Mental Health, Suicide and Why it's matters.

Mental health is  an integral part of health; it is more than the absence of mental illnesses. It is the foundation for well-being and effective functioning of individuals. It includes mental well-being, prevention of mental disorders, treatment and rehabilitation.

In India, 1 in every 7 children is facing mental health issues. These types of issues, where medical help is much needed, mostly Indians works on "Sab theek ho jayega" {Everything will be okay}. Talking about India, kids and teens are suffering from Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, and even Schizophrenia, where kids have hallucinations. You must be disappointed to know that less than 1% gets medical help, because in India we don't talk about mental health openly. Children friends don't have the capacity to understand the mental health, and elders don't show any interest to know about it, and as an result the person ends up feeling very suffocated and lonely.

Popular Scientist and psychiatrist have explained that "Our mental health will also affect how we feel in our body in more obvious ways". Sleep health, motivation and energy for exercise, response for exercise and appetite can all be impacted by our emotional state. Studies have shown that depression and anxiety can increase the insulin resistance in our body, which over time can lead to not only diabetes but increase the risk for other chronic illness that are associated with insulin dysregulation.

As an Indian, let me tell you a very interesting fact: 14th of November is Children's day in India and Interestingly it is also the 'World Diabetes Day', also the India is considered as Diabetes capital of world. Maybe this is not a co-incidence, but a sign to focus on the mental health of children.

So why the children of India are unhappy ?!

Let me tell you about a very interesting place, there is a place in Japan called Aokigahara Forest, world know it as a suicide forest. From outside it look very beautiful in the foot of Mt. Fuji but inside it is 

very dark and quiet place with no mobile network coverage and no connection to the outside world. People come here to end their lives, the people that come inside the forest leave behind the string to guide them out in-case they change their mind, but in most cases they don't. Suicide was one of the biggest problem in Japan, because Japan is fast. In this beautiful rich country, people live under tremendous pressure, they have to be perfect in school, they have to have a perfect career and perfect family. This pressure forces many people to break-down and turn to suicide, this makes me wonder that although Japan is so advance and fast, what is being lost on the way..?!

The problem in India is almost same, I would consider two main problems in this blog through which almost every single Indian kid and teen is suffering from.

Unhealthy Competition and Depression

When I was small, there was a kid in the society or in relation, who was performing extremely good in his academics and I was always compared with him. How much marks I got was ignored and instead how much marks did he got was more important to my family. If I got more marks than him, then everything is fine. But if I get less marks than him, <I'm not going to say that, you know>.

Why does this sound relatable thou..?! because we all have gone through this, This attitude of parents doesn't improve you marks but friendship gets ruined. Earlier this comparison was done in small basis maybe among a society, classroom or among cousins. But today, this thing has grew so much due to the increase of local media, when adults see other child scoring 100% in their boards and entrance examination they do feel that their child can do the same. 

The parents need to understand that we all in a society is running a different races, our starting lines and finish lines are different. So what you can do.?! You can stop treating your children like a robot, if you want to compare, just compare the inputs instead of outputs. You can make sure to create an environment suitable for wholesome growth of your children. Instead of forcing your child to be an engineer or doctor, you can be the guide/mentor to teach him - 'How to deal with uncertainties and How to live a life?!'

Social media, Isolation and Anxiety

The phone is a weapon of mass destruction of children mental health. Spending a lot of time on social media produces 'feel-good hormones' in the body. There should be a right balance of Dopamine in the body, but use of social media gives us an instant boost of Dopamine, which can get extremely addictive. Let me tell you about a very important research by a scientist Paul Phillips of University of North Carolina, they connected an electrode from the lab's rat brain to monitor his activity, the rat's cage had a button when pressed his brain receives signal to release dopamine but in addition he gets a mild shock. Initially the rat was curious so he used to press the button once or twice a day, but soon later he started pressing that button more than five times a day, he was getting a shock but he was actually enjoying it. Then there comes a stage where rat left eating food and instead he just pressed the button. The rat was addicted to dopamine eventually he was getting a shock. Sad to say social media does the same to us.

But the Question is 'How we got trapped..?!' and 'How to get out of this trap.?!'

Let's talk about how it's a trap first:- Well, I do have a a friend working on Facebook and while a conversation with him, I came to know about a very interesting fact. They aren't competing with 

Twitter, Snapchat or any other social media platform. The thing they was competing with was YouTube, so basically it's a 'competition of digital attention'. The reality behind such platforms is 'If you aren't the promoter of product, then you're the product'. They show you the content you love to see, that makes you feel good, the world which is completely different from your reality but still you enjoy it. We see the fake smiles of depressed people, we see the fake love of  incompatible couples, we see the fake lifestyles of people, we see the fake propaganda and lots of things that aren't related to you but you seeks your attention and that is where you're trapped.

Before talking about, how to get out of this trap.?! I would like to say that, social media is not bad, it's a great thing to check on your friends, there are some of the nicest people you met on Internet and you don't want to lose them, or they can prove to be your best friends for life, due to same vibes or ambition or maybe due to shortage of money or time, you may not meet but one-day for sure you'll wanna meet.

But is this more important right now.?! Social media is not bad, but excess of social media is extremely bad. Talking about, How to get out of this trap.?! 

The therapy is way to simple- chose a productive habit, set your daily goals or tasks, replace your habit of pulling out mobile phone oftenly by developing a habit of reading books or meditation or just by closing your eyes and murmuring a song, develop a daily basis sport habit, humans is a social animal so socializing is very important so being in a good and strong friend circle is important, with regular meetups, determining why you're using the social media and it's a very slow process, it may takes a month or two or maybe longer than that, but a bird in cage with a proper supply of food and water enjoy less than the free and struggling bird.

A report tells that 1 out of every 4 student in India is suffering from stress that makes them think about suicide for once in their thousand thoughts and that one thought is dangerous, like a sparkle can burn up the whole field.

As a parents if you see the symptoms like your child is suddenly becoming aggressive and moody, suddenly and continuously performing bad in their exams, a complete loss of appetite or eating too much are some of the early signs of mental health disorders of your children. 

"Remember depression and anxiety can be dealt with expression not with suppression"

Just like when we fall ill, we go straight to the doctor. In the same way mental illness needs a therapist, therapy is not bad, at least a therapy could save a life as suicide ratio since 2011 in India is so bad that every hour 2 children committed suicide, and we have to accept this fact. Mental Health is a problem that can't be seen but can be noticed, that's why I do think you'll find it helpful while reading this. You've to understand that mental health is equally important as that of physical health.

Our students is the future of India, but today 50% of student are suffering from mental illness. It's simple, if we don't help them in being fit and fine, then how will we take the country forward? The over-expectation of parents aren't giving chances to an individual to grow. Why he isn't happy?, till we never reach to bottom of this, we won't be able to grow as a society. Because children aren't robot, children are flowers who needs a chance to blossom not just physically but mentally too. And sharing this simple thing with you, makes difference to me.

"You think you die alone, but that's not true. No one is alone in this world, isolation are temporary, connections are permanent"

धन्यवाद

At the end would like to share some tool-kits for parents and children as well :-)

UNICEF Toolkit for Mental Health           SUMAITRI                   MPOWER MINDS

NIMHANS              PEAKMIND           THERAPIZE INDIA           SNEHA INDIA

AASRA     Now and Me   

Hope these links will help you out.

Sources for Articles

• UNICEF
• Suicide Reports of India
• YouTube 
• Some lines are by Ikigai
• Aokigahara Forest journals