MENTAL HEALTH: MISSING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES

 Dangling my toes in a night’s hot spring after my eventful eighteenth, little did I imagine that it was going to be such a happening, life-altering year for me. From all the hullabaloo surrounding board exams to the uncertainty that subsequently prevailed about college, I am sure that this year would not have been a cakewalk for many like me. But what was most remarkable was my battle with anxiety and minor episodes of depression and even as it might sound like an exercise in cliché, what they taught me.

Long gone are times when mud was slung upon people who suffered from mental health issues and society subsequently deeming them unfit for social life. With masses being educated about mental illness, the misconceptions regarding them are on a terminal decline among certain sections of the population. But the lack of empathy that the large sections of the society possess still seems to be incorrigible.

With movie stars, cricketers and, other celebrities coming out with their respective experiences, depression, anxiety and similar conditions have started to become familiar to people. But the outlook of society towards mental illness conceals more than it reveals. Conclaves and seminars that aim to educate people are unfortunately filled with jargons and clichés and miss the wood for the trees.

First off mental health issues are considered to only affect adults, and teens who complain about the same are ridiculed and the subject is often trivialized. My long-standing memory of being schooled about this is a respectable teacher telling us that mental illness as a subject matter is simply nonexistent for teens if not for humans as a whole. When a student contradicted her view, she proceeded to say that pretending to have a mental health issue is a trend in vogue among teens. While a few took serious offense at her statement many tended to laugh off her flippant remark. 

This is certainly not the first time appalling remarks are being passed about mental health and people suffering from the same. Movies portraying them as wacky, making endless fun of them should not just be viewed as unwitting acts performed for the explicit purpose of entertainment. 

Even as I went through the toughest juncture of my life, I was blessed to have an undeniably amazing support system in the form of an incredible family who constantly stood by me and helped me out from something that seemed to take a toll on my life. But for people who might not necessarily have it and still fight and conquer it, it’s high time the society stands as the pillar of support, not by keeping up the masquerade of sympathy but by showing true empathy because only that can make a change.