Making Mental Health A Priority

Is mandatory insurance going to change the domain of mental health?

- Sampurna Majumder

Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream is a symbolic representation of the universal anxiety of modern humans. The agonised figure in the painting is reduced to a garbed skull shrieking in the throes of emotional crisis. The image shakes one to the core and resonates in sync with the silent yet powerful scream emanating from the viewer’s soul.

The current state of affairs all over the world marked by violence and strife has a deleterious effect on our mental health. Wars, conflicts, deaths, bombing, rapes, murders, domestic violence are a few of the terrible things that we witness or experience on everyday basis and due to which our mental health is in jeopardy.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), mental health particularly depression is a leading cause of health and disability worldwide, with nearly 30 crore individuals living with depression. By 2020, depression will be the second leading disease in the world.

India is no exception. “In fact, statistics reveal that India is one of the most depressed countries in the world, where one out of every six individuals suffers from mental illness such as depression or anxiety,” said Hansika Kapoor, senior consultant psychologist based in Mumbai.

Arijit Choudhury, 41, battled depression for more than a decade and had to seek medical help for sometime. However, during his second bout, Choudhury chose to heal himself naturally. “Even after years of struggle and medication, when depression hit me for the second time, I decided to fight it out on my own. After reading up a lot on the subject, I was determined not to let any external factors affect me. I surrounded myself with as much positivity as possible. While the process was gradual, needless to say, I was successful and today I am leading a happy and contended life,” said the Bengaluru-based socialmedia influencer.