HOW IS YOUR MENTAL HEALTH? We know no one’s asked you before. It’s time to ask –‘Ki Haal Hai?’ The fact is that we are sick. And we are afraid to talk about it. Too many of us are actually broken deep inside –shattered. Many are on the verge. We read heartbreaking news every day. Our kids are committing suicide because of poor exam results. Our farmers are ending their lives due to economic distress. Our politics leaves us shaken to the core.

How else is a sick society defined? We need to walk into a room where someone counsels us, talks to us treats us. We need help, and we do not who to ask, or who can help. We know that “pagals” go to “psychiatrists” — that’s what popular discourse and shoddy Hindi cinema have taught us.

It is time to learn better.

This episode of Daleel, aired originally on Sunday, January 2, 2022, brings together top psychiatrists and activists. Senior journalist SP Singh is in conversation with Dr Anirudh Kala, Psychiatrist & Author of “An Unsafe Asylum”, as also of the novel “Two and a Half Rivers”; Dr Simmi Waraich, Psychiatrist, Fortis Hospital, Mohali; and Ms Supreet Dhiman, Sexual Abuse Activist & Author of “Mother of All Tales”.

The WSN is proud to bring this debate to you with the aim of restoring some sanity to an issue that merely imparted the word ‘pagal’ to victims for decades. Amid a mad cacophony of political discourse, the world needs this sanity.

Simone Biles, one of the world’s top gymnasts, who won four golds in the Rio Olympics -she chose to sit out in Tokyo and made mental health the subject of global
conversations in sports and beyond. Naomi Osaka, a Black, Asian woman, disclosed
her mental health symptoms. Actress Deepika Padukone spoke about the stereotypical representation of the disease that forces people to stay silent rather than seek help. It is time to break that taboo talking about mental health issues.

A maths professor turned schizophrenic in 1959, spent decades in psychiatric
hospitals, eventually returned to academia in the 1980s and won a Nobel Prize in 1994! What would have been his fate in India?

A society that deals with mental health by denying it’s a serious, complex and urgent issue, is a sick society.

The fact is that we don’t even have a vocabulary to articulate distress, even when most of us are in distress. In how many families do people understand they need to see a counsellor after the loss of a loved one? If you knew the data about the state of the health of the Indian Army, you’d be shocked at how apathetic we are to that jawan standing on the Kargil.

A society that deals with mental health by denying it’s a serious, complex and urgent issue, is a sick society.

The fact is that there’s a hierarchy within the family, and there’s hyper-competition outside. The entire set-up demands conformity from individuals; so you repress anger and suffering. There is a massive demand for “positivity”. ‘How are you?’ is supposed to meet up with ‘Chardhi Kala – First Class’ – A culture of toxic positivity muffles our inner being.

Our children express anxiety about school; the young could be in distress over a
broken crush. We don’t even see this as a problem we should walk into a clinic with.

Are we prepared for a mental health crisis?

What does being a Muslim mean for one’s mental health? What does being a Dalit mean? What happens to the mental health of those in LGBTQ+ community? Are we rushing counsellors to the families of suicide-hit farmers? How do rape/incest survivors deal with mental agony?

Experts say most young people are healthy, physically and emotionally, and yet one
in five meets the criteria for a mental disorder.

What does being a Muslim mean for one’s mental health? What does being a Dalit mean? What happens to the mental health of those in LGBTQ+ community? Are we rushing counsellors to the families of suicide-hit farmers? How do rape/incest survivors deal with mental agony? Do families of those caught for any criminal act suffer mental agony? How does society deal with them? What happens to a young kid in school being called a ‘bhapa’ by his classmates all the time? What happens to kids who have some kind of handicap?

There are thousands of families of disappeared youth in Punjab, of those killed in
fake encounters, those who remained unaccounted for. Who has ever thought of
providing them counselling? What must have been the mental health state of
families? Three decades of militancy in Kashmir have given us some new diction.
Among these terms is ‘half-widows’, a state of living for married/presumed widowed Kashmiri women that makes sense only in a sick society. Just try google-ing the term, and you’ll find your humanity at a loss. Then ask yourself -Where is the mental health dimension of this issue?

Do families of those caught for any criminal act suffer mental agony? How does society deal with them? What happens to a young kid in school being called a ‘bhapa’ by his classmates all the time? What happens to kids who have some kind of handicap?

There’s a pandemic in the air, and it’s more deadly than Covid. It is a creeping,
shadowy pandemic of anguish, tension, agony. Join the conversation, talk about it.
We cannot afford to be judgmental about our mental health.