When I look back, the year 2018 has been an enriching and learning experience. I have learnt that relationships today are abridged to a simple left/ right swipe on the phone screen. My 13-year-old client helped me realise that the age of being in a relationship is going down and, on the other hand, the age of getting married is going up. Getting married at the age of 35 for a woman is no longer plagued by societal notions of ‘settling/ making adjustments’ or the reminder of biological clock ticking. Making an independent choice of being in a fulfilling marriage instead of simply fulfilling the duty of being married is a huge change in the overall outlook of people. Working with young couples who are yet to tie the knot to those who are on the verge of completing
‘Being childless’ is now a choice and there is conscious thought put into this. Talking about sex openly may not be rampant yet, however today when these issues crop up in a relationship and the parties involved feel less equipped to handle the same, they are resorting to help as the stigma of visiting a mental health professional is gradually reducing.
Fortunately, there is also a gradual but definite change in the mental health scenario. People have finally started talking about mental health issues and realising that ‘depression’ is not something that can be wished away, but a disease that needs medical treatment. This was much needed and has gained momentum with the passing of the Mental Health Bill in 2017. But this is only the tip of the iceberg and creating awareness amongst people at large is absolutely essential.
People are now more open to taking a pill after being reassured that there are time bound treatments and they will not be on ‘sleeping pills’ for the rest of their life. There are newer medicines with less side effects and treatments like RTMS (Repetitive Transcranial magnetic stimulation) and TDCS (Transcranial direct cortical stimulation) which are newer, benign techniques that have replaced the conventional electroconvulsive therapy in most situations for depression and other emotional disorders.
This year, the theme of World Mental Health Day is “Young people and mental health in a changing world.” The World Mental Health Day 2018 theme focuses on the adolescents and the mental health problems that they deal with. One will be surprised to know that there are only approximately 5000 psychiatrists in India; in fact, there are more Indian psychiatrists outside India than in India. So we need to train ‘mental health warriors’ that is regular citizens need to be educated about the signs and symptoms of mental illness so that they can identify ‘people at risk ‘and provide them ‘emotional first aid’.
Adolescence is a time of fun and frolic for many but stressful for some. 40 percent of all emotional disorders starts before the age of 15. It is extremely important for us adults to reach out to adolescents and teach them emotional resilience. Parents and teachers need to identify early symptoms of distress and pay special attention to these young adults specially those who may have special needs. The need of the hour is to provide counselling services for all in schools and colleges so that together we are able to prevent untimely deaths. Suicide remains a huge concern in the age group of 15 to 29 years as one out of three people killing themselves is from India. Our aim is to spread mental health awareness and prevent suicide as death is not the answer to trivial problems which may seem insurmountable at that young age.
This year has been quite a learning experience and the most essential learning has been about the joy of giving. ‘Giving’ as an expression seems quite daunting yet is the easiest way to forge strong relationships. It isn’t about providing materialistic help but simply being observant of those around you, providing them a non judgemental environment and being a patient listener to the troubled. So let us all move towards this coming year with a resolution to be more aware and sensitive towards self and others, and incorporate the importance of physical as well as emotional well being.
(Dr Anjali Chhabria is a Mumbai-based Psychiatrist and author of ‘Death is not the Answer’)
