DECODING MENTAL HEALTH: THE PANDEMIC VERSION

Here’s a quick story of my father battling Covid, before I begin talking about Mental Health. I do not know how short it’s gonna be, but I’m gonna keep it as crisp as possible.

“MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT A DESTINATION BUT A PROCESS IT’S ABOUT HOW YOU DRIVE, NOT WHERE YOU ARE GOING.”

Mental health – a topic which does not get talked about as often as is needed these days. This concept is still vague for a lot of people even in 2021, an illness because of which people are taking their own lives. The reason for this may be because of the deep rooted stigma of the society that our mental health is not as important as our physical health; seeing is believing, what people cannot see, they tend to not believe that it exists. No one ever feels the need to talk about mental health, “it does not exist”, “i never thought you were so weak”, “you are overthinking”, “it’s not like that” are some of the common dialogues which we have to hear. But people need to realize that our brain, which is the most important organ of our body also needs rest, it needs frequent breaks, it needs to be taken care of the most.

According to a report in google, 46% of the people who commit suicide every year has been suffering mentally and this number is increasng day by day. This phenomenon is occuring worldwide so we cannot limit the consequences to only one country or blame a specific group. It’s a concept which is familiar to all irrespective of age groups but no one is willing to talk about it because of the fear

Of being shamed or being called a lunatic. However, even if a few people do understand the situation, they will give solutions to seek help or to consult a psychiatrist. But most of the times it does not work because the person going through problems already knows that something is not right with them and they need to go for therapy but they cannot because they either fear what the society will think or they are not ready for it.

The covid19 pandemic has made it worse for people who were already suffering from mental health related issues. Staying cooped up in one house with all the family members for almost a year has not been easy for most people. True, they can be considered lucky as compared to the people fighting the virus but not everyone has a loving or supportive family and that has made matters worse. Domestic violence and sexual harrasment cases has increased tenfold during this period and the ignorance of the society during such cases has not done anything to help. People find it hard to express themselves because they will be considered as vulnerable and weak or in some cases as seeking unnecessary attention. Speaking from personal experience, my aunt’s entire family was infected with the virus and her eldest son also went through mental trauma which resulted in him being hospitalized. My cousin could not understand the situation and commented that she never thought he could be so weak. Just because a person does not show does not mean it is not there, he/she may be suffering internally and the people around him would not have a single clue, he/she could be intending self harm and no one would even know. And when we keep bottling things up, there may come a point when our emotions will be at the peak and we will burst out which may harm us more.

Our schools and colleges have contributed a lot in encouraging mental health issues. Coming from a ba student who spent her entire 2nd and 3rd semesters in online classes, this mode of teaching has caused a lot of health related problems (both physical and mental), the latter would not have been a severe case if the teachers would have been more understanding and less dominating or demanding. I have had teachers saying we can go to them if we face any problems, yet at the same time they would not stop spreading negativity, calling us lazy and uncultured and also burdening us with assignments and tests with no regard for our well being. In some cases, i have also seen a few cases where the teacher would ask the student to postpone her medical (blood) test only because she gave a test of 20 marks to be submitted within 45 minutes. All this takes a severe toll on the student. True, in some cases, the teachers may also be suffering but they do need to realize that we are all in this together and we need to help and support each other instead of simply spreading negativity or taking our anger out on people whom we consider to be weaker than us.

Mental health has no regards for our wealth and power; a person who has everything can also be suffering in silence. We never know the inner battles which people have to fight for themselves and many a times if we get to know about them, we tend to ignore or ask them to stop acting like a kid and grow up. People need to realize that anyone, literally anyone regardless Of age, gender, profession, net worth can go through this phrase. The best people can do is to be kind and not spread unnecessary hate. Even if they do not understand what the other person is going through, it is important to ensure that we do not guilt trip the other person into thinking that what they are going through is unusual or cannot be treated. Gaslighting or not letting other people express their opinions freely can also result in mental trauma. In such cases, it is

Necessary to seek help from trusted people. Therapy should be sought by everyone even if they believe that nothing has happened to them, because trust me, everyone is suffering internally and needs help. Also try to be a good listener and always be kind to others; kindness costs nothing.