Mental Health: No More Shying In Asking For Help

There is a notion typically in India that if someone asks for psychological help, they are termed as “Pagal” or “Psycho”. There is a dire need to understand that mental health is equally as important as physical health.

We go to a doctor when we feel physical pain; similarly, we must go to a psychiatrist when we feel mental pain. The notion of not talking about mental health is absurd.

In the West, there are proper classes, separate rooms with psychologists who help children in school and colleges. Though we do have experienced counselors in India, how many of us have ever visited them during our schooling or college days?

Talking to someone helps us, lighten our hearts and find a way out. A psychiatrist helps us identify our real self that is somewhere hidden deep inside due to unforeseen circumstances. A good mental health is essential also for our physical well-being.

Writing is also an effective way to let down our emotions. Have you ever wondered that many times when we come across a situation when we have no one to talk to, what is the best way to move ahead? Well, the answer is pretty easy; just tear a piece of paper and let your emotions be the ink on a blank piece of paper called your mind. It helps one to let it get out of our system. Once you do that for some days, you will see the changes in yourself. Your mental health will improve and you will become more relaxed and will be able to channelize your thoughts well.

In life, there are many problems, but they are part and parcel of life. How we deal with them is what matters. Through writing or talking to someone about our emotions, feelings we learn to let go of things we hold on in our mind, and it helps us to appreciate the things, people we have in life.

Gratitude makes us appreciate the bigger things in life and once we learn to accept ourselves with all the flaws and cracks, we learn to love ourselves for who we are. We start living again.

To meet who you truly are, you who are afraid of coming in front of everyone, mental health help is required. It helps in lending you a hand to embrace it; it is up to you. So who is ready to grab that hand and get up again without any hesitation of what others think?

The recent pandemic led to worldwide lockdown, making us caged in our homes which led to a deterioration of mental health. We saw that many people committed suicide, underwent depression, stress, anxiety attack. We all craved for human touch, that personal space where we could just keep our head on a friend’s shoulder and just cry or speak anything without the fear of being judged. We, humans, are social beings and can’t survive in isolation. No matter how much technology, artificial intelligence develops, this human contact is necessary.

Sometimes we all need a friend or that person to whom we can confide in our feelings. But it is necessary to understand that there is no shame in asking or receiving mental health help. It, in fact, is healthy; it makes us see what we are, where we are headed to and how.

There is always a situation in every person’s life where we want to yell, cry our eyes out, but we just can’t; no matter how hard we try, we seem to get stuck in that situation. For example, when we lose our loved ones, there is a tendency to either cry and vent out or be shocked and keep all the feelings bottled up inside; in this situation, we must try to be there for that person to help them to let their emotions out. A person must balance his emotions as without having a balance in our emotions, there is a tendency to purge out those hidden emotions anywhere and in any situation.

So to avoid stress, anxiety, insecurity, jealousy, anger and to channelize our thoughts and feelings, we must take a psychiatrist’s help.

So next time, whenever your friend is heartbroken or undergoes mental pain, don’t give your friend a suggestion to open a bottle of alcohol, rather hear them out and ask them to seek professional help.