Mental health, a problem which is rarely seen as one is growing at a massive rate. With an ever-growing number of victims, the issue of mental health needs attention in the society. It is the time we need to understand it and take the required actions.
Has it ever occurred to you that we’re a batch of homo sapiens who are struggling in this rat race only to fill the outlook of a society that expects us to conform to its norms so that we forgo our very own uniqueness?
Fortunately or maybe not, it did occur to me and I realized how every social being, specifically in a country like India, wants to adhere to societal norms, wants to believe in the superficial knowledge that one is expected to have and to also share a stereotypical view when it comes to illnesses that one cannot see through their naked eyes.
We talk about various forms of abuses that exist in our community, be it sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse and seem to have remedies for these too. However, when someone tries to have an open dialogue about the kind of emotional abuse that he or she have been through, typically a male, he’s considered to be gay, or in normal terms someone who doesn’t conform to the “laws of gender”.
If this doesn’t seem disturbing, there is a race of humans whom I would typically like to mention as intellectually appealing to the masses who fail at even recognizing the fact that mental illness is actually an illness just because they can’t see through it. Terms like ADHD, Bipolar, Personality Traits, and Epilepsy are just a few haphazard adjectives used to describe someone who’s acting abnormal or is trying to be pretentious, but having my ribs broken is really grave, or having a cardiac arrest is a matter of concern.
I tried really hard one day to understand whether a physical sickness is a better thing to have or a mental one? But to one’s own experience, physical illness is way better than a mental disorder because first, people will believe you and won’t consider that you’re trying to seek sympathy.
Photo by: Senior Airman Areca T. BellReleased
Secondly, you know when you’ll recover and how you’ll recover. One is not supposed to go to extremely expensive psychiatrists for years just to have 15 medicines a day and hear that “It’ll get better someday” which makes you question your own existence, right? Since the past few years all you’ve been hearing is ‘this will stop’- ‘Just deal with it’- ‘People have bigger problems in their lives’ but your disease isn’t intense enough to qualify for quality treatment. I desire that people could understand that our brain is the most significant organ in our body, just because we can’t see it, does not mean it’s not as detrimental and devastating to a family or an individual.
You never know the person standing next to you is suffering from a serious mental disease. Just because we don’t see it, we don’t act. But the question is, for how long are we gonna take mental illness as it is nothing?
Also, just like we have a perfect body size, the ideal representation of someone going through depression is the person who is an introvert, doesn’t really like socializing and finds it tremendously hard to participate in the day to day activities; it’s a check-list. But again, if an individual is wearing his tragedies as an armour rather than shackles, he’s not worthy of empathy.
Working for an issue such as mental health made me comprehend that many people are afraid to heal because their entire identity is centred around the trauma they have faced and they don’t know what their life would look like without it. It is to all those warriors out there, share your story, inspire others, reason things out with yourself when you have lost your reason to live. Make your illness your superpower.
Author- Simran Gulati, Founder and Chairperson, Uddeshya Delhi
The author is the Chairperson of a non-profit organisation called Uddeshya Delhi which works for mental health and breaking stereotypes. The work encompasses organizing therapy sessions, creating a safe space as well as an open dialogue about mental health in a conservative country like India.
You may reach her at sgulati97@gmail.com
