SPEAK UP!

Health is not only what you eat or what you drink. Health includes all other factors such as what you think, whom you surround yourself with, and the environment where you reside. Physical Health and Mental Health go hand in hand.

Nowadays, we tend to focus so much on our physical appearance and health that we forget to take care of our mental health. No doubt, if we do not eat good food and take proper rest, we may get ill but if we do not care about our thoughts, then also we may get ill. We are living in a world that is moving at a very fast pace and we all are messed up in our worlds. We have many problems nowadays like family problems, relationship problems, work stress, etc., and finding solutions to these problems is the only way we can live happily. All this can trouble a person so much that the person may find himself/herself depressed. We must speak about the problems and situations we are facing in our lives to our near and dear ones.

A person may look happy from the outside, but what’s going on inside that person matters more than what’s on the outside.

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine the extent to which we can handle stress and make a healthy and happy life. Mental health is of utmost importance at every stage of life, be it childhood, adolescence, or adulthood. Mental and physical health are equally important for overall health. Mental illness, especially depression, increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, particularly long-lasting conditions like stroke, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Similarly, the presence of chronic conditions like cancer and diabetes can increase the risk for mental illness.

WHO defines Mental health as mental well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.

When we sense our physical health declining, we visit a doctor for a check-up. The doctor then performs some tests and the results are out in no time. If we have a fever or headache, we take medicines to recover from it. The medical field has advanced so much in the past few years that we have developed treatments and medicines for almost all types of physical health disorders. Why don’t we do the same if we sense our mental health declining? Why are we afraid to speak up about our mental problems. Speaking up about our mental health problems to your peers or family members is the only way you can find a solution. If you don’t reveal what is wrong with you, then you are only responsible for the decline of your health because mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia can destroy the person from inside and others may never get to know about it. 75% of suicide cases occur due to this situation that people never open up about the problem they are facing, they get eaten up on the inside by the illness and when it crosses the red line, they do not find any good reason to live and give up on their life. Psychologists and Psychiatrists are the ones you need to visit if you sense your mental health declining, if you sense yourself in a lot of stress, eating less or more than you used to eat, sleeping more or less than you used to sleep, you see your daily functioning reduced as you are messed up in your own thoughts. There are stigmas associated with mental illness and people are discriminated against for it but if we keep these things to ourselves and not open up due to fear of stigmas and discrimination, it will be a big mistake. Illness means that something is not okay with us, be it physically or mentally. So, what is the problem with visiting a psychologist and consulting what is going on inside you? We all need to rise above the stigmas and open up about the mental illness we face. 

To every problem, there is a solution. But if we do not speak up, we may never know the right place or the right way to find the solution.

So, I urge everybody to speak up about their mental illness and not keep it to themselves.

A sound mind in a sound body

Greek philosopher Thales

Only if your body is physically fit and you have a sound mind, you can lead a happy and peaceful life.

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