Mental Health- The Week that was!

I had come across the word ‘sanism’ last week. It featured as the word of the day or something on those lines. It essentially refers to bias against people with mental health issue. On research, I found that this word has around for quite some time. However is not commonly used, possibly also because unlike racism or sexism, mental health issues have received its  fair share of attention only recently. Therefore it is only understandable that sanism is a newly found concept. That is what encouraged me to start my weekly series on Mental Health. Today, I am culminating this series knowing well that there are concerns that I have not discussed, or touched and I will come back to discuss more on this. Meanwhile today’s blog post is more an overview on what I shared over the past week.

My first blog was an introduction of sorts to the issue. Mental Health as a ‘problem’ is much closer than we think. It has its seeds in day to day interaction and how a little alertness of our part can make change. Because we should care, focuses on that. It touches upon the psychosomatic aspect of pain and importance to recognize and acknowledge it.

https://nupurdwivedipandey.blogspot.com/2020/09/because-we-should-care.html

Drawing from the previous day’s blog, I went on to discuss the difference between emotional health and mental health and when mental health is the overall gambit, emotional focuses on management of endless numbers of emotions we dabble with through the day. I also tried to explain the role of child abuse in long term emotional damage and how families play a crucial role in shaping child’s future.

https://nupurdwivedipandey.blogspot.com/2020/09/family-good-place-to-begin.html

 In my third blog I discussed about coping mechanism and took a case study of a young student and her struggle during COVID.  Sometimes positivity can be overwhelming but perseverance and patience is the only way to get through. Give it time, and reach out to people. Ensure you have a strong support structure. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Think creatively. Learn, Speak, Meditate, exercise, but don’t give up because that is not an option.

https://nupurdwivedipandey.blogspot.com/2020/09/am-i-ready-to-cope.html

One in 7 Indians suffer from mental disorders and our government’s funding is close to .04% of the requisite amount. Abysmal right! India is looking at a dire situation where the consequences are alarming. This will affect our productivity and economy. Government needs to acknowledge the fact. We have  case studies like Finland and Denmark, who have people friendly policies which in turn reflects in the Happiness Index of the countries. Finland has been acing happiness index 3 years in a row.

https://nupurdwivedipandey.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-cost-of-emotional-health.html

This one was more a personal bit. My tryst with mental health issues, my father’s dementia, my guilt, my concerns on the set up, and the state failure to provide support. It did not deter us from providing best of care for our father, but brought into light, the dire need of a system generated machinery which needs to be well oiled for masses.

https://nupurdwivedipandey.blogspot.com/2020/09/confessions-of-daughter.html

My final blog was more abstract, but in a lot of way quite relevant to the issue. It was about the notion of support or help. The one where people, with best intentions want to support or help but forget whether they have the knowhow to help or if their help is warranted. Sometimes people are afraid to ask for help because they feel they will be lectured or will be given some version of solution or worse still judged.

https://nupurdwivedipandey.blogspot.com/2020/09/dont-help-me.html

There are a lot of things I still want to cover, like need for care of caregivers, kind of support required from government, etc. I will again come back with mental health in another weekly issue to explore these points. Meanwhile I would like leave readers with the following thoughts

• -         Mental Health is a matter of concern, whether we like it or not
• -         It requires changes not just at micro level but at macro level. Micro being individual and Macro meaning government, policy and environmental factor.
• -         There is no short term solution, it requires patience and perseverance.
• -         Finally we are all in this together. We will come out of it only if we stay together.

I hope that you found my first series on Mental health, useful. I will start another series tomorrow on Learning.  If  there is anything specific that you want me cover in the series, please do share. It will be my pleasure and honor to incorporate your ideas.