As you browse social media, you will find many self-help and wellness platforms that provide tips and tools to change your life or promote your mental health. Unfortunately, despite this economy of content, many misconceptions about mental health remain. Even those who want to seek support or help can be confused by the terminology related to medical professionals and diagnoses.
On World Mental Health Day, celebrated on October 10, let’s go back to the basics of mental health and mental health care to allay any concerns and answer any of your lingering questions.
The ABC’s of Mental Health
Mental health is for everyone, just like physical health. “Just like we do a lot of things to live healthy every day, we can also do a lot of things to have good mental health on a regular basis. So, there’s a preventive aspect and a treatment aspect,” says clinical psychologist Smriti Joshi, who is associate with the AI-enabled Wysa life coach platform. She adds that it is normal to experience a wide variety of emotions such as sadness, anger and stress. Still, once it begins to affect your daily work, relationships, focus, and sense of self, it may be time to seek help.
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Joshi explains the services available to people across the mental health spectrum. First, for those who experience occasional stressors and want to address them, Joshi says they can learn coping skills through self-help tools, guides, books, and other mental health resources. Or you can go to a life coach or counselor for guidance.
Next on the spectrum are those who languish. Joshi explains, “You’re not exactly out of whack to be diagnosed with anything, but you’re still in that phase of languor, where you’re not thriving like you would when you’re in the wellness space.” He is marked by disruption of emotions, sleep, and appetite, but he can still handle it to some extent. Finally, the third is the phase of the disease, in which people experience persistent behavior and mood changes and sleep and appetite problems for at least two to three weeks. It may be marked by other symptoms such as hallucinations and require psychodiagnosis, evaluation and treatment.
These mental health conditions and challenges can be the result of genetic, biological, and social and environmental elements.
“Mental health has now been seen as a ‘biopsychosocial’ point of view towards health and also treatment,” says Bangalore psychiatric social worker Alen Chandy Alexander. Alexander, who works at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, looks at how social settings and environments such as interpersonal relationships, families, schools, work, and religious institutions affect people’s mental health.
In family settings, Alexander explains that mental health issues can arise in family settings due to domestic issues and neglect during parenting. Similarly, marriage can cause distress when two people enter such partnerships unclearly. Finances, in-law dynamics, housework, and responsibilities can be social determinants of anyone’s mental health. So are gender expectations. Alexander sets the example of men who are expected to be the providers and toil and toil with no means to express themselves. It can all come about through high-risk behavior like substance abuse and gambling. For women, who are expected to keep everything secret and not talk about their problems, their mental health problems can manifest themselves through unexplained body aches, blackouts, and other neurological problems.
Therefore, the social environment and the resulting social identities must be taken into account when it comes to mental health and medical care.
“The mental health sector has been making strides in understanding that there is a need for an intersectional framework to better understand how identities interact and their resulting impact on mental health,” says mental health professional Saransh Bisht, Associated with Health inclusive mind. collective, Belongg. These aspects point to a specific need-based approach rather than general mental health solutions for different individuals and communities.
Where to seek mental health care or help?
Where do you go if you have a mental health problem and want to seek help?
Joshi recommends that you go to any mental health professional closest to you instead of wasting your time. Different types of help are available depending on your needs. For example, if you feel that you are having difficulty in your relationships, work, and school, you can see a counselor, coach, or consulting psychologist. On the other hand, if you think it is affecting your daily life and biological functions and causing self-harm or suicidal feelings, you can see a psychiatrist (who has a Ph.D. in psychiatry) or a clinical psychologist (who has an MPhil in psychology). clinic and registry of the Rehabilitation Council of India). Only they can assess you and diagnose any mental health conditions such as OCD, depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia and provide treatment protocols. Joshi suggests asking any professional for their credentials without hesitation.
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As many cannot access or pay for private mental health care, they are able to go to public health centers. “If you go to a government-approved hospital, things would be much more affordable. But there, what happens is that the infrastructure may be outdated and, then, the flow of patients will be too heavy”, says Alexander. Under the District Mental Health Program, every district in the country is supposed to have a team of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and social workers for such support. In addition, people with psychosocial disabilities can obtain a Unique Disability Identity Card (UDID) and benefit from welfare plans such as transportation and education based on their disability rating.
With the pandemic, we are now seeing an increase in digital mental health care “A lot of innovation happened in the last two years, where professionals felt the need to offer their services through other modalities as well because suddenly the user and the service provider were severely affected,” says Joshi. Many apps and online platforms now provide mental health tools and help you connect with professionals. For privacy concerns, Joshi says people should do their research and ask how their data is used and stored.
Joshi is also a strong advocate for community and peer group support outside of the clinical setting. “Without it, it would be considered incomplete because ultimately, after treatment support, the person goes back into the community, whether it’s at work, in their residential area, or on a broader level,” she says.
For the support of the community, Belongg has been organizing listening circles since 2021 for people from different social identities to come and provide an inclusive listening space for each other. Bisht says that conversations in such circles don’t necessarily stick to any one topic and allow people to guide and develop the framework. Therefore, these initiatives can act as additional support for people.
Many professionals and institutions are looking for ways to fill the gaps and overcome the obstacles of mental health infrastructure, stigma and hesitation in seeking help, and even the language of care.
Bisht suggests that new platforms or avenues engage people with lived experiences and from marginalized communities to make them accessible to people with disabilities or trans and queer people. For example, “If they [people seeking mental health services] they can’t speak the language that’s prevalent in the industry, they definitely can’t access mental health services,” says Bisht.
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