The depression deepens, and the person unable to share his trauma with anyone starts being more alone and cutting off social interactions with other people.
In the absence of proper medical care and counselling, many of these tired youngsters turn towards alcohol and drugs in an effort to find temporary solace in the thoughtless sleep that follows. This, of course, further damages their mental health and makes the problem chronic. Others -mostly introverts- turn the canon inwards and worsen the problem by not trusting anyone with their problem.
Youngsters have a habit of rushing through everything and hence try to -by no fault of their own- find a quick fix for this problem too. But in this case, the depression that has taken a decade to set in can’t be fixed in a matter of days or weeks. The cycle continues, and they enter a downward spiral where their deteriorating mental health keeps feeding off of itself.
I apologise for being negative. I just want people to stop denying that a problem exists so that when they approach a doctor, they are open to every possibility including medication to improve their health. Psychological problems unlike fever or a cold take their time to go away. Depression is eliminated slowly but surely with proper medication coupled with positive lifestyle changes. This includes understanding your mental health better and taking up hobbies and goals which can replace the dark doom of loneliness. Alcohol and drugs don’t help and provide a distraction only until their effect wears off. Many of the alcohol and drug abusers know this but are not ready to accept it.
The young people of India today need to be able to differentiate what they are expected to do and what they actually want to do. And they can only do that when we teach them. Yes, they need to sort out their own problems and aspirations, but that can only happen when we tell them which one is the problem and which one the solution.
While looking at the patients; their parents, their loved ones, and sometimes even the doctors forget to take into account the loneliness that young people have gotten used to or rather inflict themselves to. This loneliness is also a trigger that gradually pushes them towards depression. It slowly manifests itself as a person continues to think he can manage it and when it really tilts the balance the damage has already been done.
Talk to Them
Mental diseases in India are often shoved under the carpet for it has become a taboo to even talk about them. If a person goes to the psychiatrist, he is mad. If someone gets anxious under challenging situations, he is weak, and if someone keeps washing his hand, he has OCD. And how can we forget the jokes, the name calling and even the people closest to us pretending depression is not a real disease? Somehow, over the years, having a mental health issue has become equivalent to losing your sanity. The result is that very few people come forward to talk about their illness, and even fewer seek treatment.
As a responsible citizen and as a human being, please stop doing this. Understand the lonely ones, talk to the introverts, and try to fathom the problems they are facing. What you do every day they do with a disease slowly eating away the inside of their minds. Make it so they can come out in the open and talk their hearts out. Make them realise they are not as lonely as they believe; we care for them as they do for us. It might be their war, but they don’t have to be alone in it. If we call the young generation the future, we also have a responsibility in building that future. Remember, a house that has a weak foundation may look sturdy from the outside but falls very easily.
Suburban Wordsmith 