"What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candour, and more unashamed conversation."
― Glenn Close, American Actress
Mental health is not just a concept that refers to an individual’s psychological and emotional well-being. Rather it’s a state of psychological and emotional well-being where an individual can use their cognitive and emotional capabilities to meet the ordinary demands and functions of society.
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also determines how we handle stress, and relate to others. To summarise, mental illness affects our ability to cope with life.
According to a study conducted in 2017 by Our World In Data, it is estimated that 792 million people live with a mental health disorder which is slightly more than one in every ten people globally (10.7%). The same year, in India, 197.3 million people were found to have mental disorders, including 45·7 million with depressive disorders and 44.9 million with anxiety disorders.
Not everyone has a diagnosed mental illness but everyone does have mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought mental health issues to the forefront, stressing the need to care for both our mental well-being and physical health.
Apart from affecting our ability to cope with situations, mental illness even manifests itself in some physical ways such as nausea, headaches, and shortness of breath. According to the National Library of Medicine, 14.3% of deaths worldwide, or approximately 8 million deaths each year, are attributable to mental disorders.
Since mental health affects all of us -sometimes even in severe ways- shouldn’t we be coming up with solutions that are accessible to all of us irrespective of our age, gender, and caste?
There are days I wake up for school in the morning and just don’t feel like facing the day as I get completely drained out by facing other problems like the never-ending studying, the insane competition, relationships with my peers, nervousness about what people around think about me, societal expectations and pressures. Rather than letting it weigh me down, I think about a solution wherein I just take a day off from (preferably the weekend) doing any work and spend time with myself in this fast-moving world. We all can manage to get a day off for physical sickness but why not for nursing our mental health?
‘Mental health recovery days’
I thought about it for a while and came up with a concept: ‘mental health recovery days’. What are these days? A ‘mental health recovery day’ is a day a person can take time off from school, office, daily chores, etc., just to give themselves time to feel better, just the way they do for physical rest. These ‘recovery days' will matter a lot as they will give people time to pause, rest and heal from within. These are the days, a person can indulge in what they wish to do – paint, dance, sing, read, or do nothing! Schools can keep track of the number of 'mental health recovery days' each student takes and help the ones taking a lot of days off before it gets worse.
Take mini-steps towards your mental well-being
Mental health illness is caused due to various reasons such as stress, loss of loved ones, fake relationships, social media, societal pressures, cultural standards, comparison, failure; the list is never-ending. It is not easy to step forward and talk to people about how you feel. The majority of the people suffering from mental illness do not consult anyone as they are nervous, scared that people will judge them, or do not feel emotionally safe.
If you are too scared or nervous to speak up about yourself, you should start taking mini steps one by one to make yourself feel better and worthy. Do small activities every day that make you feel happy and can lift your mood. Diary writing, emotional support podcasts, or talking to a close friend can help.
Mental health illness is not given the same attention as physical illness which is disappointing as only a happy and clean mind can keep a person physically fit and healthy. It is important to spread awareness and help the people in need to overcome their mental state. The youth especially should be given more attention as that is the stage where we all learn and are exposed to more and more emotions. It is high time to make our society a safe place for people to open up about how they feel mentally without people judging them and telling them that it’s 'okay' and just a phase.
Bibliography:
n.a. “The burden of mental disorders across the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990–2017”. TheLancet. 20 Dec, 2019. Web. 1 Mar, 2022. <https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(19)30475-4/fulltext >
Dattani,Saloni, Ritchie,Hannah and Roser,Max. "Mental Health". OurWorldInData. August, 2021. Web. 1 Mar, 2022. <https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health>
Reisinger Walker,Elizabeth, E McGee,Robin and G Druss,Benjamin. “Mortality in mental disorders and global disease burden implications: a systematic review and meta-analysis”. NationalLibraryOfMedicine. n.d. Web. 1 Mar, 2022. <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25671328/#:~:text=We%20estimate%20that%2014.3%25%20of,substantial%20causes%20of%20death%20worldwide>
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