By Prof. ( Dr. ) Dewakar Goel
It is still a very derogative remark if you tell someone that he is suffering from a mental illness. Nobody will accept, rather they will get annoyed and angry. It is a fact that in today’s scenario at world level one in every eight is suffering with it. Do not get surprised these are findings of W HO, it is universal for all irrespective of gender, location, religion, poor orrich.Thestudy reveals that 53% urban youth with modern life style are victims of mental illness one way or the other. Much away from the psychologist and psychiatrist point of you let me describe it in general terms. I say mental illness is identified with Mood Disorder, Depression, loss of interest, Trauma,Hallucination, Schizophrenia,Tension, Anxiety, Physical, Emotional or Psychological Stress, Obsession, Anti-Social NegativeThoughts, Alzheimer, Dementia to say a few. The list of visible symptoms is endless.Themost alarming situation is that 70% to 92%. Mental illness is not a weakness but its medical condition of the brain, people do not take it seriously, what to say about treatment.
Mental illness as the term used is surely related to our brain which is the most powerful organ of our body with 86 billion nerve cells and these cells communicate with thousands of cells of our body. If I can compare the brain; it creates more connections than the stars of the galaxy. We take care of all parts of our body: lungs, kidney, liver, heart and when there is any problem with these organs we immediately go for treatment. See if someone has an accident resulting in fracture we take him to the hospital and if someone gets a fever we give medicine. But if we find someone with mental illness like anxiety, depression or loneliness,we only give advice by saying ‘Be strong, Ignore, take rest, don’t think too much and so on.’
In simple words I want to say that we rush to hospitals for a broken bone but when our mind breaks, we offer advice instead of treatment. Have you ever thought about why we treat physical and mental illness differently?We need to protect our mind with our brain. Maybe because physical wounds are visible.
It’s a pathetic situation that mental illness is still taken as a stigma people hide from fear of society. It’s taken as a weakness and we forget about great personalities across the world who suffered with mental illness but made their name by their extraordinary talent achievements. Let me mention a few here Abraham Lincon President of US was suffering with depression. Isaac Newton was a victim of anxiety. The writer of the best-selling book HarryPotter J K Rowling a single mother was suffering from depression. John Nash Nobel prize winner was a Schizophrenia patient whose life was celebrated with the movie “A beautiful mind”. Coming to India the famous film actress Deepika Padukone narrated a long history of her sufferings with depression. She recovered with strong will power and started a foundation named LIVE…LOVE… LAUGH to help the people suffering with mental illness.
I do not know why with all fairness we cannot take mental illness in positive terms. Here I would like to have some live stories to generate sensitivity and realization to motivate society at large to have empathy rather than sympathy for people suffering with mental illness.
There was a boy who was visiting her mother admitted in hospital forAlzheimer added with Dementia disorder. The boy used to come with chocolates and flowers everyday spending time seeing his mother. The attending Doctor once told him why he is bringing things when he knows that his mother cannot recognize him and she was not in a position to even talk. The boy simply answered, yes, I know that but for me to see and recognize her as my mother is sufficient. I can feel her within me looking at her. I bring her favourite chocolates and flowers she liked rememberingher love, care and affection. The moral of the story is that the treatment lies in bonding, caring feelings of loved ones. Love does not need memory to exist. There was a gardener who used to bring water in two earthen pots balancing on his shoulders left and right on a wooden string. One pot was leaking and by the time he reached destination the pot was left with nearly half the quantity of water. The pot having leakage used to feel sorry for his handicapped position and deficiency. After a month or so the gardener observed that the path where water was leaking is now having greenery because of regular water supply whereas the other side of path was barren. He greeted that pot and felt grateful for his weak point. Here the message isthat a person suffering with deficiency can give better results. What we call weakness, may be someone else’s strength.
It so happened that an engineer suffered from schizophrenia and as part of treatment he was given the task of gardening. He was too much attached to plants taking care in all possible manner and he was slowly recovering.One day Doctor asked why he is taking so much care of plants, he replied that his action makes him feel that someone takes care of him then why he should not. Over a period of time he became a horticulturist and a trainer too. This story tells us that healing beginswhen someone feels valued.
