Mental illness is very prevalent in the world we live in and the ignorance of not giving it the accreditation makes it dangerous, building small problems into disorders that may lead to incurable permanent changes in a person.As any medical problem is required to be treated and can occur again, mental illness too can happen and occur again. It is perfectly normal to happen, but do we give any ‘right attention’ to it?
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”
Charles Darwin
The knowledge about the issues of mental illness is less as compared to notions and judgements which make people hide as criminals and outcasts to be vocal about suffering from it. Why does this happen?
We live in a society which is well too accessible and social then being well informed and knowledgeable. We need to be open-minded where people are no longer scared to visit or can speak about taking professional help from a psychiatrist or a psychologist without being ashamed about it. It is something that happens to every individual just as every person has been struck by a fever; occasionally or seasonally.
Along with it, the ability of society to put a tag of an improper word used against the person for their identification can act lethal. There exist sensitive topics which can lead to a lot of intangible damage when people talk about them without having proper knowledge with no intent to learn about it but to appear ‘active’.
Mental Illness is not just to be talked about since it is ‘Trending’; it is to be understood first. The absence of solid fundamentals occurs in this case as it has never been a part of a curriculum of our education system but a subject.
Moreover the problem is increasing because it becomes extremely difficult to explain this to either an educated or less educated strata, considering age to be another important factor, as the educated people tends to have every explanation to this and the less educated cannot understand the logic of it.
How to explain then? In simplest terms:
“Every human is unique and so has been their course of life, the situation they have had been into, their circumstances, their choices, their consequences, it is subjective to their existence. Not yours. The solutions that might have seemed favourable by one person may not be a feasible option for another.
The stressors they face leading to their emotional breakdown may not act as emotional triggers for you, so condemning the fact that it is not a problem is actually making the situation worse for an individual who has tried to put in their trust in you by sharing their problem.
If you happen to be the first person who is informed; be a good listener, without trying to be a solution provider, and considering you are not equipped with doing so, please convince them to seek professional help.” There is a lot of talk on mental health awareness but people around them need to be upgraded first, because a wounded person will be highly depended on the person who is trying to give them the first aid.
