While depression remains to be one of the most debilitating ailments that has affected around 300 million people globally according to WHO, what¡¯s worse is that these cases often go unnoticed due to ignorance or because of the taboo surrounding them. Not surprisingly then, WHO ranks depression as the single largest contributor to global disability and major contributor to suicide deaths. The most recent shocking statistic sis the fact that India is the most depressed country in the world, followed by China and the USA.?
remonews.com
babble.com
- There is a huge gap between patients and mental health care professionals to be filled. The ratio is quite staggering, with 1 doctor for every 1,00,000 patients.
- With a suicide rate of 10.9 for every one lakh people, suicide is one of the biggest causes of deaths in the age group of 15-24.?
- Almost 80% people diagnosed with mental sickness do not seek any kind of treatment
- There are 150 million more who need access to therapy and this is projected to increase by 20% by 2020.
The consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults.
Depression forces the body and the brain into a death trap. These stages have also been compared to severe forms of trauma and can be difficult to recover from. When the brain, pushed into extreme negativity declines its functioning power.
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Natasha | 22
DIAGNOSED | 2015
COPING Rx | Follows a routine, yoga, therapy
LIBERATIONPROGRAMS.ORG
¡®You have to fight it, or it will defeat you,¡± says Natasha, a 22-year-old student who was diagnosed with depression and anxiety following the death of her grandmother, who she was very close to.
It¡¯s been a three-year-long fight in which following a routine has helped because ¡°it breaks down everyday life into little spoonfuls¡±. Natasha says, ¡°It gives my life stability and helps me be more productive, even if I¡¯m overwhelmed.¡±
This routine, she says, is incomplete without yoga. ¡°Yoga calms me down and clears my head. If I go three days without it, I notice that I¡¯m duller,¡± says the Delhi resident.
Medication is important but cannot remedy the problem by itself, according to Natasha. ¡°Pills help with the physical symptoms of anxiety and depression ¡ª the shaky hands and racing heart, but they can only get you to a base level that enables you to help yourself,¡± she says.
She credits therapy for helping her realise that depression was far from rare. ¡°If it was, my therapist would be out of a job,¡± she jokes.
Natasha discusses depression with a casualness that is comforting, while never being callous. ¡°The secrecy and the weight around depression amplify the difficulty of living with it. The more people are open about it, the easier it gets,¡± says Natasha, who has broached the topic with more people in her life, beyond just her inner circle. ¡°Depression can sometimes be like you¡¯re drowning in an ocean and you can see other people drowning but don¡¯t know how to help each other. I find that the only way to help is to talk openly about it.¡±
While she is no stranger to ignorant comments like ¡°Just try not to think about it too much!¡± and ¡°Just be stronger¡±, she says one should realise that though it¡¯s hurtful, the comments stem from ignorance rather than malice. ¡°It¡¯s hard to understand depression unless you or someone you love experiences it,¡± she says.
ANAND MULKY | 53
DIAGNOSED | Feb 2018
COPING Rx | Plays harmonica, works out in the gym
loveexploring.com
When Anand Mulky told his friends that he¡¯d been diagnosed with depression earlier this year, they just refused to accept it. ¡°How can a successful businessman have depression, they asked. Someone suggested going for a drink, someone said I should party, and one person recommended going on a cruise. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had taken their advice,¡± says Mulky.
Mulky says one of the triggers was stress. ¡°My wife was very sick and my business was also not doing well. I think it all precipitated into these symptoms,¡± says Mulky. An extrovert, who knew how to party hard, he suddenly found himself shunning crowds and refusing to go out. ¡°I lost my appetite and started getting negative thoughts,¡± recalls Mulky who researched his symptoms online and decided to seek guidance from experts at The Live, Love, Laugh Foundation in Bengaluru. They put him in touch with a counsellor; he also consulted a psychiatrist who prescribed him medicines. Today, he says, he¡¯s much better.
While his wife understood his decision, Mulky says his children had a hard time accepting that their father was taking psychiatric help. Some of his friends told him that medicines would harm his liver or make him dependent. ¡°Avoid all advice from well-wishers and friends. Just stick to what your doctor tells you to do,¡± suggests Mulky. To supplement drug therapy, Mulky started working out in the gym and spending one hour every day with himself. ¡°I used to play harmonica in a jazz band; I have picked it up again. It calms my mind and helps me stay focused on recovery,¡± he adds.
NATASHA BADHWAR | mid-40s
DIAGNOSED | 1985-86
COPING Rx | Walking,?photography, writing
limnosreport.gr
When Natasha Badhwar decided to write her memoir on parenting, she chose to make her life an open book, first to her children, and then to her readers. And this included the fact that when she was 12, she had attempted suicide.
¡°I have spent most of my life tiptoeing around that ¡®event¡¯,¡± says Badhwar, who is a filmmaker and media trainer. ¡°Growing up, the silence between my parents and me was extremely hurtful. We never found the words to talk to each other about it, even though it shook each one of us,¡± says Badhwar, adding she did not want to repeat the pattern as a parent.
Though her children never asked her about her suicide attempt, she says she has a scar on her right arm, which she is often asked to explain. And this time, before she wrote ¡®My Daughter¡¯s Mum¡¯, she decided to do just that.
Describing her attempted suicide as ¡°hitting rock-bottom¡± Badhwar says that the final trigger was the fear of a direct confrontation between her school and parents over low marks in exams. ¡°But I had already been on the brink for months before that. I had ideated about suicide, spoken to friends about it, read about suicide helplines and had a couple of inexplicable emotional breakdowns in school,¡± she recalls.
