Anxiety, Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Most Common Issues Faced By Those Seeking Help: Survey
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which forced the world to go into a lockdown, there has been an explosion of mental health-related issues.
The fear of infection and inability to move outside rooms and houses only exacerbated the crisis, which is still lingering.
Most prevalent mental health issues?
A recent report by an NGO working in the field of mental health showed that one-third of people who reached out to its helpline reported battling anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts?and sought psychological support.
The Cyrus and Priya Vandrevala Foundation, which provides free mental health counselling, said they noticed this trend in the last 18 months.
The foundation facilitated 114,396 conversations and over 1.7 million messages with 61,258 people from August 2021 till January 2023.
Shortage of mental health professionals?
"One-third of people who reached out to us told us that they struggled with mental illness, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Suicide killed more people in India than murders and coronavirus in 2022," said philanthropist Priya Hiranandani-Vandrevala, who leads the foundation.
"Even if every medical student in the country today became a psychiatrist, we do not have enough people to solve the mental health crisis," Priya said in a statement.
Who is seeking help?
The data from the foundation suggest that 81 per cent of the people seeking counselling on issues concerning mental health come from 12 states.
These were Maharashtra (17.3 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (9.5 per cent), Karnataka (8.3 per cent), Delhi (8 per cent), Tamil Nadu (6.2 per cent), Gujarat (5.8 per cent), West Bengal (5.4 per cent), Kerala (5.3 per cent), Telangana (4 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (3.8 per cent), Rajasthan (3.6 per cent) and Haryana (3.6 per cent).
"This reflects our efforts on creating awareness of our free helpline in these regions. This data also guides us to scale our efforts and fund appropriate initiatives in low awareness states," Priya said.
How people are seeking help
The survey also found that the preferred mode of communication changes with age and gender.
While the data shows that the use of WhatsApp increases with the younger population, a telephonic conversation is preferred by those over 35 years of age.
The usage of WhatsApp is increasing with the younger generation. The last three months of data suggest that more and more young people are using WhatsApp to get help with their mental health, according to the statement.
As many as 65 per cent of people under 18 years of age, 50 per cent of people aged 18-35, 28.3 per cent of people aged 35-60, and 8 per cent of people over 60 are all using WhatsApp for this purpose versus a phone call, it said.
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