Mental health : a serious issue

Discussions on mental health are still taboo to us. We do not want to talk about it. Most of us are not even aware of the fact that there could be something like mental health similar to physical health, or if someone wants they can get help for it. We still did not accept it and if someone consults with a psychiatrist, we think that he/she has gone insane. 

All humans go through ups and downs in life. Good times and bad times are like days and nights in human life. Each and every individual goes through different kinds of individual hardships in life. No one can gauge what others are going through by seeing them from outside. We share our joy, our success with others, but we never share the pain behind that. If anyone is brave enough, he/she can overcome the hard phase, but sometimes it becomes really hard to take, and people get severely depressed, which they are not even aware of. Sometimes we share our problems with friends and family, but a person who is prone to depress, they can not open up to others because of the fear of judgement. Consulting a psychiatrist helps, but most of the time, we can't accept the fact that we need help. Sometimes we do not know that we need help.

To begin with, all the corporates offices, educational institutes, government offices should arrange compulsory consultations with psychiatrists at least once a month for all of their employees and students. Every year, we get the news of students committing suicide. This can be avoided if we set consultations with counsellors compulsory. Sometimes a person does not understand the necessity of the consultations or that he/she has problems. Acceptance of having problems is a huge step. If the consultation becomes compulsory, communication with the experts will bring out the problem. Not only a person who is a student or doing a job needs a psychiatrist's help. Persons, irrespective of their ages, genders, professions go through a severe depression. A retired person can be depressed suddenly by having a free day after many years, a housewife can go through depression, and we never say about it, but motherhood brings not just joy, but in many situations, it brings postnatal depression.

A counsellor can be contacted not only with personal issues but also when people go through relationship issues. By this, it means not just for a couple, sometimes relationship with parents, with in-laws goes downward, then both the parties can seek help.  

In the last couple of years, we are seeing various articles on mental health because suddenly corona has made a great impact on us, although the mental-health problem was there much before corona. There is nothing wrong if we become mentally weak and depressed. Just like we suffer from physical health issues and see a doctor, get cured, similarly, mental problems can also be treated and cured, we only need to accept that there is a problem. We should change the way we look at the people who take help for depression, they are not insane. Seeking help for mental health will change our lives. And as the boon of the corona, all the consultations can now happen over a phone call, we just need to dial the number.