While growing up, we experience many things, learnlessons, start building beliefs and gradually a conviction of stability andcertainty develops. Many thought patterns stabilise in our growing brains. Asresearches point out, ‘developmental years have a huge impact on mentalhealth’. The brain’s mechanism to learn by experiences and imitation puts anindividual in the domain where environmental factors play a crucial role inshaping personality, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes.
When we talk about Kashmir, developmental years ofchildren & mental health, we see uncertainty, we hear young ones sayingthat it’s a strike today, we can’t go to school. We can’t buy toys becauseshops are closed, we can’t watch our favourite cartoons on YouTube becauseinternet is not working, we can’t speak to our loved ones because phones arenot working. Every statement reflects a sign of hopelessness, which leads themto limit their desires.
Growing in this circumscribed atmosphere, leads to manydisruptive behaviours in young ones. They start acquiring traits which canleads to maladaptive behaviours.
Mental health issues are aggravating in Kashmir, some daysdrug abuse serves the headlines, some days depression and anxiety and some dayssome other mental health issues.
As a mental health professional when I try to view themental status of Kashmiris, I notice sadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, lackof goals and motivation, loss of interest, low mood, disturbed sleep- while picturingthese symptoms together a name- a title- ‘depression’ pops in.
When I meet adolescents, they express how uncertain theyfeel about future, how nervous they are, how worried they feel about everythingaround and that disturbs them, they feel restless and anxious- again a termpops in ‘anxiety disorders.
Nowadays youth crave to run away from reality, to get somesort of elation, to feel the adrenaline rush, to get away timely with thenegatives of their lives – these reasons make me think, can low lying conflictzone be one of the reasons why youth is proceeding to drug abuse?
Often people complaint of somatic pains, for which theylook out for painkillers, are these real somatic complaints or psychologicallyconverted pain which is caused by unexpressed stress. Again, it leads me tothink, what should we blame, what should we deny and what should we accept. Wekeep on repressing our desires, problems, helpless situations, traumas,uncertainties, which creates the psychological pain.
When I observe that self-harm and mood dysregulation has become very common in youth, when I listen to their versions for their behaviour, I do believe somewhere that may be things would have been better if Kashmir would have been a safe space. I could ask a girl to go out in the morning and feel the early breeze which refreshes the soul, but can I? Will the current circumstances allow me to suggest her that, let her take a breather? The circumstances limit my options and hinder the therapeutic process.
A learned pattern of confirming safety isn’t availablewith us, an underlying fear exists when women travel for work, there are nosources of assurance. We are living with the fear of uncertainty and with theattitude that something can happenanytime.
The whole psyche is being affected, the prevailingsituations are like small amounts of shocks and jerks for our psyche. Mentalhealth is suffering and is degrading day by day.
What adds up to the plight is the stigma associated withmental health. An institute which works for the betterment of mental health isknown as’pagal khana’ and people shy away when talking about it.
We belittle the concepts of mental health, ‘tu pagal haikya?’ is a common dialogue which people exchange when they want to comment onanyone’s weird behaviour, or out of box thoughts. We use the word ‘depressed’so often as if we just consider it as a moment of emotion, whereas depressionis not just an emotion.
While belittling it, we don’t consider the consequences,but it puts those who experience these problems in jeopardy, they are bound tothink, ‘are our problems worth seeking help?’
The low-lying conflict zone is an extraneous variablewhich does exist and is beyond the control of a common man but an orientationtowards mental health can bring a change and bring in light towards thebrighter perspective of mental health.
It’s worth understanding how Mental health is affected. Anacceptance towards mental health issues surely should be the first step. Ifsomeone is witnessing any such issue, it should be treated as equally as wetreat any other medical disease.
Drug abuse, which is the most threatening problem we are witnessing in youth nowadays, should be treated as a disorder and not as a label. It doesn’t make him a bad human, it doesn’t change the good side which we would have seen before and surely its not meant to bring shame on the family. It’s a disorder and should be treated like one. Acceptance in drug abuse is the most controversial issue, it does shatter the whole family and also involves a lot of criticism, blaming, shaming, restrictions for the victim of drug abuse. An attitude change for the same is important, all the negative emotions should be replaced with a positive sense for well-being. A sense of hope should be created in the victim. It needs to be treated as a chapter and not as the whole book. Family support plays a pivotal role in helping the victim recover from the drug abuse. We often tag these victims as ‘druggies’, ‘addicts’ which psychologically belittles them and shames them. The motto should be changing the label from a druggie to a victim!
Mental health should be discussed freely in families, inpeer groups, in close knit units. The more we talk about it, the more we willbe able to accept it. Explaining how situations affect our mental health candecrease the intensity of aftermath of stressors. It creates a kind of pre-prepared mindset.
Seeking professional help instead of delaying it when wefeel that we are witnessing some changes in our behaviour.
Mental health is equally as important as physical health.Growing and living in this unprecedented state of conflict demands us to takehealthy measures towards mental health and these mentioned measures are just aset of attitudes which needs to be changed. A small change in attitude cancreate a ripple effect, and it’s high time to create ripples!
Zoya Mir is pursuing M.Phil. Clinical Psychology at Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences, Kashmir (mir.zoya01@gmail.com)