As an adolescent, she says, she had very idealistic expectations from life and no support to cope with the disappointment of how callous and cruel the real world really was. ¡°I became suicidal because I did not know how to manage my expectations and sense of loss, and I felt powerless and unwanted,¡± Badhwar says.
Now in her mid-40s and a parent of adolescent children, depression feels like an old friend. ¡°Sometimes it overwhelms me and often it is vice versa. I¡¯ve learnt to recognise it from its physical symptoms. I don¡¯t always triumph over it, but I have learnt to navigate through the fog and often trick the beast by leaving from the back door,¡± she says, adding that educating herself, volunteering at mental health centres and therapy have helped her.
¡°I¡¯m still surprised at how quickly my thoughts can turn towards self-harm and suicide when I am distressed. I have my personal checks and balances in place to hold myself back from ever going to the extreme end again,¡± she says.
There is tremendous pressure not to talk about one¡¯s anxieties, she feels. Her word of advice: ¡°We risk losing too much by trying to hide our vulnerabilities from sight. We need to summon the courage to be honest about our needs and look at difficult feelings in the face.¡±
Nandini Chandra | 29
DIAGNOSED 2005
COPING Rx Adopting a pet, adult colouring books and talking to friends
medium.com
Nandini Chandra was first diagnosed with depression at the age of 15, a year after her father¡¯s death. But it was only a decade later that she finally sought medical help for it. ¡°I grew up in a middle-class Bengali family, in which it was inconceivable that someone ¡®normal¡¯ could go through depression and anxiety. The usual response you got from family, friends or teachers was that ¡®it¡¯s just a phase, it¡¯s in your head, get a hobby, distract yourself, forget about it and you will start feeling better¡¯.¡±
Chandra continued to have phases of depression between the ages of 15 and 25, but societal pressure and a lack of awareness prevented her from seeking help. ¡°There was ignorance that psychiatric medicines are not good for physical health or meant for only completely ¡®crazy¡¯ people,¡± she recalls.
Other negative reactions in her teens made her afraid to confide in anyone outside her immediate family. ¡°In school, there were days when I didn¡¯t want to get out of bed. I couldn¡¯t focus on daily tasks,¡± she says. ¡°A few teachers branded me as a lazy student and a procrastinator. This made me afraid of reaching out to anyone, thinking that I¡¯d be judged or disappoint others.¡±
In December 2015, a friend¡¯s Facebook post on dealing with depression and anxiety led Chandra to finally consult a doctor. Reading personal accounts of depression online also inspired her to write about her own experiences to help others and get it off her chest. While she found writing cathartic, it also had an unexpected fall-out. ¡°Initially, people showed a lot of positive support but then some started categorising me as that girl with depression and anxiety.¡±
Three months ago, Chandra adopted a rescue dog. ¡°Whenever I have depression or an anxiety attack, I think about how what I am feeling will reflect on him and that has helped me control myself much better.¡± Calls to her closest friends ¡°work like therapy sessions¡±, while adult colouring books also help in calming her down.
Yet, hearing about celebrity suicides can be simultaneously scary and hopeful. ¡°I genuinely feel saddened because they will have the best access to all the treatments out there. It scares me that if they haven¡¯t been able to manage it, is it possible for someone like me with less resources,¡± she says. ¡°Yet, I try to focus on myself and respect the fact that it is individualistic and it is not necessary that I will react to a situation the same way as someone else.¡±
A common misconception about people suffering from depression is that they don¡¯t try, says Nandini. ¡°We are constantly trying our best to heal and become a better version of ourselves. The struggle we face is within us. We don¡¯t need lectures or information that is already available online or don¡¯t expect you to understand everything but we just need assurance that you are genuinely there for us.¡±
SHUBHRATA PRAKASH | 44
DIAGNOSED | 2011
COPING Rx | Mindful meditation, yoga?and swimming
thedivorcemagazine.co.uk
Shubhrata Prakash can never forget the dark years between 2012 to 2015. ¡°I would constantly be thinking bad thoughts. I would be talking to someone and suddenly it would creep up on me. It would be so bad that I wouldn¡¯t feel like holding my own child,¡± recalls Prakash, an officer with the Indian Revenue Service who was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2011. Looking back, Prakash says, the trigger was post-partum depression (following childbirth), which then kept getting worse.
What made things more difficult for her were the jibes from people she confided in. ¡°People think you are just weak. I was told that I had everything in life so what reason did I have to be sad? One person even commented that these days it¡¯s glamorous to say you have depression because celebrities like Deepika Padukone have admitted to it,¡± says Prakash, who has written a book on her struggle with depression called The D Word.
Surprisingly, during the darkest phase of her illness she took a dramatic leap of faith and stopped taking her medicines. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t recommend it to anyone but I took this decision because the meds were not helping me,¡± says Prakash. The first few drug-free months were nightmarish. But she substituted medicines with cognitive behavioral therapy thrice a week, practised mindful meditation almost daily and went for a swim or a yoga session as and when her health permitted. ¡°Finally, one fine day about eight months after I stopped taking meds, my mood shifted. It felt like a window had opened. I have been gradually improving ever since. Today, I am 90% better,¡± says Prakash.
Though things are looking up, she is still shocked by the recent spate of celebrity suicides, especially by 41-year-old Chestor Bennington, lead vocalist of Linkin Park, last year. ¡°I¡¯ve been in that place¡ I could understand what they went through. At the same time, I was grateful that I didn¡¯t go that far. I thanked God for bringing me out of that dark place.¡±