different’.
Arvind found a blessing participating in the Supernova camp, where he was happy to learn that expression of one’s emotions is critical for sound mental health. His major learning includes the ability to express his emotions aptly, understanding concepts like warning signs of emotional turmoil and ‘thermometer of emotions’ to introspect how he truly feels.
He wishes he had learnt some if not most of these at his school.
Would do anything for a friend in need
We have often heard of the saying, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. But what happens when the friend is unaware of the need, well that’s when we say “better late than never”.
This is a story about a boy who once became aware of his friend’s plight left no stone unturned towards getting them justice through the power of his knowledge and collective strength of his peers.
Rakshith, a beneficiary of the Boys 4 Change Fireflies camp, learnt about his friend’s mother being a victim of domestic violence as the friend’s father took it as an insult when the mother took up a job to support the family. The father with his pride hurt resorted to alcohol as a coping mechanism and that resulted in increased instances of violence on the mother and the child.
When Rakshith saw his friend break down in front of him, he recognised the warning signs that he had learnt at the camp. Getting his friends together, making a complain at the local police station against such abuse by the father was a heart-wreaking affair but one that Rakshith knew had to be done. Receiving police intervention, he helped his friend’s family emerge out of the emotional and physical turmoil and enlightened them about the laws that are there to protect them from such instances of violence.
Women and their mental well-being
Because the society as constructed over millennia has garbed this emotional turmoil as a result of the biological transformation that a woman goes through during her life. However, the concept of mental health is much bigger, multifaceted and complex.
To overcome and provide timely intervention to reduce mental health issues particularly among women, Dr. Prabha S Chandra (senior professor of psychiatry and Dean of Behavioural Sciences, NIMHANS) recommends in an article published in the Deccan Herald that all medical professionals should routinely ask women two simple questions to enable early identification: How are you feeling, and how are you coping?
She adds, “Classic symptoms of depression are often masked, and women have more physical symptoms like fatigue and pain. This prevents them from recognising that it might be depression that needs help. Attention deficit disorder in women presents more commonly with procrastination, clumsiness, and laziness than the class symptoms of over-activity and distractibility.”
While mental health awareness is improving. We still have a long way to go because those who are not aware, cannot recognise mental health issues for what they truly are. They may refer to anxiety-related disorders as nerves or depressive disorders as a heaviness of the heart and may even attribute these to the supernatural! It is vital to understand the causes of ill mental health in order to effectively try to prevent it or treat it.
Written by:
Subhagata Bhattacharya – Senior Communications Officer
VOICE 4 Girls 