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Mental Health Disorders in India, Issues, and Concerns
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| Mental Health Disorders in India Image Credit: Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay |
Mental Health Disorder is a pattern of behavior that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such behavioral patterns may be persistent, or relapsing, at times remitting, or it may also occur as a single episode. Many disorders have been described, with signs and symptoms that vary widely between various other disorders. Such disorders may be diagnosed by a mental health professional.
Mental Health Disorders in India| Mental Disorders| Mental Stress
The causes of mental disorders are often not clearly specified. Theories may suggest findings from a varied number of fields. Mental disorders are usually defined as a combination of how a person behaves, feels, perceives, or thinks. This may be associated with particular regions or functioning of the brain, often in a social context. A mental disorder is a part and parcel of the all-round mental health. Cultural and religious beliefs, as well as social norms, should be taken into consideration while making a diagnosis.
Common mental health disorders in India includes depression, which affects more than 300 million heads of the Indian population, bipolar disorder, which affects about 60 million of the entire Indian population, dementia, which affects about 50 million Indian citizens, and schizophrenia and other psychosis, which affects about 23 million residents in India. Stigma and discrimination can add to the suffering and disability associated with mental disorders, leading to various social movements attempting to increase understanding and awareness and challenge social exclusion.
The burden of mental health disorders in India continues to grow with significant impacts on health and major social, human rights and economic consequences in our country. We will have an in-depth study of the causes and effects that they tend to cause in human life.
Depression
It is a prominent mental health disorder in India. A statistical study reveals that more than 264 million people are affected by it worldwide. In most cases women are more occasionally seen to be more affected by depression as compared to men. Symptoms of depression may be considered to be sadness or dullness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-esteem, disturbed sleep or appetite, tiredness, and lack of concentration. People with depression may also have multiple physical complaints with no such apparent physical cause. Depression can be long-lasting or recurrent, impairing people’s ability to function smoothly at work or school and to cope with daily life. At its most severe stage, depression can lead to suicidal tendencies.
Bipolar Disorder
This mental health disorder in India has been seen to be prevalent these days affecting the maximum Indian population. It basically consists of Manic as well as Depressive episodes. The normal mood is often seen to exist in between. Manic episodes generally consist of elevated or irritable mood, over-activity, rapid speech, inflated self-esteem and a decreased need for sleep. People who have Manic attacks but do not experience depressive episodes are also diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Timely diagnosis, medications, and psychosocial support are the common methods of treatment in case of severity.
Schizophrenia and Other Psychosis
Schizophrenia is a severe mental health disorder. Though the majority of the Indian population is not totally affected as far as statistical studies indicate. Schizophrenia is generally characterized by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions, language, sense of self and behavioral patterns. Common psychotic experiences include hallucinations (hearing, seeing or feeling things that are not existent ) and delusions (fixed false beliefs or suspicions that are firmly held even when there is evidence to the contrary). The disorder can make it difficult for people associated to work or study normally. Schizophrenia typically begins in late adolescence or early adulthood. Treatment with medications and psychosocial support is highly effective. Along with the appropriate treatment and social support, affected people can lead a productive and happy life.
Lack of awareness on the part of caregivers and relatives can make the affected individual vulnerable to higher mental stress. Furthermore, stigma and lack of Psychosocial support may lead to long term Human Rights exploitation on them for instance long term confinement within institutions. It is high time to come out of the boxes of social prejudices and avail various treatment facilities which would benefit individuals so that they might lead a better life.
