Mental Health Treatment- A Necessity or Privilege? : 3 Important Points Worth Considering!
Why is Mental Health Treatment Important?
Mental Health has become an important concern especially in the 21st century, since people have finally started addressing the symptoms they are facing under different mental health disorders and have started sharing their feelings and emotions with their friends and family members. Yet, there have been no significant efforts observed in the provision of mental health treatment services such as counselling, therapy, rehabilitation and wellness programs. Different psychologists, mental health centers, asylums and therapy centers still charge exorbitantly high rates for a single session of counselling and therapy. This is why many potential mental health patients fail to receive timely treatment for their disorders and suffer from the intensified symptoms at a later stage.
There needs to be significant reduction in the charges of counselling and therapies so that each section of the society receives timely treatment and doesn’t feel ‘left out’ in sharing their concerns. The primary reason why mental health concerns have not been successfully attended by any given individual since they are primarily stigmatized by society under taboos and myths. Most patients experiencing mental health conditions do not report such incidents to the concerned authorities since they are of the impressions that they might get mocked at and made fun of owing to supposedly suffering from “brain related problems” and might be potentially labelled as “crazy”, “mad” or “insane”.
The normalcy that must prevail around addressing mental health has not yet aroused under societal norms. Society defames and mocks at individuals who experience mental health related conditions and literally shames them by shunning them persistently. This pattern of regressive ideologies reflecting into behavior and irregular behavior must be identified and reduced in order to prioritize mental health issues.
Some mental health disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, depression, phobia and acute fear related disorders might potentially affect overall functioning of life and hamper overall self-esteem, confidence levels and ability to lead a normal life in the long run. If left undiagnosed and unattended, these conditions can translate into certain physical disabilities and also hamper the physiological and biological functioning of body organs. In order to avoid witnessing such catastrophic incidents, it is important to destigmatize mental health by running awareness campaigns about its significance.
How to Create Awareness About Mental Health Treatment
Awareness campaigns about prioritizing mental health can be run across social media platforms, on the streets by conducting road shows, as well as organizing mental health seminars and workshops. Since this topic is sensitive and needs inclusion of certain technical terms and clinical language, the workshops and seminars need to be conducted by trained professionals from the field of psychology and psychiatry. It is an understatement to assume that individuals might begin to realize the importance of mental health upon attending such seminars and workshops. But it might create an internal urge in their minds to explore mental health disorders closely by studying psychology and observing familiar symptoms around their social circles including family members and friends.
Additionally, these campaigns shall help in early intervention and diagnosis of those individuals who require clinical guidance and therapy in order to treat their mental health concerns. Most mental health disorders are left unattended and misguided due to negligence and casual approaches and then transform into fatal and life-threatening conditions for concerned individuals. It is high time that these conditions are prioritized by highlighting their importance amongst the society. An approach that might work in the given situation shall be that of considering how certain individuals have benefitted after addressing their mental health issues by either undergoing clinical treatment or therapy or counselling under trained professionals.
Such individuals can essentially act as facilitators and motivators to other individuals who are experiencing similar conditions but might be hesitant in terms of addressing them by taking external guidance or support. Certain organizations also run communities where individuals who might be undergoing mental health conditions and also experiencing overwhelming emotions owing to certain events in their life could express their inner emotions under anonymous identities. It is surprising to observe there are so many individuals who have encountered similar conditions and could essentially benefit by affiliating with others and experiencing belongingness and a feeling that they are not alone in this journey.
It is high time that we as individuals as well as a collective society begin to realize the importance associated with mental health disorders and address them consciously.
#destigmatizementalhealth #notaprivilege #prioritizementalhealthtreatment #equity
Connections between Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Another important phenomenon associated with mental health issues being left unaddressed is that of substance abuse. Substance Abuse is a major phenomenon observed in adolescent behavioral patterns. Many adolescents right from the age of 16-17 years have at least once abused a hard drug such as cocaine, heroin or marijuana just to stay ‘cool’ and get into their friends’ good books by following them. Peer pressure is a major contributing factor to adolescents engaging extensive substance abuse at a very early age and also get extremely addicted on those substances as a result of regularly consuming large amounts.
Adolescence is a time period when the family needs to pay special attention towards the adolescent and not leave them alone to venture on unanticipated and dangerous and vengeful paths of life. There should be special orientation and counselling sessions for all parents in different schools and colleges across the nation in order to identify a potential drug addict at an early stage and help them overcome from the addiction with ease and help regulate new found motivation and hope in their lives. Most adolescents also engage in substance abuse and drug consumption in order to avoid confronting their mental health issues by going under the hard-boiled influence of drug addiction and experiencing a ‘high’ state of mind and escaping from their reality.
By becoming a popular and convenient pathway to eliminate addressing mental health concerns, drug peddling and smuggling have common behavioral practices amongst teenagers and adolescents. But is important to address the fact that substance abuse which might act as a temporary relief from mental health disorders can become a permanent life-threatening condition that could not be reversed with the most expensive treatments and therapies. Isn’t it better to truly act as a ‘cool’ person genuinely rather than acting cool for namesake by indulging in substance abuse owing to peer pressure and pleasing peers and friends?
#addictoflife #freedomfromdrugs #substanceabusedisorder