Mental health: An often ignored aspect of life

 

 

Preksha Sharma (name changed) is a software engineer in Bengaluru. Though her life was sailing smoothly, little did she know that she was a victim of anxiety and depression that were silently taking a toll of her physical well being. Fatigue, backache, sleeplessness, binge eating, melancholy, social withdrawal, irritability were some of the symptoms of those anomalies which she was hardly aware of. On the surface everything seemed normal, but deep down she had turned a wreck. Work pressure, living away from family and home, lack of recreation etc had drained her.

 

Specialists say, good health is not merely absence of disease, but it is virtually the condition when all the body organs and mental system work in harmony and mutual fitness. And such a possibility cannot be dreamt of without proper care of one’s mental health, because mental health affects physical health too.

 

Ignoring mental health may give rise to many diseases like depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue etc. According to National Institute of Health, nearly 1 in 3 adolescents aged between 13 to 18 will experience an anxiety disorder. These numbers have been rising steadily, anxiety disorders in children and teens went up 20 per cent. Clinical Psychologist Dr Sanjeev Tripathi feels that the stigma associated with mental health issues in the country is a major reason for growth in cases of anxiety, OCD, paranoia, hypertension, panic attacks and other such mental ailments. Renowned doctor said that the need of the hour was to bring topic of mental health out of the closet and seek medical intervention whenever things were found to be aberrant. He asserted not all mental health issues were ‘madness’ and not every mental patient needed hospitalisation in an asylum. These notions had to be dismissed, he felt and added there were multiple treatment options and through professional intervention like counselling and medication, a number of ailments could be effectively tackled, obliterating the need for hospitalisation. Dr Tripathi further said that people needed to meet and talk to people for a healthy social relationship and avoid isolation or loneliness if that takes a toll on mental peace and happiness.