Who needs Mental Health and Well-being?

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 10, 2020

“Please don’t act like a little child” they say. “She is alright even though she seems to be different”. “Leave him he will be fine”. They keep saying the same thing. Deep down the person is suffering from depression. Deep down the person wants to talk to someone and wants to be heard.

Mental Health and well-being is something that needs to be seriously addressed in today’s world. Mental health is important for everyone be it a child, a teenager, an adult or an elderly person. The problem however, is that we rarely discuss mental health-related issues and its importance. Small physical illness can evolve into a big one in the absence of mental health. A small tragic encounter can turn into a mountain in the absence of mental health.

The need of the hour is more discussion, more understanding of the two words ‘mental well-being’. The good news is that you need not spend a huge amount of money to gain mental well-being. It is a lifestyle and a habit. In serious cases, we need professional’s help to tackle the issue. Mental wellness however starts with how we handle small issues and problems or how we live our everyday life.

There is no doubt that the environment we live in is more of a pressure than a source of comfort. These pressures affect little children, adolescents, the middle-aged and the elderly. Pressures come in different shapes and forms. It could be pressure coming from work places, from family members, from the society at large.

COVID-19 for instance is affecting people to a large extent. People are afraid of reading or watching the news update. It is not just Covid19. Fear caused by different cases of unemployment, poverty, molestation, rape, abduction, suicide, murder and the list goes on. Some youngsters resort to substance abuse because of their personal hardships which they don’t talk about, either because there’s no one to talk to, or nobody tries to understand them.

The absence of mental health is far more deadly than the worst of any physical illness. The absence of mental health puts people’s physical, social, economic and moral well-being in grave danger. Let us remember that putting fears and pressures in the minds of people is not going to bring any positive solution. Everyone needs and has the right to have mental health.

Let us help each other. Let us learn more on the significance of mental well-being. Let us try to listen more, even though we understand just a little. If some of our closed ones require medical attention let us not hesitate to give them. Let us create an environment no matter how small, but an environment that brings forth positivity and a sense of well-being. We may not be professionals in the area of mental health treatment but we can do few important things – listen, be kind, be less judgemental, and try to inculcate the virtue of empathy. We all need a positive and balanced life, and to achieve that, we all need mental health and wellness.