In view of the large population of people suffering with mental disorders in one way or another there is a need to realise that this disease is at par with other physical illnesses. The society must change their outlook and mindset to support people by their potential rather than judgement on their illness. Why I am narrating these stories here is because we must correlate with live examples of positivity. There was a person suffering from mental illness. Once he told his attending doctor that at times he talks to himself. The doctor happily told him that it’s a good sign because many great highly intellectual people talk to themselves. The man replied that it’s not like that because at times he argues but loses in arguments himself. This humour motivates and encourages the suffering patient I have seen many highly intelligent and intellectuals suffering with Schizophrenia but they survive with confidence saying that this illness is not weakness and one should not consider it as end oflife rather its beginning of understanding themselves within. In the wild life sanctuary there were grown up elephants who were tagged with rope attached with wooden blocks to restrict their movements. Looking at size of wooden blocks a visitor gotsurprised why the big strong Elephants are not able to break rope and small wooden blocks so as to make them free. The caretaker informed them that when these Elephants were small, that time they tried their level best to break ropes and go with wooden blocks, but in spite of repeated attempts they did not succeed. Finally they surrendered, the failed attempts made their mind set getting convinced that it’s impossible for them. The strongest chains are not on the body, but in the mind. The biggest prison is not of walls but a belief that we cannot recover, we cannot succeed and cannot live a normal life.The moral of the story here is that a positive outlook is the key for recovery.
Let us understand that mental illness does not usually have a single cause. They arise from a combination of biological, psychological, social factors because different conditions tend to have different dominant causes out of which many do overlap. Here I would like to discuss various causes of mental illness. Biological causes relate to Brain and Body factors relating to Genetics i.e. family history, Hormonal imbalance Brain injury or any other neurological issues such as Depression, Schizophrenia, or Bipolar Disorder.
Psychological causes relate to the mind and emotions which arise from personal experiences and emotional patterns. We can identify them with childhood trauma, abuse, neglect or poor parenting which also become causes resulting in low self-esteem.We have examples of anxiety conditioning and obsessive-compulsivedisorder specially in children. The social environmental factors also become the cause of mental illness because external life conditions play a major role.
Poverty or financial stress, Problems in Relationship, Social isolation,alcohol; and drugs also become the cause. Failure and loneliness lead to depression. Physical health can directly impact mental health. Chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and brain infection make a person take medical help. In extreme cases, Alzheimer causes brain cell degeneration, sleep disorders and here also one needs medication resulting in side effects causing mental illness.
The most common mental illness comes from change in lifestyle because in the young generation adopting modern lifestyle becomes the major cause. We can observe poor diet, lack of exercise, sleep deprivation, excessive screen time and social media pressure, sedentary life and isolation giving adverse effects ultimately causing mental illness and we find these changes in lifestyle that person suffers with depression and anxiety. Sometimes major life events become triggers since mental illness, death of a loved one, divorce, job loss, accident leads to adjustment disorder and a person suffers with depression, anxiety and stress. Mental illness is not caused by one reason. It is a combination of life itself.
What is the most powerful medicine for treatment of mental illness? I feel it’s simply to listen with respect and patience. Early diagnosis and acceptance is necessary. We need to have compassion and consider physical and mental illness equal for treatment. When we talk about rehabilitation then vocational training skill development are great tools for recovery. The patient of mental illness should be seen like other patients with no stigma or isolation. I must emphasise that themost dangerous part is not the mental illness but ignoring it. Once while addressing a conference with a large gathering on the topic of mental illness I asked how many of them are carrying mobile phones. It was natural that all responded affirmative, then I asked suppose you observe that your phone battery is only 5% left, what will happen? I got a response in unanimity that it will cause extreme tension and stress and they will be able to have the mental presence to listen to me. I told them if your phone battery drops to 5% you panic. But when your mental energy drops to 5% you ignore it.Mental illness is not a sign of weakness but to feel that someone has been so strong for too long. It is in fact a health condition like diabetes, high or low blood pressure, fever or jaundice.
As I said earlier, mental illness does not need sympathy but opportunity, dignity and acceptance. Recovery will happen when we will give them respect and the opportunity of doing meaningful work. My Grandfather Rai Bahadur Dr.Kedar Nath Goel was the first Indian civil surgeon and eminent physician he used to say “Medicine heals illness but love, care and patience heals a human being.”
He also said that “A broken bone can heal in months but a broken spirit needs understanding, compassion, love and patience with a lot of empathy.” We must realize that the most powerful medicine is not a pill, but a patient listener. I must say that recovery from mental illness is not miracle it’s a journey supported by family,society, friends and institutions involved in the rehabilitation process for persons suffering with mental illness. Remember behind every such patient there is a family member who refuses to give up. When a patient smiles after a long treatment, it’s like the sun rising after a long night for his family. With all I said above by way of my critical analysis of this burning topic I think I justified the title of this article…. Think!
Prof. ( Dr. ) Dewakar Goel
Writer , Psychologist , Philosopher ,Advocate ,
Poet , Singer,, Professor, Bureaucrat ,
and Management & Aviation Expert .
