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Mental health is more of an intersectional conversation than you might think. Read on to see how.
(Source: Investing in mental health, WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data, 2003)
Several myths float regarding mental health and related issues almost every day.
One of them that I hear is: “Mental health talk is so overhyped by the higher income strata of society. I see so many poor people or middle-class people every day; they struggle so much in life but never complain of any such depression. Mental health is nothing but a luxurious talk!”
But let me tell you something: It’s a BIG MISCONCEPTION. It is just unawareness about the facts. If you do some background research, the World Health Organization has numerous data where they have shown mental disorder is not only prevalent where there is poverty, rather they both form a vicious circle.
Firstly how mental disorder contributes to poverty?
As mental health disorders contribute pretty much in generating high costs for long periods of treatment and productivity gone off track, it can be stated that such disorders majorly give rise to poverty.
How poverty contributes to mental disorders?
There are empirical pieces of evidence supporting the statistics where it has been seen, that depression is more prevalent among the low-income population. The factors like malnutrition, low educational levels, insecurity, no proper housing facility, and many more together have been identified as major contributors to common mental disorders.
Poverty thus can be taken as a contributor to mental disorders and vice versa, quite significantly.
Source: Investing in mental health, WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data, 2003
As you see in the above diagram, they form a vicious cycle affecting an individual as well as society in various segments.
Education
Several research studies have proven that the prevalence of common mental disorders has a significant relationship with low levels of education (Patel & Kleinman, 2003).
Low education levels keep an individual away from the access to well-paid jobs, creates feeling of insecurity, and makes it more vulnerable to illness. With persistent low capital, they get stuck in the vicious circle of poverty.
Work
The ones who lose their jobs tend to get depressed twice more than those who have managed to retain their jobs (Dooley & al., 1994).
Besides that, people who are unemployed tend to get higher depression levels compared to those who are employed (Bolton & Oakley, 1987; Kessler & al., 1989; Simon & al., 2000).
Violence and trauma
The poverty, trauma, and violence make people vulnerable to induced mental disorders aggravating them further, and creating the never-ending negative cycle.
This negative vicious circle of poverty and mental disorders can be broken only with well-planned and structured investments.
Image Courtesy: Lily Padula, National Public Radio
PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELLOR FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS. MA PSYCHOLOGY, Diploma in Community Mental Health, NIMHANS Former Forensic Psychologist Intern. Former content writer. Double Masters in Computer Applications & in Psychology. B.A in Hindustani Classical Music. read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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