3 days ago, on 14th June, 2020, the prodigious Bollywood actor, Sushant Singh Rajput throttled himself to death in his apartment. India has the highest suicide rate in the South-East Asian region, according to the World Health Organization's report in September, 2019. According to an article published in The Hindu, every hour in India one student commits suicide. It's off-putting how it took the death of a beloved celebrity for rumination about mental health and well being in our country.
We're living in the 21st century and still even talking about our own mental health is considered a taboo. I don't see any valid reason for why there is so much stigma linked to mental health?! Don't people think of their brain as an integral part of their body? When we can go to the Doctor for treatment of every other part of the body, why not our brain? Why is our own mind treated like an outsider in our own body?
I inquired a few people in and around my house to know what is their take on mental health or what may be the reason behind this taboo around mental health. I didn't need to probe much as they instantly & unanimously told me, " log kya sochenge? Wo kehenge hum pagal hai" , which simply translates to "What will people think? They will assume we are mentally retarded".
Born and brought up in a small city of India, I'm well aware about how much we value society's perception about us. This is so deep rooted that throughout our lives we just keep running and molding ourselves to get validation from the society. Rather than asking ourselves what will be the right thing to do, we are constantly worried about keeping up with the obsolete norms of the society. Tell me something, hypothetically if you fell down and fracture a bone, will you try to hide this fact and try to treat yourself at home? Or instead you will rush to an Orthopedist to get a proper treatment before there is a permanent damage? I'm sure most of us will run to an orthopedic surgeon to get proper treatment, without even once worrying about what will people think, what will they say about my broken leg, will they blame me for not walking carefully or for the water that was spilled on the floor or will they blame my bone for being too weak? When we don't care about other's perspective when we fracture a bone, realizing how crucial it is to get treatment, then why don't we treat our brain in the similar manner? Why do we think about the society and it's obsolete, meaningless norms when it comes to our mental health? Being the control center of the body, our mind needs special attention and even treatment when required. Like we have a family doctor, we should all have a family psychologist as well.
This is high time to start treating your MIND like any other part of your body. Get treatment if something is troubling you, get help, don't hesitate to ask for help or to go to a professional, at the end it's your own body, your own mental health, why this unreasonable fear of shame? Is society more important than your well being and serenity? The answer to it is unquestionably no, nothing is more important than your own well being , trust me, nothing!
We cannot change each & everyone's perspective about mental health but we can surely take care of our own mental well being and of our close ones. We need to give up on this addiction of validation by the society, this fear of what will people say? what impression I will make if I do what I believe is right rather than following the mob? This mob mentality is limiting us, we have so much potential to grow, but we cannot grow until we experiment new things, or until we give up the archaic norms and traditions that the society has created.
With time it's necessary to change, if a caterpillar refuses to grow fearing that it will be seen differently from the rest of the caterpillars, it will lose it's opportunity to turn into a beautiful butterfly. And even after getting wings, if it refuses to fly and decides to stick to it's obsolete & limiting belief, that like the rest of the caterpillars it should also just crawl on land & not fly, it will never be able to experience the boundless mighty sky!!