As the society has developed and still it’s growing , where anyone can speak up for shades of different skin colors and types of figure let it be size 0 to size 100 , anyone is pretty cause they are born beautiful. Only one thing is important for human to live a life beautiful is to stay healthy , then I hope we can speak up for the most less talked matter , “cause grey does matter”- that is MENTAL HEALTH AND CONDITIONS.(as there are no condition applies )
In India there is 6.5 percent of population which are suffering from Serious Mental depression and Disorder , which is causing various problem in life of their own and everyone is dealing with it silently everyday, which is defiantly suffocating also very much unhealthy for them as well as their environment, there is no barriers in social and financial classes in terms of mental disorder or illness or depression it’s been there in every class, cast , religion , gender and without failing its spreading like a dark shadow covering all the sunflowers in one go. As per reported lately in 2014, extreme shortage of mental health workers like psychologist/psychiatrist / doctor in various parts of India, its almost like one in 10,000 people. The average suicide rate in India is 10.9 for every lakh people and majority of people who commit suicide are bellow 44 years of age. (WHO- conducted survey ).
According the survey India is the 6th most depressed country globally , its hard to know when depression strikes, as it is not still talked about in the open forum, sad reality is more than 300 million people are falling prey to it. Everyone is very much familiar with this term called depression and mental illness, people do reciprocate certain times but certain times they don’t.
As our generation is very much quick in responding, where everything has a voice and platform to showcase, where everything is going viral through social media , but definitely we aren’t comfortable in speaking of our mental health or depression , by swallowing all the sadness and putting a pout or happy face with loads of filters in social media we are surviving and may be we will in next future. Somehow certain celebrities like Deepika Padukone , talked about her depression on television , which was a ice breaker for most of the people to talk about it. As her organization “LIVE. LOVE. LAUGH” deals with mental health in India associates with many other NGOs all over the world.
But there are still loopholes where people are very much uncomfortable in talking about their mental health or anything which is causing their lifestyle interrupted. As we are born with certain stigma as our society built it so strong that even knowingly, we ignore our well being.
Continuous Consciousness of embarrassment like “LOG KYA KEHENGE”I the root cause of every though the songs completely says “LOGO KA KAAM HAI KEHENA” so jokes apart , people even including myself I used to think like that and it’s pretty natural , cause we have been told by our elders that we need to adjust every moment even if we don’t feel like , we need to move on even with loads of burden which we are not letting them go from our brain as we can’t, cause until unless we are over with the depression or cause of the depression then how can a person unload the burden mentally. Hence as result we are being loaded with emotional badges and which are creating several unwanted situations and resulting in mental illness / depression / mental disorder etc.
What is DEPRESSION – as we generally know it by the term , but basically what exactly we don’t really know much of it
The dark cloud covering the mind and which is definitely harmful and toxic. Depression is an extremely common illness affecting people of all cast, breed , religion , ages , gender different socioeconomic groups in India and all over the world. Depression contributes to significant disease burden at national and global levels. At the individual and family level, depression leads to poor quality of life, causing huge social and economic impact. Depression is one of the two diagnostic categories that constitute common mental disorders (CMDs), the other being anxiety disorder. Both are highly prevalent across the population (hence they are considered “common”) and impact on the mood or 1 feelings of affected persons. Depression includes a spectrum of conditions with episodes, illnesses and disorders that are often disabling in nature, vary in their severity (from mild to severe) and duration (from months to years) and often exhibit a chronic course that has a relapsing and recurring trajectory over time. Depression and suicide are closely interlinked; at its worst, depression can lead to suicide. Globally, depression is the top cause of illness and disability among young and middle-aged populations, while suicide 2 ranks second among causes of death for the same age groups.
Depression is both a cause and consequence of several noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, ischemic heart disease and diabetes, substance use disorders (alcohol and drugs) and nutritional disorders (under-nutrition, over-nutrition and obesity).Children with depression often present with symptoms of sadness, irritability, tantrums, physical complaints (headache, stomach ache), tearfulness, feeling bored, separation anxiety as well as poor academic performance and disturbed family relations.
Among adults, it is usually accompanied by a marked difficulty or change in the functioning level or even with suicidal thoughts and behavior. Depression in late life often presents with prominent psychomotor agitation or irritability rather than depressed mood as seen in in younger adults. Individuals may frequently report with somatic complaints, poor appetite and at times with psychotic features.
Globally, the proportion of the population with depression is estimated to be 4.4%. It is more common among females (5.1% vs 3.6%) with a peak in the 55–74 year age group in both sexes. Among the WHO Regions, the prevalence varies from as low as 2.6% among males in the Western Pacific Region to 5.9% among females in the 1 African Region.
