Mental Health Taboo

Mental health abnormalities are still seen as taboo. An individual’s symptoms and struggles can be affected by conceptions and explanations in different cultures, religions, and generations. This was an interesting topic discussed in class which does hold a lot of truth. It made me think about how mental health is seen in the Indian culture. From my personal experience, I have seen everything from the stigmatization of people who have a mental illness being referred to and known as the one who is “insane.” I’ve also seen people taking advice from astrology, palmistry, and gurus, however, I have only experienced having been taken to an astrologer or palmistry-ist and those experiences have been…interesting. There is an understanding that this has to do a lot with belief and although they refer it to the placement of the constellations or the placements of features on your hands it’s all just pseudoscience in the end. When you take this aspect and mix it with the general stigma and negative opinions that have been associated with mental health it can be seen that the reason for the lack of discussion and acceptance regarding mental health is due to peoples fixed minds that are just now starting to open up little by little regarding this topic with the new generation. There is, however, still a long way to go before the Indian society will be more accepting of mental health concerns and illnesses, and when that day comes maybe the individual may get help better suited and more effective that is needed instead of phrases such as “You’re fine” which shows straight denial that someone you know may not be doing well to phrases such as, “You should pray more”, “Do this every morning when you wake up” as an attempt to advise on what should be done instead so that you may receive good blessings, and keep faith strong because faith is apparently the answer to everything.