NAGALAND: Considerable change in attitude towards mental health

A clinical psychologist shares perspective

Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 7

Mental health is a complicated topic to navigate. It encompasses different aspects about society that might be hard to comprehend for the average citizen who is not familiar with its intricacies. In the context of Nagaland State, the term has gained considerable foothold among its citizens, particularly the younger generation, over the past few years. Exposure to social media and the internet in general, as a consequence of living in a globalised world, has helped sensitise society to a great extent.

At the same time, a lot more needs to be done with regard to setting up proper infrastructural facilities and providing basic ground work for training health professionals, data collection, research analysis etc., which has been found wanting.

Against this backdrop, The Morung Express had the opportunity of interviewing a number of health-experts and citizens on this topic. One among them is Imlibenla Mongro, a clinical-psychologist at the Department of Counselling, Christian Institute of Health Science and Research (CIHSR).

Change in people’s perceptions
According to Mongro, “When we talk about the interpretation of what mental health is, I first talk about the word, ‘mental’ that includes anything to do with the process of our brain, our emotions and our thinking process. These mental processes together form the mental well-being or health.”

Building on this, she said, “Just as we have physical health and spiritual health, we also have our mental health. And if anything is wrong with either of them, our mental health is not good.”

In the past, people suffering from mental health conditions were only talked about in a hush manner. But now, many people are coming forward seeking help due to which more professionals are needed in this field to help cater to the rising demands, she said.

Attributing it to the fact that there has been tremendous awareness created within the society, she maintained that the attitude towards mental health has improved quite considerably and at a very fast rate.

“At least post-lockdowns and during the pandemic period, mental health problems had become an important issue along with Covid-19,” Mongro added.

As a result, she also observed an increase in awareness programmes taking place in schools and even in churches, along with NGOs who have been doing their part as well. “In an indirect way, thanks to the pandemic, many people are talking about it widely and openly.”

However, despite the awareness, she also noted that people are also not clear as to ‘when’ they should seek help. Most people know they should seek help, know about their mental health problems, and are aware about depression or anxiety but lack of clarity seems to be on ‘when to seek help.’

“So many people don’t know what are the signs and symptoms to watch out for so that they can start seeking professional help,” she noted.

For some, this form of seeking help from medical professionals comes only when they have exhausted all other options and as the condition becomes uncontrollable for the family.

Romanticising mental health
On the other hand, Mongro also cautions against loosely using the term, ‘mental health problem,’ for normal day-to-day problems that each individual goes through.

“They have some problems for sure, but sometimes we need to make a distinction between ‘clinically diagnosed’ cases and everyday problems. We need to find exactly what they mean by depression or that they think they have depression in the first place. Some like the idea of going for therapy without actually finding a cure. They obviously do have problems but it may not necessarily be what they think they are suffering from,” she noted.

“As professionals, we don’t simply turn them away. We try to find out the reasons why they remain in that identity,” she added.

As most of the clients she deals with belong to the age group of 14-35, she expressed a sense of disconnect between the older generation, and pondered on whether the environment at the home could be a point of origin for problems.

“One of the problems I find with young people is being disconnected with their parents. Today’s generation of young people feel like they cannot relate with the adults. Most of them told me that the moment they have problem, they do not want to talk to an adult. They only want to talk to their friends,” she said.

Mental health is an invisible illness which people do not necessarily see with the naked eye. “That is why it happens sometimes that the person you least expect to, commits suicide,” Mongro stated.

Are social media and internet to blame?
When we look at social media as the villain here, actually it is an unavoidable consequence of the modern lifestyle. Until some better technology comes we, including health experts, are all dependent on the internet for different purposes.

Similarly young people are dependent on it to say connected with their friends. The only thing we can do is try to mitigate its use moving forward.

Parents are also finding it difficult to keep their child engaged other than providing them smart phones; and because almost every parent is working these days, the current situation needs some getting used to.

However, as far as the number of patients Mongro had examined in the past, a common trait she observed was in young people’s conflict with their sexual identity; along with the fear of living in a society that does not fully accept their behaviour.

Besides these, she also disclosed that panic disorders and social phobia are common amongst her male patients while depression and anxiety are the most common among females.

This is the first of a three part series.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/nagaland-considerable-change-in-attitude-towards-mental-health