Mental Health - The Big Picture
There are times when you are physically fine and free of sickness but you still find yourself tired and wanting to lie down all day. This makes you wonder why you seem stressed while everyone else is perfectly alright. With a heaviness in your heart, you fall into this spiral of tiredness, stress and overthinking.
According to the World Health Organization:
“Mental Health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
Mental health is more than just the absence of a mental disability. It is, at times, more influential on your physical health than physical health is on your mental well-being. Often taken lightly, its treatment and medication have zero insurance coverage — leading to a lot of mental health disorders being undiagnosed in a major population of our world. Especially in a competitive world such as today’s — stress, overworking, low opportunity, socioeconomic conditions, feeling the need to fit in and be acknowledged have affected the mental health of today’s adolescence and youth.
The stigma
Often when a person seeks medical help for their mental health, their families pressurize them to keep it a secret. Others give their own opinion about this and make it seem as though seeking help is not necessary and is found weak, which in turn adversely affects the person’s mental health. The root of the stigma lies in the lack of awareness — not being aware of how, why or when a person’s mental health can affect his daily life. Most of the time, people associate development disorders like autism or extreme mental disorders like nervous breakdown and suicidal tendencies as a mental health disorder.
Stigma against mental illness can come from personal, social, and family beliefs or from the mental health condition itself, which may cause a person to act outside what is considered the social or cultural norm. This makes the person try to fit in rather than seeking help. Surveys show that 9 out of 10 people with mental health issues feel stigma and discrimination negatively impact their life. The social isolation, low self-esteem, hopelessness and shame that comes from this, leads to internalizing negative beliefs and avoiding treatment which worsen symptoms. A person suffering from mental health issues faces lack of criminal justice, discrimination at work and even unemployment.
Physical and mental health
In the past, people only acknowledged any form of illness if it was physically visible or noticeable. But recently people are being more aware of mental health as a form of health as important as physical health, after research and finding significant association between the two. This has led to the World Health Organization (WHO) redefining health as a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.
It is seen that poor mental health is a risk factor for chronic physical conditions. People with serious mental health conditions are at a higher risk of experiencing chronic physical conditions and vice versa. For a healthy life you have to take care of your physical and mental health equally. Treating yourself and seeing a medical professional when you notice that you can’t control the sudden changes in your mood or you can’t control the level of stress and anxiety you’re feeling is as important as it is to go see a doctor for high fever, headache, breathing problem or a broken leg.
There is a lot to unpack when it comes to mental health disorders. The most common mental health disorders seen in adults and adolescents of today are anxiety disorders, mood disorders and schizophrenia disorders. Panic disorders and phobias that come under anxiety disorders can be felt from a simple stage fright to panic attacks from doing normal everyday chores. Simple phobias like fear of spiders or fear of height to social phobia and agoraphobia include here. Obsessive compulsive disorder is also a mental health disorder where people experience constant stressful and powerful urges to perform repetitive acts or to do something a certain way. It is also important to note that trauma can affect your mental health very badly where it can be a serious life-threatening situation you had to go through to an almost accident or the witnessing it. Mood disorders can range from finding it difficult to stabilize your mood to major depression, bipolar disorder or seasonal affective disorders (SAD). Schizophrenia disorders are when an individual has thoughts that appear fragmented or they find it hard to process information. It causes delusions, thought disorders, hallucination, withdrawal, lack of motivation and lack of emotional reaction. It is very crucial to note that all this can have a direct effect on physical health. People can experience these so mildly that they don’t even recognize it themselves to situations where they find it hard to face it themselves.
It is often said that happiness is contagious. But if you think about it, happiness only becomes contagious if you are part of the celebration. The first step to having a good, happy and healthy mental state is to create your own happy space. Creating a routine comfortable and peaceful to you is very important for a happy and healthy mind and body. Surrounding yourself with familiar things, avoiding junk food, having a proper sleep and workout routine, giving yourself breaks, treating yourself, taking a walk with your loved ones all promotes a good mind.
In the time of pandemic, even people with healthy routines felt interrupted because of the lockdown. Quarantine and separation from friends and family has led to the rise of a lot of mental health issues. Loneliness and suddenly being thrown out of usual routine can do that to you. In a difficult and unpredictable time like this, or any time for that matter, we should try to find our own rhythm to life, find our balance between work, friends, family, food, sleep and workout. Making yourself face things out of your comfort zone can make you stronger when your daily routine or habits are forcefully distorted all of a sudden.
It is very easy to experience mental health disorders and not do anything about it. Mental health has a fundamental role to play in your life and it has to be taken as seriously as physical health is. If you or anyone you might know is going through something that you feel is out of one’s control or is starting to get out of control, it is very important to seek professional help. The disorders are easier to diagnose and treat from the start as opposed to when it has really started to mess with a person’s thoughts. The world is beginning to realize the importance of mental health and the month of May is observed as mental health awareness month because it is important to understand and be aware of mental health issues and its relevance in today’s world, to educate yourself and others on its importance and cruciality in life.
There are a lot of nonprofit organizations functioning with the goal to improve the quality of mind of our generation and spreading awareness on pressing matters in society, emphasizing on mental health and voicing minority issues. Mind Empowered is one such organization, with an entire team working on different platforms available, to spread positivity, awareness and creating a safe space for the youth. It is our vision to bring light upon sensitive topics that need to be addressed, conducting weekly sessions on topics beneficial to youth and being a well-wisher to our healing world. You can check the organization's work on websites like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. (On 28th of August 2021, Saturday (4pm — 5pm IST), Mind Empowered is hosting a free Q&A session with an experienced psychologist, where you can ask your questions anonymously and get them answered). Register here for FREE for lifetime access to all Mind Empowered sessions, and get the links for the sessions and anonymous Q&A forms, delivered to your email inbox.
