Bhushan Raj Selvaraj

Yesterday my neighbour’s husband took his life by himself. While hearing about the incident, I felt that mental health awareness has to increase in our society. I was about to write a post on this, but the news of Sushant’s demise made me write this right now.

Often in suicides I hear people seeing things, hearing voices, feeling possessed by someone else and fear the unknown. If you read about mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, hallucinations, multiple personality disorders, paranoia, etc., we can realize that many of the difficult to describe feelings are actually symptoms of these illnesses. Giving supernatural reasoning or citing it as wrath of God doesn’t help the person in any way. More worse is advising them to ignore it or not believing them and telling them that those are their self imaginations.

I am sure everyone would have went through a stage in which we would have felt that we are worthless and broken down. It is ok to break down in such stages of life. Most of us have our loved ones with us during such stages and were merely lucky enough for the situation to change and got out of such issues without medical help. But not everyone has the same mental strength and scenarios. Some people would have had an abusive childhood, unconcerned parents, bullied in school, bad relationships etc. Seeking medical help when one is not feeling psychologically well is the best thing to do. Just like how we go to the doctor for physical health issues. The stigma around seeking help should be broken.

Don’t ridicule or discourage a person letting his heart out to you. Just hear them out and make them enjoy the small things in life. In this mechanical life, everyone is running their own race. But remember it is not about winning but winning together. Run with your family, friends and well-wishers. Pick the one who is stumbling and make the journey a memorable one for everyone around you.

I would urge people to be aware of mental illnesses and their symptoms so that when you are going through a rough patch you can seek help or when you see your loved one feeling down you can lift them up and get them out of it by seeking medical help at the right time.