Types of depressions in human life cycle-
- Postpartum Depression – depression during pregnancy and after birth is known to affect adversely the growth and development of the offspring, especially in developing countries. Emerging evidence also indicates that failure to thrive is more common in infants, whose mothers have postnatal depression. The reported prevalence of postpartum depression in India ranges between 15.3% and 23.0% with an incidence 35-37 of 11.0%.
- Depression Among Children and Adolescents – depression among children and adolescents, if left unattended can lead to protracted health and mental problems in later life. The overall prevalence rates of childhood depression in India vary anywhere between 0.3% to about38-39 1.2%. the NMHS (2015-16) reported a prevalence rate of 0.8% for depression among 13-17 year old children, Traumatic experiences in early childhood, frequent migration, negative life events etc in the family linked in varying degrees to depress among children and adolescents.
- Depression in Adults- Clinical depression among adults is more than extremes of normal mood, with early onset during young adulthood. A wide range of social, economic, cultural and psychosocial factors, especially changing life styles with lack of support systems in an environment of globalization, urbanization and migration are often linked with depression in young and middle-aged groups.
- Depression Among Elderly –With an ageing population, depression among the elderly is likely to increase in the coming years, with higher prevalence among the elderly than that in the general adult population. Among the community-based studies in the elderly, the prevalence of depression ranged from 3.9% to 47.0% with higher rates among female and urban residents. Living alone, stressful life events, lack of social support systems, recent loss of a loved one, lower socioeconomic status and presence of comorbid medical illnesses are some of the risk factors for depression in the elderly.
We all can fight with depressions and other mental illness only when we talk it out to experts , who can resolve our problems through certain programs. Usually people doesn’t feel comfortable in talking about mental health , as we all consider this mental health as a course or stigma to our social life. With disturbed emotions, people often deny their illness and develop a reluctance to seek help. In some instances, despite individuals knowing they are ill, they are unaware of where to proceed for treatment or are ashamed to visit a mental health professional due to the stigma of being labelled as a psychiatric patient. This contributes to a huge treatment gap for depression. Further, those who begin treatment are likely to drop out without completing the course of treatment due to various reasons, leading to frequent relapses and further widening of the treatment gap.
Treatment gap is very much common in India, even it’s worst in condition when it comes to mental health check ups. The high treatment gap for depression in India is contributed by several demand and supply side barriers. The key demand-side barriers that contribute to the treatment gap include lack of awareness and low perceived need, while the supply side barriers include insufficient, inequitably distributed and inefficiently used resources. Many people who all are suffering from mental health problems also faced problems during check ups as they have been treated differently in hospitals.
The findings highlights the need for anti-stigma interventions in reducing the burden of depression and effective utilization of scaled-up services for depression in India. Such anti-stigma interventions should be integrated with specific focus on educating the general public to improve their mental health; empowering patients to enhance their pursuit of social participation; educating, empowering and supporting the caregivers; improving workplace interventions; providing social contact and care program for health care providers and creating responsible media.
Movies like LOVE YOU ZINDEGi which was huge success as they have spoken about mental health quite specifically and how social and cultural situations effects the whole scenarios , even in most educated families are having certain stigma regarding mental health issues and depression as they consider things like that – “MENTAL HAI KYA”
People can have various problems so mental illness is one of them so it’s better you check with experts and talk to your close ones so that they can understand what is going on in your inner world, as human are pretty complicated so it’s always better to “TALK IT OUT EASY”.
A very popular Netflix series , 13 REASONS WHY is one of those which has talked about peer pressure of adolescents , teenage mistakes and how people have dealt with all of them. As we all know we grow up in a society where we need to go through all those check list marks to be perfect according to others in social eyes. Which is making every people very much conscious and leading a confusing frustrating life, as a teenager we all want to get the lime light , all we want a huge friend’s group , the popular people around etc, this series is all about how friendships has turned back towards a teenage girl and how she went into depression and committed suicide.
We all know similar stories in our life , we all have gone through certain phase where we thought this is the end , but somehow we have fought it and proved it we can do better any day anytime.
So, to prevent depression , lets first “BREAK THE RULLES OF ALL STIGMAS AROUND” as we all are living our own life leading it the best way possible and going through a lot , so let’s be kind , let’s be polite to others even when we have all the ground to accuse that particular person but for better future be the initiator of kindness I hope everything will fall into places exactly how it should be.
We all are going to have huge crisis which are coming towards us those are environmental , economical, social crisis as a global base line, so if we are being self-centered and doesn’t want to think of out of the box then it’s useless to be a human. Let the world know that you care cause that’s what exactly matter.
Let them know they matter to you.
Everyone has different mind map , let’s just celebrate every uniqueness of human being
Chats and Tales 
Great post 😊
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