Dr Manu Arora
Every living being is a wonderful creation of nature among which human being is most unique as it possess the sophisticated ability i.e. to ‘think’, ‘judge’ and ‘act’. Dignity of human life lies in the roots of how well he understands the worth of his own self and how well he can connect with the world around, this again is a simple way though which people learn positive behavior. Human dignity involves respect and compromise among the different people of any society. Our society is a diverse combination of families, religions, political systems, races, etc. Thus these diversities develop different moral system. Respect of these morals or human dignity determines how society works. “Respect and dignity”, is how we value each person as an individual. Respect individual’s aspirations and commitments in life, seek to understand priorities, needs, abilities and limits which is the true essence of humanity.
World Mental Health Day
Since many years and till date mentally ill person in our society is highly devalued and stigmatized. Once labeled as mentally ill they are silently debarred from the society in terms of social relation, work life and responsibilities, even the family members of the mentally ill are not spared! Several myths, misconceptions, fear, apprehension of harm and threat cloud the psyche of people which is the main cause of devaluation. For many years mental illness was unexplained and the use of ‘chains and barriers’ gave a harsh presentation of treatment, sometimes it developed ideas of ‘evil spell’ on the ill. Moreover, society also witness mentally ill as unkempt untidy, wandering in the streets, muttering to self, making odd behavior, or eating from garbage giving pitiable picture. Thus the overall condition and old beliefs about the mentally ill have got established so firmly in the mind of people that even after a patient recovers from illness he or she is continues to give doubt among people around him/ her which does not allow him /her to mix up well in the society.
In India mental illness ranges from 9.5 to 102 per 1000 population , which is considered quite high therefore demands early identification and timely treatment, but the unfortunate effect of stigma, criticism prevent the mentally ill or their caregivers to take patients to the doctors for timely help. People prefer to maintain secrecy because they fear once a family member is known to have mental illness the whole family will be directly or indirectly affected, nobody would prefer to give their daughters for marriage in the family or marry any person from the family. Similar perception is formed regarding job world as well, it’s difficult for a mentally ill to find job, or have difficulty to give quality in their job, face challenges of the job world and face adjustment problems with fellow companions. For many years and still today faith healing in form of ‘jadu tona’ or ‘jadh poonkh’ is treatment mode that prevails in the society. These treatment practices have religious associations and thus believed by many to be effective than the treatment through medication. These methods many work in some cases or have a short term effect in some cases but may have a debilitating effect for yet other severe mental illnesses. Holding onto such treatments delays proper diagnosis or intervention and patients sometime suffer a lot in long run.
Mental illness in of various nature which can affect any age group. The nature of mental illness may include anxiety, depression, excitability, violent or aggression, suspicion alcoholism, drug abuse, behavior problems in children, sleep problems, headache of various types, epilepsy, etc. Initially the person can cope with the problem but in the long run if problem persist it breaks the coping ability and create lots of adjustment, occupational and marital problems. The cause of mental illness is mainly biological, genetic or basic personality type of the person which further may progress due to the impact of environment which may include home, family setup, migration, stress situations, etc.
Minor level of psychological distress in the form of sadness, disputes, work stress, sleeplessness is experienced by all of us commonly but such problems can only be termed as disorder if only it persist for a prolonged period of time causing great disturbance in the social life and occupational life of the person if occurring frequently.
Modern day psychotropic medications are highly researched and very effective for different types of mental illness. Our society is gradually changing, seeing the effectiveness of modern treatment strategies the old belief about mental illness is changing to a great extent. People are open to visit doctors these days. Some of the severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorders are much controllable and also curable in many cases. More and more psychiatrist, psychologists, social workers, nursing attendants is in demand so that good treatment team is made available in the community both in urban and remote rural areas for psycho-educating the mass regarding psychological illness and how cure is possible. Mobile intervention should be made available so that treatment can be made available at the door-step of the people. A good initiative and support is equally required from the Government and other tertiary centers to promote care for mental illness.
Thus an act of “compassion” and “respect” where we respond with humanity and kindness to each person’s pain, distress, anxiety or need is most important. We need to search for the things we can do, however small, to give comfort and relieve to the suffering. We should do not wait to be asked, because we should care and that will be the true essence of dignity and mental health.
(The author is Consultant Psychiatrist Deptt of Psychiatry, GMC, Jammu)
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