Myths on Mental Health by Class XII Student Manvi Tiwari
Myths on Mental Health
If a person has a mental illness then they automatically label that person as weak and if you ask for help regarding it then it is such a taboo. We treat mental health issues as if mind is not a part of our body. I have heard so many people say that they do not want to opt for therapy because their family doesn’t believe in mental health issues or because of you know what their friends would think, their family would worry etc.
What we need to understand is that first we need to be healthy and happy in ourselves and only then can we even consider the rest of the people around us, whether it is our very own family or what we call the *society*.
So many people, especially youngsters, reached out to me and told me that they expressed the need for therapy in front of their family but they just brushed it off by saying that it’s just tension or stress you do not need therapy, or things like what different (thing) will the therapist say that we cannot explain you.
We have a number of self-proclaimed therapists in our society and for a start that needs to change. Therapy is very different, just saying a few motivational words which would have a positive effect on somebody for a day or two is not what Therapy is.
Therapy is a personalised process of how a person has to deal with the kind of thoughts that they have. As humans we have this very weird habit of trivialising everything as OCD or if a person seriously has OCD or some mental health issue then we just you know we like that it’s okay it’s normal it’s just normal tension. Now both of these are wrong practises just because a person likes to keep the place clean or just because a person has a habit of thinking about something a lot does not necessarily mean that they have OCD or any other mental health issue. On the other side People who actually need help and want to ask for it I just turned away by saying that it’s nothing it’s just normal tension. Both of these practises need to change, I believe.
About the Author: Manvi Tiwari is a student of class 12, working to raise awareness about mental health and kick the taboos via her own life journey.
