Mental health awareness is an important social movement to improve understanding and increase access to healthcare
What is mental health? Is it something from which we escape or something which we can’t see but can feel? First, let’s see what it is.
Mental health is more than what we see, and what we feel; it is something that could be expressed by our expressions, and many more. The mental health of a person avail to determine how he/she handles stress, relates to others and makes healthy choices. Mental health is not merely a topic of fear and anxiety but definitely of notable issues. So right from birth to death of an individual, the person gets an uncontaminated condition to live in but this is for physical health. What about the mental condition, that too needs an uncontaminated condition to live in it without any chaos, fuss, and more? Yes, we need positive vibes, and optimistic people in our surroundings, and also we need care from our parents but today youth have been facing a lot from lacking care, and love from parents to the dominating society.
Civilized society has come too far but their roots are still there. When they come to know about someone’s mental illness their behavior turns bizarre and relate them to some superstitious things and believe he/she is born lunatic without knowing any history of such a person people who are distressed about mental health can become a disgrace for their own. Sometimes mind becomes a prison for a person, particularly for those who are not ready to share their things with the people who are around them. From dealing with their mental chaos to facing erratic situations every day is a new and challenging day for them to endure. How hard it is to accept a new version of yourself and witness your old tale getting far away from you. If we look at the causes of mental illness there are many physical, emotional, and social changes, childhood abuse, trauma, and abusive marriage of parents, which can make adolescents vulnerable to mental health problems.
Today, we are witnessing that youth life is bursting with stressful events. It is owing to the fact of lack of access to quality support from their parents, harsh parenting, single-parent families, lack of a close friend or confidant, low-income families, unemployment, and many other grounds as well. Yet social stigmas and negative attitudes toward mental health prevent young people from seeking the support they need.
COVID-19 has also shown that psychological casualties of the pandemic are far more devastating than physical ones. There is a substantial increase in mental health problems among people. For every person who died due to COVID-19, there are three or four survivors who live with stress, depression, or anxiety, according to doctors.
Now the question is how do people know they need medication for mental health? So for this, they need to spot warning signs that may indicate that he/she is in need of mental health treatment. For instance excessive worry, fear, or sadness, concentrating or learning problems, irritability or anger, extreme mood swings, isolating themselves or avoiding social situations, changes in sleeping or eating habits, intense concern over appearance.
We all have issues regarding our mental health that changes depending on what’s happening in our lives. In most cases, people who are excruciating from mental illness are often quiet, feeling sad or down, confused thinking or reduced ability to concentrate, have excessive worries, or extreme feelings of guilt and extreme highs and lows together with believing no one could comprehend what they are going through in their lives. But in that crib, people who are near to them, need to understand, help, and support them, so that they can share their feelings, and emotions with them, especially parents could play a better role in that situation.
Now let’s give voice to mental health awareness:
Mental health awareness is the ongoing effort to reduce the stigma around mental illness and mental health conditions by sharing our personal experiences, often, because of misconceptions about mental health and mental fitness, people often suffer in silence and their conditions go untreated. Mental health awareness is an important social movement to improve understanding and increase access to healthcare.
Intensive parent education may help to avoid mental conflict during the formative years of early childhood. Demands for changes from a child must be accompanied by sympathy, help, and encouragement, not mere criticism.
One should accept criticism; differences between friends, family members, or near relatives should be solved with mutual discussion and an attitude of tolerance and respect for others’ views.
To love and to delegate some work to others when the work pressure is heavy, not to think oneself indispensable, on serious problems but to discuss them with parents, and well-wishers and attempt to solve them, to have some leisure time hobbies, try to mix with children in the home and with friends in a pleasing and humorous mood, to accept mishaps like the death of dear ones as inevitable happening, to have work pause and practice relaxation, exercise, and meditation – all these are ways to be free from mental illness.