-Happy Das |
We all heard the quotes like ‘Life is beautiful’, positivity always wins, and spring will turn into winter and so on. So what actually happens when none of these quotes mean anything at all? What happens when even after trying hard we simply can’t find positivity or that one ray of light that can erase the darkness from our life? No one ever really tries to understand the real reason or none of us has the time to even identify where the problem is? So what actually goes wrong when one feels life is no more beautiful, what if one feels so helpless that she/he just can’t find that silver line from the clouds? If life is really beautiful then why do we even suffer? Where did these sufferings come from? We all are very concerned about our physical health but what about our mental health? oh! We don’t want to talk about it because that’s probably not that important?
As defined by World Health Organization (WHO) mental health refers to the absence of mental illness or psychological wellbeing of a person. Mental health includes “subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others”. Dr. Brock Chisholm, the first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1954, had presciently declared that “without mental health there can be no true physical health.” Mental health cannot be defined by any one phenomena; rather it is the cultural differences, subjective assessment and competing professional theories all these come together to define “mental health”. Lack of social support or less power can be crucial factors to any kinds of health illness. And these factors also contribute to the umbrella term of mental illness.
IN the north eastern region we have only one government mental health institute named as Lokpriyo Gopinath Bordoloi regional Institute of Mental Health (LGBRIMH). LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health put a step forward in order to help youth. And they came up with an idea of a youth wellness hub. Every Saturday evening they used to organize different programs in the hub related to mental health. They organized various events to enhance the minds of the youth like healing music sessions, human libraries where people considered books and their life stories as chapters, pottery, bookmark and other craft making sessions, etc. Sometimes they used to invite some resource person so that they can influence youths and have a positive impact on them.
The first wave of Covid hits India in 2020 and by March 24th, the country was in lockdown, this pandemic was also contributing to the increasing rate of mental illness in the country. In order to help the patients LGBRIMH and CIP (central Institute of Psychiatry) Ranchi together took an initiative called psycho special service for covid. They were also providing service in various languages. Based on one’s convenience one can choose any of the institutes for help. They are providing a toll free helpline number (080461-10007) so that patients can stay connected with them and ask for help. They are basically providing phone based therapy sessions.
So in this devastating situation it is hard for all of us to take care of our mental health and we all are going through some sort of personal struggles some way or the other. Some of us may lose our close ones, some may lose the sole earning opportunity and the list continues. It is normal to feel hopeless, it is completely normal to feel depressed, it is fine to feel hollow inside because we are human beings and we have emotions and we should allow ourselves to feel that and not to suppress it. But we have to understand one thing: if we do not care about ourselves nobody else will. Nobody knows what you are actually going through until you express yourself and many at times we just don’t know how to express our situation, or even if we do, will that person be able to understand it? These are the real struggles that most of us are going through right now and the sole purpose of writing this article is to let people know about the possibilities that can help us to deal with our mental health in a better way and seek support when it’s needed because our mental health is an important part of our life.
I am not a psychiatrist neither do I have any degree or excel in this area of concern but I am a human being too and hence I surely can share the things that I personally find helpful- avoiding news as much as possible to cut negativity, meditating can be really helpful as it calms our mind, exercise is a great way to detoxify yourself and also yoga, going on a long walk, talking to friends if you have any and if not reading or painting can turn out as a great way to light up your mood, music and dancing is a great idea too, and if you don’t feel like doing anything at all then the free service from LGBRIMH can provide a helping hand for you and one can check more about it from their official website lgbrimh.gov.in. Let’s fight this together. Let’s defeat our illness before it defeats us.