Mental health is everyone’s business

Mental Health is one of the most essential human attributes. Human brains have highly specialized centres for emotions and moods, memory and creativity, logic and reasoning, planning and execution, judgement and insight, rewards and inhibitions, motivation and volition, and a multitude of other cognitive functions. Whether it is an individual, or a family, or a community, or an organisation or even a country, mentally healthy human resources are looked upon a great deal and indeed, they are the ones who truly make a difference. Who would want their leader or even themselves, not to be able to take benefit of the best mental functions? After all, a sound mind is as important as, or may be more, than a sound body. In fact, a wheelchair bound mentally healthy individual is way more productive than a brain-dead individual even in the most robust physical health.

Despite knowing all this, why is it that we keep neglecting our mental health? Why do we take the mental aspect of our health for granted? Why do we want to live and work at our suboptimum when we know we are not able to accomplish as much as we are capable of achieving?  Furthermore, there are some of us, who have accomplished a lot and yet are not able to enjoy those triumphs, possibly because of persistent low self-worth or due to disturbed mental health. Yes, you are a great professional, you have a beautiful house, your loved ones are around, you have a comfortable life, practically all major needs met, and yet why does it all not make you happy?

These questions may have different answers, but they surely converge on one common theme – Mental health is severely under rated despite being utterly important to each one of us!!!

And that is precisely what this article is all about! Let us understand this concept with some simple examples.

Example number 1 – Imagine a doctor who does not seem to be paying attention to his patients’ minor details, a doctor who asks the same questions over and over again probably because he is not able to give a focused stream of attention to his patients. Technically, this doctor could be suffering from ADHD, a type of mental illness characterized by easy distractibility, fidgetiness, and inability to concentrate for more than a particular period of time. On the face of it, he may seem to be an uninterested self-indulging physician, highly likely to be put down by a lot of patients despite his remarkable medical acumen. An elementary solution for him would be to visit a psychiatrist, get himself evaluated and start a medicine for his ADHD. He will bounce back and make things unbelievably better for himself and his patients with just one simple step which includes self-awareness and openness to the idea that he needs help for his mental condition.

Example number 2 – Let us now imagine a kindergarten teacher, who constantly seems to be at unease dealing with kids and their repeated queries, gets irritated on multitasking and includes only the so called brilliant students in the class as the average ones end up testing her patience too much. On a cursory glance, she could be labelled as judgmental, short tempered and impatient. A highly likely possibility is that she could be suffering from depression which has led her to behave in a certain manner that is proving detrimental for her personal and professional growth. Here again, a promising idea for her would be to seek help from a psychiatrist, start her treatment and follow the dos and donts to rebound as an empathic, tolerant, inclusive educational professional.

Example number 3 – Finally, imagine a middle aged man, who has been a caring son, a loving husband, a responsible father and the sole bread winner for the family, who has now succumbed to alcohol to an extent that is causing distress in his personal, professional, and social life. He needs it as an eye opener every morning, without which he is severely anxious, awkwardly tremulous, and visibly sweaty. He has started neglecting his responsibilities and gets annoyed whenever anyone suggests he should cut down his alcohol intake. One way is to just let it be and continue the dysfunction. The other way is to seek professional help and gradually work on his alcohol addiction to return back to his charming productive self.

In all these examples, what looked like a negative aspect of an individual was actually a mental illness which could be treated with the right guidance if the person knew that is a mental illness and is willing to seek help. The very fact that conditions like these come under the ambit of mental health and need professional help is the reason why mental health is everyone’s business. We need curiosity rather than judgment, empathy rather than blaming, mental health perspective rather than stigma to own up and change what bothers us and our loved ones. And these issues can manifest in anyone, literally anyone! No one is immune to mental health issues, really NO ONE. These examples can be extrapolated on other professionals, individuals, and communities.

Interestingly, we are not even talking about what caused the mental illness in these individuals. As a layperson, we end up attributing our mental illness to a life event or a stressor. However, the truth is that mental illness is the result of chemical imbalance in the brain which may or may not be linked with a precipitating factor. The point is, anything that disturbs the functionality of an individual needs assessment and treatment by an expert at the earliest.  

Yes, mental health is everyone’s business whether you are a student, a working professional, a homemaker or anyone else. We must know what all contributes mental health and what are common mental disorders. Furthermore, it is imperative for individuals in authority to look out for their people when they seem to be drifting away from their regular. Parents for their children, teachers for their students, recruiters for their fresh recruits, corporates for their employees, would only be able to figure this out, if they understand the nuances of mental health themselves. We must understand that mental disorders greatly reduce the functionality of individuals and hence families and hence organizations and hence a nation! The biggest leap would be an openness to acknowledge the existence of such issues and an understanding that these are treatable conditions.

Additionally, mental heath also includes, in the absence of mental illness, the healthy ways of coping to handle day to day stress, the life skills to deal with issues of emotional nature and relationships, the effective methods to communicate the agreements and disagreements, keeping your mental hygiene and choosing the right involvement in situations beyond our control. These will not only lead to happy and healthy minds, but also prevent a lot of mental issues arising from conflicts and emotional struggles.

Lastly, mental health overall encompasses the idea of living a happy and fulfilling life, where one works to the best of his abilities and contributes effectively to his community, where positive and negative events of life are embraced in a balanced manner and contentment and self actualization are the final goals of life.

 Wishing you the best of mental health today and always!

Dr Apala